The International Space Station shines like a bright star gliding silently across the sky, with no blinking lights. To see it, three conditions must meet: the station must rise above your horizon, it must be lit by the Sun, and your own sky must be dark. That happens around dusk and dawn, a few days in a row, then not for a while. Give Perigee your location: it computes the next passes from the latest tracking data, gives the time it rises, its highest point and where it sets, and marks the passes you can watch with the naked eye. Your location stays on your device.
When can I see the ISS pass tonight?
Computing…
Ground track
Where International Space Station (ISS) is now (marker), its next orbit (solid line) and its last half orbit (faded); the shaded area is in night.
Your location
Give your location to see where you are on the map and in the 3D view, and when International Space Station (ISS) passes over you.
Used only in your browser, never sent. Rounded to about 1 km and kept in this browser until you forget it.
About International Space Station (ISS)
- Agency
- NASA / Roscosmos / ESA / JAXA / CSA
- Launched
- 1998-11-20
Goals
The station exists to let people live and work in space continuously, so that scientists can run experiments impossible on the ground, where weightlessness changes how bodies, fluids, flames and materials behave. It also tests the technologies and studies the health effects needed for long journeys to the Moon and Mars, and shows that many nations can build and run a complex project together.
Today
Permanently crewed since November 2000, the station hosts research in biology, physics, materials and Earth observation. Its first module, Zarya, was launched on 20 November 1998.
Questions and answers
Why can’t I see every pass?
In daylight the sky is too bright, and in the middle of the night the station is usually in the Earth’s shadow. Only passes near dusk or dawn combine a dark sky and a sunlit station.
How long does a pass last?
About ten minutes from horizon to horizon at most; the station is usually visible for a few minutes of it, until it enters the Earth’s shadow or sinks too low.
Where the numbers come from
Values refresh every second in your browser; the published data are checked every 10 minutes and updated several times a day.