When can you see the ISS?

How to find your next ISS overflight

1. Open the visibility window calculation and select a city, your location or your own coordinates.
2. Check the possible overflights for up to three days. The times follow your browser time zone; alternatively, you can choose UTC.
3. Find a spot with a clear view in the specified direction and check the weather.

The calculation runs on your device. Your chosen location is not sent to our server for this purpose.

How do you recognise the ISS in the sky?

The ISS appears as a bright, evenly moving point. You don't need a telescope. Especially favorable are suitable overflights after sunset or before sunrise: it's dark where you are, while the space station still reflects sunlight.

The ISS orbits the Earth approximately every 90 minutes. This does not mean it is visible over your location on every pass.

Why are there sometimes no viewing windows?

We only show possible overflights from 10° above the horizon, when the sun is at least 6° below the horizon at your location and the ISS is almost fully illuminated. For your location, there may be no suitable overflights in the calculated time period.

Clouds and obstacles are not taken into account. Orbit manoeuvres and older orbit data can change the forecast. A calculated viewing window is no guarantee of visibility.

Where do the orbit data come from?

The app calculates the orbit using the SGP4 model from CelesTrak-/NORAD orbital elements. The calculation shows the current state of the data. Orbit data that is too old is rejected for new predictions.

CelesTrak: orbit data and formats ↗ · ESA: International Space Station ↗

Further into space

Discover also Idefix on its way to the Martian moon Phobos, Juice and Jupiter's icy moons or the next European rocket launches.