Technology Around You: Spot International space station from your city !! How?

The International Space Station (ISS) is the most complex international scientific and engineering project in history and the largest structure humans have ever put into space. This high-flying satellite is a laboratory for new technologies and an observation platform for astronomical, environmental and geological research. As a permanently occupied outpost in outer space, it serves as a stepping-stone for further space exploration.

The station flies at an average altitude of 248 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth. It circles the globe every 90 minutes at a speed of about 17,500 mph (28,000 kph). In one day, the station travels about the distance it would take to go from Earth to the moon and back. The space station can rival the brilliant planet Venus in brightness and appears as a bright moving light across the night sky. It can be seen from Earth without the use of a telescope by night sky observers who know when and where to look. The ISS AstroViewer website tracks the orbit of the space station in real time.

Five different space agencies representing 15 countries built the $100-billion International Space Station and continue to operate it today. NASA, Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are the primary space agency partners on the project.

Facts about the International Space Station

The ISS solar array surface area could cover the U.S. Senate Chamber three times over.
ISS has an internal pressurized volume of 33,023 cubic feet, or equal that of a Boeing 747.
The solar array wingspan (240 feet / 73 meters) is longer than that of a Boeing 777 200/300 model, which is 212 feet (64.6 m).
Fifty-two computers control the systems on the ISS.
More than 115 space flights were conducted on five different types of launch vehicles over the course of the station’s construction.
The ISS is almost four times as large as the Russian space station Mir, and about five times as large as the U.S. Skylab.
Some 3.3 million lines of software code on the ground supports 1.8 million lines of flight software code.
About 8 miles (12.8 km) of wire connects the electrical power system.
In the International Space Station’s U.S. segment alone, 1.5 million lines of flight software code run on 44 computers communicating via 100 data networks transferring 400,000 signals (e.g. pressure or temperature measurements, valve positions, etc.).
Main U.S. control computers have 1.5 gigabytes of total main hard drive storage in the U.S. segment. Modern PCs have about 500-gigabyte hard drives.
The entire 55-foot robot arm assembly is capable of lifting 220,000 lbs., which is the weight of a space shuttle orbiter.
The 75 to 90 kilowatts of power for the ISS is supplied by an acre of solar panels.