Space shuttle to rendezvous with space station tonight

Budding astronomers will be hoping for clear skies tonight as the Space Shuttle Endeavour joins with the International Space Station (ISS) over Ireland.

The €100bn ISS will be flying over Irish skies for the next fortnight.

The shuttle is undertaking a 14-day mission that includes three spacewalks to complete the Space Station’s 80-metre solar panels and repairs to a gyroscope.

These extensions will make the Space Station the largest and brightest object ever to fly in Earth-orbit.

An Astronomy Ireland spokesman said: “Currently, the 200-tonne space station is 73 metres wide and has since its launch in 2000 travelled over two billion kilometres in 48 thousand orbits.

“For a couple of minutes every night it outshines every star and planet in the night sky.”

The ISS is the most expensive piece of space-hardware ever, representing a collaborative effort of nearly 20 countries, including Ireland.

Currently onboard are Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson.

It has been home to astronauts from 14 countries and in 2003 a wedding ceremony took place onboard between Yuri Malenchenko on the station and Ekaterina Dmitrieva who was down on Earth.

The space shuttle Endeavour will have a crew of five men and two women.

To get exact times of the fly-overs, Astronomy Ireland has set up a special newsline – 1550 111 442.