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We're between meteor showers, but skywatchers can still see something special if they are going to the heavens at night. The International Space Station is visible as a bright star moving quickly across the horizon. But it's fleeting, so how can you know when it's directly over your area?
NASA has a great tool, Spot the Station, which will send text or email alerts when ISS is visible, no matter where you are on Earth. The alert includes a map-based feature to track when and where to look for the station as it flies overhead.
The alerts typically go out to a few times to a subscribers know when to overhead. The window of opportunity is small – in some places, you can see it for a couple of minutes, and it can be seen anywhere from one month to the next.
If you do not know, the International Space Station has been orbiting the Earth since 1998, when its first module was launched, and since 2000 has hosted a rotating international crew of the 16 nations that cooperated in the construction of a permanent human outpost office. Astronauts are shuttled to the microgravity laboratory by U.S. and Russian spacecraft, and typically spend about six-month stints living and working in space.
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A Russian Soyuz Rocket Carrying a New Earth-to-Ballistic Revenge NASA officials said. NASA astronaut Nick Hague, Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and crew members are all in good condition. They have been joined to a three-person crew already on board the space station.
You can not see the International Space Station during the day, but it becomes visible at night when it reflects the light of the sun. So, to see it, must be dark skies and the ISS must happen to be going overhead.
See Also
NASA's Peggy Whitson: 3 Quotes That Will Send You To The Moon And Back
Patch 2018 To Meteor Showers, Other Celestial Events
If you live in Alaska or other northern latitudes, go to the NASA website where you 're likely to see the orbiting science laboratory. You can sign up for the alerts there, too.
OK, the space station does not produce fireballs and leave trails. But it's still pretty cool, offering a glimpse at the future when NASA begins to explore other worlds, but also benefits life on Earth. Looking for the space station with your kids is a great luck to breathe life into science – an area where we Earthlings in this corner of the world lag behind other countries.
Check out the space station activity guide for things you can do with your kids when the space station is overhead.
Photo of Astronaut James H. Newman via NASA
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