Friday, November 1, 2013

International Space Station, As Big as Two Football Fields


NASA
International Space Station
Kennedy Space Center

The International Space Station will cover an area as big as two football fields when it's fully assembled in space - we'll be able to track it in orbit with the naked eye!
Photo courtesy: NASA

This unused postcard was bought in 2012, but it must be older than that probably around 1999 or 2000.

UPDATE:
In a comment below by http://luvlinens.blogspot.com there is a website that you can register to get an alert when the Space Station is going over your area ... the link is ... http://spotthestation.nasa.gov
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The assembly of the International Space Station, a major endeavour in space architecture, began in November 1998. Russian modules launched and docked robotically. All other modules were delivered by the Space Shuttle, which required installation by Int. Space Station and shuttle crewmembers; as of 5 June 2011, they had added 159 components during more than 1,000 hours of EVA activity.

EVA - Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut or cosmonaut outside of a spacecraft beyond the Earth's appreciable atmosphere. The term most commonly applies to a spacewalk made outside a craft orbiting Earth (such as the International Space Station), but also has applied to lunar surface exploration (commonly known as moonwalks) performed by six pairs of American astronauts in the Apollo program from 1969 to 1972.

6 comments:

ONeal said...

Cool photo. I imagine as big as it is, it gets hit by other objects frequently. Very interesting that it can be spotted with the naked eye. I did not know that.

Postcard Blogger said...

O'Neal, if you put cloths on the eye, it does make it harder to see.

luvlinens said...

Hi there. Great Card. I have news. I saw the space station a few weeks ago myself. It looks like a moving star from where we stand. Wish I had a telescope to look. I get email from NASA when it is going to be visible to me. It is a program called spot the station. Check it out. Michael

luvlinens said...

Just checked my email. We missed the station tonight.
This is what the email looks like.

HQ-spotthestation@mail.nasa.gov

Time: Fri Nov 01 7:06 PM, Visible: 6 min, Max Height: 42 degrees, Appears: WNW, Disappears: SSE

Postcard Blogger said...

Thanks! I signed up for the alert when it is in my area.

ONeal said...

Brenda, it took me a second, but when the light bulb went off, I cracked up at your comment LOL


Michael (luvlinens), great info! Thanks for sharing! I'm signed up.