Earth Day 2023: ISS Flyover caught on FOX 26 Houston Towercam
HOUSTON - Did you miss it? The International Space Station (ISS) flew over southeast Texas early on Saturday morning between 5:17 and 5:21 a.m. local time.
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Flyovers happen fairly frequently, but recently our views have been obscured by cloudy skies and rain. Not on Saturday, though!
Skies were clear, and we were able to catch the space station on one of our FOX 26 cameras.
The ISS travels at a whopping 17,500 mph according to NASA which is roughly 5 miles per second and even at the surface you can notice the quick speed.
We had to continue to adjust the camera to follow it as it moved across the sky. At this rate, the astronauts on board orbit the Earth once every 90 minutes and get to enjoy 16 sunrises and sunsets a day!
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You can tell the ISS apart from planes because while planes blink, the ISS does not. It appears as a steady, bright white light. The ISS will fly overhead again several times over the next few days, but conditions will not be great.
Many viewing windows are only 1 minute long and at a very low angle in the sky. Additionally, weather conditions will unlikely cooperate.
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Here is a list of the next 5 ISS flyovers:
To check the forecast for each viewing window, click here.