INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TONIGHT SOFTWARE

Visit and find sighting opportunities for your hometown. More sighting times for these and other American cities are below… Friday May 17, 2019

Skywatchers along the station’s orbital track from New Orleans, La., to Portland, Maine, can see the orbital lab Friday and Saturday night. The International Space Station will cross over the United States this weekend from the Gulf Coast to the North Atlantic.

Data provided courtesy NASA Human Space Flight.The Gulf and eastern coasts of the United States feature prominently in this well-lit nighttime view of North America.

Viewing information provided by Glenn Research Center.

If the distance is close enough, they will actually appear in the sky at the same time! They will follow the same flight path varying by only a few minutes. On the day or two immediately before docking and after undocking, the shuttle and station will appear to be chasing each other across the night sky. The mission, called Axiom-1, launched three paying customers and a retired NASA astronaut to the International Space Station. Thus, the original January 18 insert into the text of the State of the Union Address that invited international participation in the space station had also. Shuttle/station docking missions provide an exciting opportunity to see a double pass. Watch the International Space Station pass overhead from several thousand worldwide locations. Then, check the sightings list to see if a sighting opportunity and a water dump overlap. Even after sunset, light from the Sun will dimly illuminate our sky for roughly 1 hour and 30 minutes. providing us with roughly12.5 hours of daylight. on Wednesday, March 29 and sunset is at 7:21 p.m. Although you can sometime use a flight timeline to find out when scheduled dumps occur, your best bet is to monitor NASA TV. The Moon as seen from the International Space Station, on July 31, 2011. Viewing the shuttle at these times through binoculars or a telescope can reveal an even more spectacular view of the spacecraft and the ice crystals that form as the water is sprayed overboard. On a regular basis, the space shuttle must get rid of excess supply and waste water by dumping them individually or simultaneously overboard through water spray nozzles. However, a good pair of field binoculars may reveal some detail of the structural shape of the spacecraft. Because of the speed of the orbiting vehicles, telescopes are not practical.

This illustration is the sighting opportunity depicted in the table above.įor best results, observers should look in the direction and at the elevation shown in the appearing column at the time listed. The sixth column gives the direction and elevation at which the spacecraft will disappear from view. The fifth column tells the direction and elevation at which the spacecraft will become visible initially. The fourth column gives the maximum elevation the vehicle will achieve above the horizon (90 degrees is directly overhead). The third column gives the duration, or the length of time in minutes the spacecraft is expected to be visible, assuming a clear sky. The next column is the local date and the local time. The text-based listing is in a column format, a sample of which is shown below: SATELLITE Officials will hold a briefing today at 11 a.m. For rendezvous and docking missions, both will be visible at the same time once the two vehicles have docked in orbit and only one listing will be necessary. SpaceX is ready to launch its latest cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday (March 14). Now that station assembly has begun, they also will predict where the space station will be visible from the ground.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TONIGHT SOFTWARE

A spacecraft will be seen as a steady white pinpoint of light moving slowly across the sky.įor each shuttle flight, the Flight Dynamics Officers in NASA's Mission Control Center use sophisticated computer software to predict when and where the shuttle will be visible to people on the ground. For viewing opportunities in other cities / states, please visit the NASA Sighting Opportunities pageĭepending on your location on the Earth's surface, the spacecraft's position in orbit and the time of day, you may be able to see either the space shuttle or the International Space Station, or both, as they orbit about 386 kilometers (240 miles) above the planet.Subscribe to RSS headline updates from: Powered by FeedBurner Note that the exact duration and location may vary slightly depending on where you are at in the metro area. The following opportunities are available to view the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle (when in orbit) in the Denver metro area. International Space Station & Space Shuttle Viewing in Denver & Thornton

International space station tonight