Adrian Dening's Stars Over Somerset

Tuesday, 21 April 2026 16:07

Monday 27th April to Sunday 3rd May 2026

I haven't mentioned the International Space Station recently, but it is still orbiting around us, travelling at a speedy 17,000 miles per hour! There are some good visible passes next week where the ISS will have a magnitude brighter than -3.0 but you will have to stay up late or be a very early riser!

The first pass is on Tuesday 28th April at 4.34am, followed by 3.48am on Wednesday 29th. Or you could try again at 4.37am on Saturday 2nd May. In all three cases, the ISS appears in the west and over a period of about six minutes, passes almost directly overhead, before disappearing towards the east.

You only see the space station because sunlight reflects off its enormous solar panels. The Earth, Sun and ISS all have to be in the right position for this to happen, which is why it can only ever be observed just before dawn or after dusk. The ISS is in (what is classed as) a Low Earth Orbit because it's only about 250 miles above us as it whizzes around the planet every 93 minutes.

So why can't you see the ISS every day? Of course, while it is orbiting the Earth, we are rotating on our axis - sometimes the ISS is passing over a different part of the Earth and not over the UK in the early morning or late evening.

Overall, the ISS is about the size of a football pitch, but the living space is more akin to the interior of a Jumbo Jet. Inside, the astronauts are conducting all sorts of scientific research - my favourite (and their most basic) one is demonstrating how a candle burns differently in microgravity!