What it looks like to fly around the International Space Station

Spaceflightnow.com has created a video that must be shared. It's 30 minutes of footage from the Shuttle as it made its way slowly around the ISS, condensed into a minute and a half. Not only is the video simply awesome, but it's also the one you want to show to anyone that isn't sure why the magnitude of the ISS is so variable. Since it's not a sphere like planets are the magnitude really varies depending on how much of the Sun's light is being reflected, and especially so considering that the solar panels are largely pointing in the same direction.

The best part of the video starts at about 30 seconds in.



Someone asked in the comments section of the video why stars weren't visible at the end. It's because the difference in brightness between the two is so great that they don't show up; i.e., the ISS far outshines them.