Space-lovers, you’re in for a treat! The International Space Station (ISS) has been visible in the Cape since May 13, and many enthusiasts have taken to looking up at the sky for a chance to witness this exciting moment.
The ISS is a modular space station in low Earth orbit and is Earth’s only microgravity laboratory. The ISS programme is a multi-national collaborative project between five participating space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA.
The space station serves as a testbed for technologies and allows us to study the impacts of long-term spaceflight to humans, supporting the for push human presence farther into space.
Every 90 minutes the ISS circles Earth, travelling at about 17,500 miles (28,000 km) per hour. The viewing opportunities are thus very short, with most only between 1 and 6 minutes long.
Lucky Fish Hoek resident Gary Deacon captured the special sight last week.
If you didn’t manage to capture the sight last week, don’t worry. The ISS is going to be visible in Cape Town until Saturday, May 30.
- For more information visit the NASA website.
