Star-gazers to enjoy latest chance to see International Space Station

STAR-GAZERS in South Wales will have their latest chance to spot the International Space Station (ISS) tonight – after an historic weekend in space exploration.

Nasa astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken boarded the ISS yesterday, 19 hours after lift-off at the Kennedy Space Centre.

And, if conditions are clear, people across South Wales should be able to spot the spacecraft at around 10.12pm tonight.

According to the “spot the space station” website, from Cardiff the ISS should be visible for about three minutes.

It will first become visible at about 10° above west-south-west, reaching a maximum elevation of 14° in the sky, and disappearing from view at about 10° above south.

To find out more, visit spotthestation.nasa.gov.

Mr Hurley and Mr Behnken began their journey on SpaceX’s the Crew Dragon capsule on top of the Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Saturday evening.

Although the space station orbits at around 220 miles above the planet, it took almost a day for the Dragon to rendezvous with the moving laboratory.

The spacecraft had to perform a series of manoeuvres to raise its obit to come close enough to dock at the space station.

The Dragon docked autonomously to a port on the bow section of the of the station’s Harmony module, 16 minutes ahead of schedule.

Mr Hurley congratulated the teams at Nasa and SpaceX said: “It’s been a real honour to be just a small part of this nine-year endeavour since the last time a United States spaceship has docked with the International Space Station.”

They join the three other space station residents, Nasa’s Chris Cassidy and Russia’s Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, to become members of the Expedition 63 crew.

Shortly after the bell rang on the space station to mark the arrival of the Crew Dragon capsule, Mr Cassidy said: “Dragon arriving.

“The crew of Expedition 63 is honoured to welcome the Dragon and the Commercial Crew Programme.”

He added: “Bob and Doug, glad to have you as part of the crew.”

The mission, named Demo-2, marks the first time Nasa has launched astronauts from US soil in nine years.

SpaceX also made history by becoming the first private company to send humans into orbit.

The aim of the mission is to demonstrate SpaceX’s ability to ferry astronauts to the space station and back safely.