Spot the International Space Station from your home

Spot the International Space Station from your home

BY NICOLETTE EMMINO

For 12 years, the International Space Station (ISS) has been orbiting just 200 miles above Earth. The 460-ton habitable artificial satellite is said to be the third brightest object in the sky, behind the sun and moon, and now you can receive text messages when it’s overhead.

The International Space Station (Image via NASA)

NASA has implemented an SMS and e-mail service called “Spot the Station” that will allow those interested to spot the ISS from their homes.

To receive alerts, sign up for the newly released web app. By including your location, the service will notify you a few hours prior to the ISS arrival overhead. Anyone can receive the e-mail alerts worldwide but only U.S. residents that are cellphone carriers can receive the SMS text messages.

NASA has said that it will make the alerts when “good” sightings are available, meaning that the satellite is more than 40 degrees in the sky and can linger long enough to be spotted. This can happen anywhere from one to two times per week to one to two times per month.

What else is new at the ISS?

Just recently, two astronauts left the ISS to check out a radiator leak just outside the satellite. Space Station Commander Sunita Williams and Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide successfully rerouted the ammonia coolant lines and bypassed the suspected leaky radiator. It is theorized that a piece of space junk that the team had dodged the day before may have punctured a part of the radiator causing the toxic ammonia leak.

Williams and Hoshide’s spacewalk outside of the International Space Station. (Image via NASA TV)

Williams and Hoshide are set to return back to Earth on November 19 after their four-month mission. In the meantime, maybe you’re wondering how the astronauts aboard the ISS were able to cast their vote in the November 6 Presidential election. The astronauts had the option of beaming their vote from space. Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston beamed up the ballots in a secure e-mail and they were beamed back to Earth by the astronauts where they were sent directly to voting authorities.

Voting from space became a law in 1997 after a bill was passed by Texas lawmakers. Since its passing, six astronauts have voted this way. ■

Register for Spot The Station: http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/index.cfm