By Will Collette
See this directly on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRaZgSVnsNs
The International Space Station will make a 6-minute encore pass over Charlestown tonight starting at 9:02. Now that the muggy weather has broken, the National Weather Service forecasts (click here) skies will be mostly clear.
The International Space Station (ISS) has long been a symbol of the US and Russia as well as astronauts from around the world to work together in peace. They observe the earth, do scientific experiments and live in harmony, more or less, for months at a time.
During the early months of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, the head of the Russian space agency saber-rattled threats of stranding US astronauts, detaching Russian modules, blocking supplies and even crashing the ISS into a major city of some unfriendly country that dissed Vladimir Putin.
But that guy hasn't been heard from in a while. Maybe he had an accident with an open window.
Nonetheless, at 9:02 PM tonight, the ISS will appear at only 10 degrees above the west-northwest horizon and head southeast, reaching a maximum of 53 degrees above. It will then continue its 6-minute path, its trajectory slowly lowering until it reaches 16 degrees over the southeast horizon. Then it will simply disappear.
You can check the schedule yourself by CLICKING HERE.
Here is the notice I received from NASA:
Time: Sun Jul 30 9:02 PM, Visible: 6 min, Max Height: 53°, Appears: 10° above WNW, Disappears: 16° above SE
Combined with its eerie silent, swift passage, the ISS makes for great sky viewing.
Again, you can check out the timetable for station overflights by clicking here for each day's overflight of our area.
You have the option to sign up for e-mail alerts that give you at least 12 hours' advance warning of overflights.