With faultless timing , as common , the International Space Station ( ISS ) will be making its annual visual aspect in the Christmas night sky tomorrow , allowing parents to show their kids “ proof ” that Santa is real as he purr past on his meddlesome mission .
Unlike the reasonably fat man though , the ISS does n’t show up just once a year in the holidays to serve us get In the festive spirit , it actually circulate Earth 15 times a day – that ’s a full orbit every 92 minute . However each celestial orbit cover a different part of Earth , so not everyone ’s lucky enough to get the well - timed festal appearance .
This yr the UK ’s sighting will come along tomorrow , Wednesday , December 20 , in the good afternoon , while the US arrest not one but two sighting , again , tomorrow and also on Christmas Eve .
The ISS is scheduled to wing over the UK tomorrow and will be visible for around 3 minutes between 4.39pm and 4.41pm GMT , accord to NASA , appearing as a bright bar zooming across the sky .
In the US , it will be visible traveling from the southwest to the southeast , around 5 pm ET . Lucky viewers up ahead of time on Christmas Eve will also get another chance to spy blank Santa as the ISS should be visible at 6.30am ET .
For more specific times and locations , you could go after the ISS and line up out what fourth dimension precisely it is due to pass over your route with NASA’sSpot the Stationtool .
The ISS may be hard to spot at first but there are a few clue to assist you single it out . It will appear as a constant bright light – no flash or twinkling – as the Sun reflects off the planet ’s Earth’s surface . It ’s also very firm ( but then Santa does haverather a tidy sum to do in very lilliputian time ) and always starts in the western part of the sky . Meteorwatchhas a handy guidebook for other things to look out for .
The place orbit 408 kilometers ( 253 miles ) above Earth , traveling around 28,160 kilometers per hour ( 17,500 Roman mile per hour ) . It ’s also now back up to six crew member , after three new membersarrived safely this morningjust in time for Christmas , so do n’t forget to give them a wave too .
