See the space station tonight
The International Space Station looks like a bright star that glides across the sky without blinking, for a few minutes, after sunset or before sunrise. Here is when it passes over your area this week, which way to look, and how high.
How to spot the space station
- Be outside a few minutes early, with a grown-up, and face the way the pass starts.
- Look for a bright point moving steadily, faster than a plane's lights but with no blinking and no sound.
- Follow it across the sky. It fades when it slips into Earth's shadow, sometimes high overhead.
Why you can only see it at dawn and dusk
The station shines by reflecting sunlight. You see it when it is still in sunshine high above you while your sky is already dark: in the hour or two after sunset or before sunrise. In the middle of the night it is in Earth's shadow, and in the day the sky is too bright. It goes around Earth about every 90 minutes, about 400 kilometers up, so most weeks bring a few good passes.
Where the times come from
CelesTrak publishes the station's orbit from US Space Force tracking, free for anyone; our server runs the standard SGP4 orbit model on it (satellite.js, MIT license) for the middle of your area, every few hours. It uses your ZIP's area, never your ZIP or your location. For tonight's Moon and planets, use Sky Tonight.
“Wave at the space station. There are people up there, and they're going about five miles every second.”