ISS Now Visible in Daytime!

The International Space Station seen during the day. Credit: Spaceweather.com

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Oh wow! I love satellite watching, and especially the International Space Station, but now I don’t have to wait for nightfall anymore. We reported that the ISS had become the second brightest object in the night sky back in March 2009 with the addition of the final set of solar arrays. And now its been confirmed that the space station, under the right conditions, can be visible during the day, too. “On June 13th, I was watching a red-headed woodpecker’s nest when the ISS passed overhead,” said Brooke O’Klatner of Charlotte, North Carolina, who took this image, which was posted on Spaceweather.com.

And the ISS will get even brighter when the STS-127 mission arrives, hopefully in July (liftoff has been re-scheduled for July 11 after being postponed today because of a hydrogen leak.) The mission will add an addition on to the Kibo lab, and with Endeavour attached to the station, it will be quite bright. Can’t wait! In the meantime, I’m going to test out my best eagle eyes and try to see the ISS during the day. If anyone is able to see it during a daytime pass, let us know! (Pictures encouraged!)

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/