You May Have Seen It

Everybody’s heard of the International Space Station (ISS), right? It’s NASA’s orbiting multi-national lab that has been circling Earth for years. Periodically astronauts go up there or come down after lengthy stays, and the station is resupplied on a regular basis through capsules launched by the Russians. It looks amazing, and I’d love to go there someday. When I was growing up, the space station was a futuristic dream. Now that I’m grown up, it’s there. It’s circling Earth and people are using it to do work in space. (You can learn more about it on NASA’s ISS site.)

Did you know that you can see the ISS?  Not all the time, but at times when its orbit takes it over your area.  And, it won’t look like this picture, but more  like a white dot moving across the sky. But, it’s pretty neat to watch it and think about how there are people up there living and working in space.

How do you find out when you might see it?  Easy: go to the web site Spaceweather.com/flybys (if you’re in North America) or Global Flybys (if you’re elsewhere in the world), and put in your zip code or country information. The page will return a list of whatever satellites will be visible from your area, the rise and set times, and more information that will help you find the object as they pass overhead. You can also use SpotTheStation, offered by NASA.

So, what will it look like once you find it?

Funny about that: it kind of looks like an airplane going slowly overhead. Before I knew where to look (years ago), I used to think I was SEEING an airplane.  But, no flashing lights, no contrail. Didn’t take me long to figure out: aha, that’s the space station!   I figure that a LOT of people have actually seen the space station, but didn’t know they were seeing it.

So, use the links to find out what’s overhead at your location.  ISS isn’t the only thing out there; if you’re lucky, you might see the Hubble Space Telescope or other satellite.  They’ll look like bright pinpoints of light moving slowly across the sky. And, you’ll get a little thrill out of spotting it. I guarantee it.