You may have seen the International Space Station whizzing across the night sky before, but have you ever seen China’s Tiangong space station?
Three taikonauts are currently orbiting Earth aboard the Tiangong space station — and just days after two of them spent 5.5 hours outside the station repairing a solar array, there are particularly good opportunities to see it from parts of the eastern U.S. over the next week, including several bright, high passes visible from New York City.
On a favorable pass, Tiangong can reach up to about magnitude –2, roughly as bright as Jupiter. That’s not as bright as the ISS, but this week it’s easily bright enough to see — if skies are clear.
How, when and where to see Tiangong
The best time to look for Tiangong is typically an hour or two after sunset or before sunrise. That’s when you’re standing in darkness, but the station, a few hundred miles overhead, can still catch sunlight. There are lots of opportunities to see it from the US East Coast just after dark over the next week or so.
Here are the brightest and highest passes of Tiangong, as seen from New York City, according to Heavens Above. New York sits just inside the northern limit of Tiangong’s 41.5-degree-inclined orbit, which is why New Yorkers get those spectacular 84-degree and 88-degree passes.
(Celestial altitude above the horizon is listed here in degrees; remember that the width of your fist at arm’s length equals about 10 degrees.)
- Wednesday, Sept. 2: 8:07–8:13 p.m. EDT — magnitude –1.8, reaching 51 degrees
- Thursday, Sept. 3: 8:46–8:50 p.m. EDT — magnitude –2.2, reaching 84 degrees
- Friday, Sept. 4: 7:48–7:54 p.m. EDT — magnitude –2.1, reaching 77 degrees
- Saturday, Sept. 5: 8:26–8:31 p.m. EDT — magnitude –2.0, reaching 75 degrees
- Sunday, Sept. 6: 9:05–9:08 p.m. EDT — magnitude –2.0, reaching 74 degrees
- Monday, Sept. 7: 8:06–8:12 p.m. EDT — magnitude –2.1, reaching 77 degrees
- Tuesday, Sept. 8: 8:45–8:49 p.m. EDT — magnitude –2.1, reaching 67 degrees
- Wednesday, Sept. 9: 7:47–7:53 p.m. EDT — magnitude –2.1, reaching 88 degrees
What Tiangong will look like
Like the ISS, look for a bright, steady point of light moving smoothly across the sky. Unlike an aircraft, Tiangong doesn’t have flashing navigation lights. A good pass typically lasts between two and six minutes, with high passes generally the brightest.
Tiangong can also suddenly disappear during a pass if it enters Earth’s shadow and can no longer reflect sunlight toward you.
What is Tiangong?
Tiangong — meaning “Heavenly Palace” — is China’s first permanently inhabited orbital outpost and the second-brightest space station in orbit. Tiangong has three main modules — Tianhe, Wentian and Mengtian — with the first one launching in April 2021 and the last in October 2022. However, at about 100 tons, Tiangong is only around a quarter of the ISS’s mass.
Like the ISS, it orbits roughly every 90 minutes, but a little closer to Earth (about 242 miles to the ISS’s 254 miles, though exact heights vary as both stations periodically have to reboost into higher orbit).
Who is on Tiangong?
Tiangong currently has three taikonauts on board as part of the Shenzhou-23 mission — Zhu Yangzhu, Zhang Zhiyuan and Li Jiaying (also known by her Cantonese name, Lai Ka-ying). The mission began in May.
Li Jiaying is expected to remain aboard for about a year, twice the usual six-month rotation.
Editor’s Note: If you would like to capture a photo of Tiangong in the sky and want to share it with Space.com’s readers, then please send your photo(s) along with your name, the location and any comments on what it was like to capture the picture to spacephotos@space.com.
