ISS Viewing

What is the ISS ?

ISS stands for the International Space Station. The construction is an effort between no less than 16 Nations including The US, Canada, Russia, UK, Japan, Brazil and many other Countries across Europe. Construction began in 1998 and is hoped to be completed by 2010 when Nasa's shuttle fleet go out of service. Once complete it will span a whopping 361 feet end to end.

Viewing the ISS

Over a 15 day period (approx) the International Space Station can be viewed as it passes over the UK evening skies. Travelling at around 15,000 miles per hour it takes 5 minutes to cross the whole sky from West to East at any given location. It is at an altitude of around 220 miles and takes a mere 95 minutes to completely circumnavigate the Earth.

How bright is the ISS?

The station now reaches magnitude -3.5 (Almost the brightness of Venus!) Sometimes briefly "flaring up" as more shiny parts of the station catch the sunlight.

Future evening ISS passes over the UK...

Next period of passes: 18th October - 14th November 2011