International Space Station

During the summer months my wife and I began tracking the International Space Station sightings in our area. We went online to find out when the sightings would be visible in our area in Michigan. There was double excitement when the U.S. Space Shuttle was launched during June and then in August. We have viewed the ISS as well as the Space Shuttle during these warm summer months. Of particular interest is when the Space Shuttle is visible with the ISS before it docks with the ISS and after the Space Shuttle undocks and flies in tandem with the ISS. Our son who lives in Seattle has declared a "friendly competition" to see how many times we each have viewed these sightings. Of course, Michigan and Seattle have similar cloudy evenings so the competition gets a little more intense. Many times we will be talking with our son via cell phones as we view the sightings. He, however, refrains (thankfully) from calling us during his sightings due to the time zone differences and especially since we would have already retired for the evening by the time he would be viewing the flyover. Click on the following link to checkout when the ISS will be visible in your neighborhood http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/ Then click on "Go to Country" which is at the default setting of "United States." Find your state. Then your city. Keep in mind that the ISS is not always visible in your area during certain parts of the month due to the earth's rotation. Check back often. You will be given information as to the direction of approach and the degree of approach as well as the maximum height of the sighting and then its exit degree and direction. The ISS and Space Shuttle fly at approx. 300 miles per minute or 17,000 + miles an hour. Thus, the fly over will be visible just for a few short minutes. It is distinguishable from other objects in the sky (airplanes and the like) since it flies so fast and has no winking lights. Our most spectacular sighting was in June when the Space Shuttle had just undocked from the ISS and was flying right behind the ISS. Also, on Monday, we were standing on the shore of Lake Michigan at Frankfort, Michigan (Point Betsie Lighthouse) and saw the ISS being followed by the Space Shuttle (one minute behind or 300 miles behind).

Because of our excitement, we now have neighborhood gatherings to view the sightings. It is a great time for a "mini block party."

Here are a couple more links for other interesting data. The first one is the NASA website for the Space Shuttle and the second is the "real time" orbits for the ISS. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/index.html

Happy Viewing.

Make a great day!

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