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NASA
On an orbit that took the International Space Station over the Pacific in October 2010, one of the crew members captured this image of part of the Hawaiian Island chain. A Russian Soyuz (foreground) and a Russian Progress vehicle are docked to the space station.
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The International Space Station will put in a bright and lengthy appearance over Hawaii this evening if the weather cooperates.
The space station will rise in the southeast, directly under Venus, at 6:22 p.m. and move to the right, passing between Venus and Mercury, which is low on the horizon. Mars is also visible higher in the southwest.
The space station will then pass to the right of the bright star Altair, in the constellation Aquila the Eagle, and enter what is known as the Summer Triangle, formed by Altair, Vega in the constellation Lyra, and Deneb in the constellation Cygnus the Swan. The orbiting craft will reach its high point just above Vega at
6:26 p.m.
Then it will descend toward the northeast, passing above the Little Dipper and the constellation Cassiopeia, which looks like a bent letter M, at 6:27 p.m. It will blink out of sight at about 6:28.
The space station is at an altitude of 249 miles and traveling at 17,150 mph. It is visible just before dawn and just after dusk when illuminated by the sun against the darker sky.
Currently aboard are U.S. astronauts Robert Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Russians Andrey Borisenko, Sergey Ryzhikov and Oleg Novitskiy. Whitson, the most experienced of the crew, is spending her third holiday season in orbit.