If you haven’t yet seen the International Space Station (ISS) then now could be the chance if you live in Northern Europe. The ISS will be making several flybys during the evening, meaning that it is at maximum visibility here for a little while.

The European Space Agency has a website for finding out when you can see the ISS from your location (http://www.esa.int/seeiss) and this should let you get out and spot the ISS easily as a bright, large star flying fast and steadily over your head. The duration of the transit of the station varies but is generally around 6 minutes long so you won’t have a great deal of time to see it. However you should be able to spot it quit easily due to its brightness, so long as the weather is good.

The ISS is (currently) made up of 15 units. Each unit might be a living module, or a solar panel or any other item that makes up the whole. Each item has been taken up and installed by either one of NASA’s shuttles, or another national equivalent vehicle.

The station began construction in 1998 and was due to be finished by 2004 however the Columbia disaster, amongst other things, put a halt to all Space Shuttle flights for a couple of years and so things were delayed and remain vastly behind schedule.

The idea behind the station is to create an international presence in space that can act as a lauching ground for future missions and which can host many scientific experiments that will benefit a large number of people. It has also starred in TV and film and recently been a tourist spot for the ridiculously wealthy. Originally it was to be a 30 year project and it has cost the countires invested in it many billions of dollars. Whether it is worth the money and effort is a topic of hot debate.

Either way, you can see it at the moment very easily and sinc eit has captured the imaginations of as many people and cost as much as it has, maybe you ought to go and take a look.