The International Space Station, parts of which were built in Huntington Beach, will appear over Orange County nearly every night this week, according to the NASA sightings tracker.

Stargazers will be treated to five minutes of viewing on some evenings, rather than the more usual fleeting glimpses of a minute or less.

Tonight’s viewing time will be at 9:11 p.m. The station will reappear Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.

Check the NASA Human Space Flight Web page (link here) for full details.

Binoculars are recommended over telescopes because the station will not be stationary. The space station will resemble a shiny ball-bearing slowly moving across the sky. Actually, it’s traveling more than 17,000 mph, orbiting Earth about once every 90 minutes. For more viewing tips, Space.com has two primers available (go here and here).

Cal State Fullerton graduate Tracy Caldwell is scheduled to join the space station crew sometime next year on Expedition 23. Caldwell was a post-doctoral researcher at UC Irvine when she was chosen for the astronaut corps more than a decade ago.

Rocket scientists embrace their geek heritage. Image courtesy of NASA.

Each time a new crew arrives on the International Space Station, it marks the beginning of a new “expedition.” The crew aboard now is Expedition 20. Its six astronauts are learning about how space affects the human body, such as how visual perception might change due to micro-gravity. The crew is also testing satellite-steering technology and photographing the Earth’s surface (including Orange County).

NASA creates promotional posters for these expeditions, and the agency seems to have plenty of fun with the effort.

Expedition 21, to commence this October, is featured in a “Star Trek” mock-up with the astronauts appearing in the familiar garb of the fictional TV series characters. (Quick: which exact “Star Trek” franchises are referenced in the poster?)

NASA has created other crew posters before using pop culture parodies. In the past, astronauts have imitated posters from “Ocean’s Eleven,” “Harry Potter” and “The Matrix.” You can go to the NASA Space Flight Awareness Web page to see the complete gallery of posters.

– Story by Ben Young Landis. Thanks to Anthony Pascale for the poster tip.

Don’t Forget:

• Apollo and Mercury Astronauts are in O.C. on Saturday 7/11.
• Read our special interview with Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter, 2nd American to orbit the Earth
  

Latest posts:

• The colors of fireworks: what is the secret? (Interactive)
  
• ‘Right Stuff’ astronaut Scott Carpenter coming to O.C.
• UCI budget cut rises again — to $70 million
• Rainy season ends tonight on another dry note
• View NASA animated flyover of O.C., LA counties
• Popular O.C. game fish provides clues about global warming
• Animation of 3.9 seafloor earthquake hitting O.C.
• UCI needs volunteers for study on vitamin’s impact on Alzheimer’s
• NEW: Astronauts photograph O.C., Southern California from space station
• Watch a squirrel dog paddle across a river in Santa Ana

Posted in: Ain't that interesting? • Astronomy and astrophysics • astronaut • astronomy • International Space Station • NASA |

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.