BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Brad Klein reviews the week’s astronomical highlights with Bethlehem’s ‘Backyard Astronomy Guy,’ Marty McGuire.
This week, we catch up on the news from the International Space Station, where the seven crew members have been hosting two unexpected guests for months.
Astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams, flew to the ISS in June, but NASA has been troubleshooting problems with the Boeing Starliner that carried them to the station ever since.
The space agency has decided to have the Starliner return to Earth without them, September 6. Butch and Suni will then stay in the ISS until they return in a space capsule built by Space X, in February of next year.
If you know when and where to look, you can see the ISS pass overhead in the early evening, or predawn hours when sunlight reflects off of its enormous solar panels.
“And the fun thing is knowing that there are nine astronauts aboard the space station when you're looking up and waving. They might have cameras and might be looking down at you,” according to McGuire.
Early risers in the Lehigh Valley should have a view of the space station if skies are clear in the predawn hours, Tuesday morning (Sept 3). It will be visible for about 6 minutes beginning at 4:41a.m. as it rises in the northwest and moves toward the east.
