Been awhile since we’ve shared one of these, but my pal Beek who works over at NASA reminded me that on Tuesday, December 3rd if you’re outdoors anywhere within this circle of opportunity, just look up around 6:48 p.m. EST and you’ll see the International Space Station gliding in from the northwest on a path that takes it approximately straight over Tallahassee, Tampa/St. Pete, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami. Clear skies are predicted and it’s always a thrill to anticipate the ISS and then see it coming into view — it will look like a bright star or a bright planet like Venus and on this pass it will be visible for a good five minutes before it wraps around Earth.
If you’re watching this with kids, let them know that even though it may look small, it’s about the width of a football field, that there are several astronauts (real people!) aboard, and they’re sailing overhead at an altitude of 250 miles straight up in space (about the distance from Orlando to Miami). It may look slow from here, but they’re flying by all of us at 17,500 mph — or five miles per second!
If that doesn’t get them hooked on space travel, take ’em to Kennedy Space Center. That should do it.
