Coming Soon to the Skies Near You

By Jeffrey Kluger

Reasonable people may differ about the scientific value of NASA's much delayed INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, and starting this week, you can take a look skyward and judge for yourself. The station was little more than three school-bus-size pods linked together like sausages. Last Thursday, however, the space shuttle Endeavor blasted off with the station's latest--and most dramatic--component, a 240-ft.-long set of solar wings that will gather light from the sun and provide juice to the energy-hungry hardware onboard.

That impressive wingspan will enable most in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world to spot it with the naked eye, provided they know when to look. The best time to see the station--which will resemble an extremely bright star flying west to east--will be shortly after dusk. Knowing which days it will be visible is trickier. Since Earth takes 24 hr. to complete a rotation and the station--which orbits at a 51.6[degree] inclination--takes only a zippy 92 min. to circle the planet, it will pass over a different part of the U.S. every time it flies by. To find out when it's coming to your corner of the continent, check out spaceflight.NASA.gov It's never easy to know that billions of your tax dollars are being spent, but at least this time you can see where they're going.

--By Jeffrey Kluger