Catching Spacecraft: ISS, Tiangong, and Hubble ബഹിരാകാശ നിലയങ്ങൾ: ISS, ടിയാൻഗോങ്, ഹബ്ബിൾ

Right now, there are human-made objects orbiting Earth that you can see with your naked eyes. They look like bright, steady, fast-moving "stars" crossing the sky in 3-6 minutes. No blinking (unlike aircraft). No trail (unlike meteors). Just a smooth, silent, steady dot of light, and behind it - real science, real engineering, real humans living in space.

The International Space Station (ISS)

Launched 1998. The largest human-made object in orbit. It is about the size of a football field end-to-end (109 metres with solar panels extended). The pressurised living space where astronauts live and work is roughly the size of a 6-bedroom house. It orbits at about 420 km altitude, circling Earth every 90 minutes at 28,000 km/h. At any given moment, typically 6-7 humans are living on it. When it catches sunlight, it is often the brightest object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus.

Tiangong (Chinese Space Station)

Operational since 2022. Smaller than the ISS - about the size of one and a half school buses in pressurised volume. It orbits at about 390 km altitude and typically hosts 3 astronauts (taikonauts). In the sky, it looks similar to the ISS but usually dimmer.

Hubble Space Telescope

Launched 1990. No humans aboard - it's a robotic telescope, about the size of a large school bus (13 metres long). It orbits at about 540 km altitude. Despite being smaller, Hubble's metallic body and solar panels reflect sunlight, making it visible on bright passes. It has been taking some of the most iconic photographs of the universe for over three decades.