The International Space Station Will Be Visible On Christmas Day

Bristol: When I was a kid, my neighbor threw a Christmas Eve party. I remember waiting to go home while my parents chatted away. I looked up at the stars and thought I saw Santa flying by. But my dad quickly told me it was probably just a plane or maybe even the International Space Station.

Fast forward to now, and I’m actually pumped to see the ISS on Christmas morning! It’ll be visible to the naked eye, which is pretty cool. Just a heads up, though: the ISS is set to de-orbit in January 2031, so this is a special moment for all of us.

I can’t help but get a bit sentimental about it. I’ll be on the lookout for the ISS and chatting about it with anyone who’ll listen. Did you know it orbits the Earth every 90 minutes? It’s as big as a football pitch and weighs as much as 320 cars!

So, when can you catch a glimpse of the ISS? If you’re an early bird, you’ll want to be up at 6:07 AM on Christmas Day. It’ll be flying over Bristol for about four minutes from the west-northwest. I used to wake up early for Christmas, but these days, that’s more like my bedtime!

What should you look for? The ISS might resemble a bright star or an airplane at first, but it’s actually the second brightest object in the night sky after the moon. It moves steadily without any flashing lights, zipping along at 17,500 miles per hour.

The ISS is like humanity’s stepping stone to the stars. All the experiments we’ve done there are paving the way for future space exploration. So, let’s give it some love this Christmas and appreciate what it represents for all of us.