Where the International Space Station is right now, and when you can see it fly over your town. Everything is calculated in your browser from the latest orbital data.
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Orbit data: CelesTrak. Positions and passes are computed in your browser with satellite.js; your location stays on your device. Pass times are usually accurate to within a minute for the next few days.
The ISS is the third-brightest object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus, and you need nothing but your eyes to see it. It looks like a bright, steady white star moving smoothly across the sky; it does not blink like a plane. A good pass takes four to six minutes from horizon to horizon.
The station shines by reflecting sunlight, so you can only see it when you are in darkness and the station is still in sunlight. That happens in the hour or two after sunset and before sunrise. During the day the sky is too bright, and in the middle of the night the station is usually in Earth’s shadow. The list above marks the passes that meet both conditions as Visible; turn on the switch below the list to see every pass.
The white dot is the station now. The teal line is where it will be over the next 90 minutes, about one full orbit, and the gray line is where it has been. The shaded circle around it is the area where it is above the horizon right now. Because Earth turns underneath it, each orbit crosses about 22.5° further west than the one before, so the station passes over a given town at different times each day. The ISS orbit is tilted 51.6° to the equator, so it never flies over places further north or south than that, though you can still see it from about 60° latitude.
China’s Tiangong space station is also bright, though smaller than the ISS; its orbit is tilted 41.5°, so it is best seen from lower latitudes. Hubble flies in a 28.5° orbit and is fainter, but under dark skies it is easy to spot from the tropics and the southern United States.
About 27,600 km/h (17,100 mph), or roughly 7.7 km every second. It goes around the Earth about every 92 minutes, about 15.5 times a day.
Usually between 400 and 420 km (about 250–260 miles) above the Earth. It slowly sinks because of thin air at that height and is boosted back up every few months.
You can only see it when your sky is dark and the station is still lit by the Sun, which is mainly in the hour or two after sunset or before sunrise. Daytime passes and passes while it is in Earth’s shadow are invisible.
They are computed from the latest orbital elements published by CelesTrak and are usually right to within a minute for the next few days. The station sometimes fires its engines to change orbit, so check again close to the date.