Stargazers Can Spot Shuttle, Space Station Pass Over D.C.

The space shuttle Endeavour and the international space station, docked together and replete with a tiny town of astronauts, will cross Washington skies Saturday and Sunday nights, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory.

The shuttle and the space station are 220 miles above the Earth and traveling at 17,500 mph. "It's going to be a bright, fast-moving dot with 13 of your fellow humans on board. And remember that the space station is now the size of a football field -- and currently it has a space shuttle hanging off of it. It's big and reflects a lot of sunlight," says Geoff Chester, an astronomer at the Naval Observatory. "Both objects are bright on their own, but tie them together and they're even brighter."

If the weather cooperates, this cosmic colony will be a fascinating view. It will look like a very bright star passing with the apparent speed of an airliner crossing overhead, except that Endeavour and the space station lack red or green wing lights.

Chester says the weekend flybys will be hard to miss, because the spacecraft, reflecting sunlight, will be about negative fourth magnitude (very bright) and comparable to seeing the planet Venus "or even brighter," he says.

On Saturday, the spacecraft rises low in the northwestern sky at 9:01 p.m., crosses to the northeast about 9:04 p.m., then sets in the east-southeast about 9:07 p.m., according to the observatory.

For Sunday evening, the spacecraft follows a different trajectory. It rises in the north-northwest at 9:26 p.m., near the constellation Leo. At 9:29 p.m., it traverses the southwestern sky near the thin young moon and heads south, where the event ends at 9:31 p.m.

Four decades after the Apollo 11 moon landing, Endeavour and the space station have also made history: The 13 astronauts have set a record for the most people in space at one time. Endeavour is scheduled to return July 31.