The Universe is very generous with us by offering so many wonderful sights on the night sky. But human intervention led to some significant changes for what we can see high above the surface. One of these changes is represented by the International Space Station that floats above the atmosphere and orbits the Earth at 7.66 km/s.
Luckily for us, we can see the International Space Station with the naked eye sometimes. Despite the fact that the spacecraft is located at 408 km above the Earth’s surface, we can see it as a bright dot, just like a star.
The International Space Station is hovering above Hawaii
If you’re lucky enough to be living in Hawaii, you can delight your view with the sight of the famous spacecraft this week. More precisely, you’ll be able to spot it on the night sky on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night. But you can’t afford to be late for the celestial show since it will last for only several minutes every night.
NASA details for us that the ISS will be visible on Monday night starting 7:49 p.m. (Hawaiian time). The sight will be present for about five minutes, and it’ll emerge in the North-NorthWest. The spacecraft will then disappear from sight about 14 degrees above the SouthEast. On Tuesday, the ISS will be visible at 8:37 p.m. for about two minutes. On Wednesday, the spacecraft can be seen at 7:50 p.m. for about 3 minutes.
The ISS project is an agreement made between five participating space agencies: NASA from the United States, Roscosmos from Russia, JAXA from Japan, ESA from Europe, and CSA from Canada. The first ISS component has been launched in 1998, with the first residents arriving on November 2000. The station has been occupied for over 19 years. This is the longest human presence in low Earth orbit, while the previous record was held by the Mir space station with 9 years and 357 days.
