See the Space Station Over Iowa This Week

In the few hours after sunset or before sunrise, on the nights its path crosses Iowa while the station is still in sunlight. NASA: “All International Space Station sightings will occur within a few hours before or after sunrise or sunset.” The lists above show the next 7 days for Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Sioux City, and the ZIP tool on the main page works for any address.

It can pass straight overhead anywhere in Iowa: its orbit reaches 51.6 degrees north, and the whole state lies south of that. Most nights it crosses lower, and each pass in the list gives its highest point in degrees, and in NASA’s words, “The horizon is at zero degrees, and directly overhead is 90 degrees.”

Yes. Tiangong orbits 41.5 degrees to the equator, so its highest is straight overhead from Des Moines, about 85 degrees from Cedar Rapids and about 76 degrees from Sioux City. The tool lists its passes alongside the station’s.

Yes, on a good night, as a faint steady point. NASA gives its orbit as “Low-Earth Orbit altitude of about 300 miles (261 nautical miles, or 483 km), inclined 28.5 degrees to the equator,” so its highest over Iowa is about 11 degrees from Des Moines, about 10 degrees from Cedar Rapids and about 9 degrees from Sioux City, always in the southern sky.

Anywhere with an open view of the sky in the direction the pass begins; the space station is bright enough to see from a city. NASA: “The acre of solar panels that power the station means sometimes you can look up in the sky at dawn or dusk and see the spaceship flying over your home, even if you live in a big city.” For the fainter satellites, a darker sky helps: Effigy Mounds National Monument, Pikes Peak State Park and Whiterock Conservancy are among Iowa’s darker places.

Because the station is only seen while it is sunlit against a dark sky. Heavens-Above: “Satellites are only visible when they are lit by the sun, but the observer on the ground is already in darkness. … In the middle of the night the sun is simply too far below the horizon to light them.” As the orbit shifts, the visible passes move between the evening and the morning sky, so a run of morning passes gives way to evening ones.