MILWAUKEE — It may look like someone took a video of their pocket, but that little dot in the middle of the surrounding black void is actually the International Space Station (ISS) flying over Milwaukee Saturday.

The ISS orbit around Earth has taken it above the Milwaukee skyline many times in the past, and it will “swing” by us many times in the future, but it is always cool to see just how far humans can go — about 248 miles above the surface.

It may have, arguably, one of the best views out of any job but it is no easy commute to get there and back.

Stranded astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — recently came into the public eye after the spacecraft carrying them to the station ran into several problems during the flight, and what was supposed to be an eight-day mission became several months.

The pair is now waiting for transport from the SpaceX Dragon capsule after the Boeing Starliner was remotely flown back without the astronauts.

Wilmore and Williams are expected back to Earth in February, but in the meantime, they are making the most of their time above ground and plan to vote in the upcoming November election.

If you want up-to-date coverage on the election, check out TMJ4’s America Votes, here, and vote like astronauts.

How the ISS came to be:

1984 — Ronald Reagan ordered NASA to build the ISS within the following 10 years. In his State of the Union Address, he said “Just as the oceans opened up a new world for clipper ships and Yankee traders, space holds enormous potential for commerce today.”

1998 — The Zarya Control Module and the first section of the station in space was launched aboard a Russian Proton rocket in November. The First US built section, Unity Node 1 was launched in December and was connected with Zarya. This was the first step in building the orbiting laboratory.

2000 — The first crew stayed in the station. NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergi Krikalev spent four months and according to the ISS National Laboratory, “began what is now more than 20 years of continuous human presence in space.”

2001 — US Lab Module was added which added a little over 40 percent of living space and this section is still the main area for US research.

2008 — Columbus Laboratory, the European lab, was added to the station in February. Kibo laboratory module, a Japanese lab, was added to the station.

If anyone would like to keep an eye on the sky for the ISS in the future, a sighting schedule is available for stargazers.

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