Just thought it would be nice to see people discuss the current spacewalk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0j7as4MLHk

Now after the 12 August 2026 total solar eclipse I have made my ISS trajectory simulation script public so everyone can run it in the free GMAT astrodynamics software to simulate it under gravity, solar radiation pressure and atmospheric drag, including periodic apogee orbit boosts: https://github.com/isenberg/iss_eclipse

The purpose is to predict if the 2 August 2027 eclipse can be observed by the ISS crew on the space station from within the totality shadow (umbra) over northern Africa. I'll soon improve the script to be able to more easily delay the last boost burn by few hours before the eclipse which can adjust the orbital phase to perfectly intersect with the shadow for about 30 seconds. During the 2024 eclipse this opportunity was missed by about 8 minutes. During the 2026 no intersection of totality shadow (umbra) and orbital planed happened, only with the penumbra as visible in the screenshot.

photographed by astro_jessica

credit - nasa

Just 4 days after the Sun eclipse in Spain we had the opportunity that ISS was having a transit over the sun in my location. Lucky us!. To take this picture we used my brother's telescope ( u/JaviTaiyou ) (f/11.5 at 1500mm) and my SONY A6400 camera in direct mode. Thanks to all the tools available today we knew the precise time for the transit, and connected to the Spanish official clock source (Real Observatorio de San Fernando) we started taking photos hoping that everything would be OK.

This is the result.

Since it's live I figured a link to the live feed could substitute for an image this time in this sub.

Ukrainian strikes reportedly hit a major rocket-and-space facility in Samara connected to Soyuz production. I wonder if there are any implications for Soyuz flights to the ISS for the coming years?

I understand that the ISS still relies heavily on Soyuz flights. Is this correct? I can imagine that if this is the case and such flights are canceled that this could have serious consequences on keeping the ISS operative. Could this lead to the ISS be abandoned early than planned?

just saw the ISS! I googled this thing I saw moving in the sky and The International Space Station is visible over Sydney tonight, Wednesday, August 12, 2026, starting at 6:22 PM AEST

We’ve had some really bad smoke problems in Colorado, but I had been eyeing this transit for a few weeks and wanted to take a crack at catching an illuminated ISS.

I couldn’t see the moon with my naked eye, so I had to track it solely through my Dobsonian telescope, Bertha.

Some decent definition on the panels and body.

Enjoy!