Community Corner
A Chance to See The Space Station Tonight
The orbiting research platform will be visible for about six minutes on Tuesday evening.
In case you missed it on Sunday, when partial cloud cover obscured much of sky, the International Space Station will be visible Tuesday night.
Orbiting about 250 miles above the Earth's surface, the station will be visible for about six minutes this evening, starting at 8:37 p.m., according to NASA.
As it enters view, the station will actually be passing west of the Appalachian Mountains as it travels at more than 17,000 miles per hour. It will pass over Tennessee, Kentucky, the Ohio-West Virginia border, and then directly over the Pittsburgh area before crossing upstate New York and heading over New England. Because of its height, it will be visible in the area.
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Look for the station to pass from west-southwest to northeast, a bit more than halfway between the horizon and the zenith (which is directly overhead).
The station's brightness will wax and wane as it passes by; this is a function of changing amounts of the sun's light being reflected from the station's surface to our vantage point.
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At its most brilliant, the station will look like an extremely bright, fast moving plane. Just don't expect to hear any jet engine noise!
The current crew of six astronauts includes two Americans, three Russians, and the current mission commander, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who frequently posts photographs and other live updates from the space station to his Twitter account.