This week, check out some handy online tools to help you find our manned spacecraft almost instantaneously.

Find our space station and space shuttles by visiting the NASA’s Human Space Flight (HSF) — Orbital Tracking Web page.

As you know, Amateur Radio and NASA have had a long-term relationship. Many hams around the world work on NASA projects and have actually worked hams aboard NASA spacecraft. Now that America’s space shuttle project is getting back on-track, here are the pertinent NASA Web pages that you can use to follow the International Space Station (ISS) and space shuttle missions.

To read the very latest news, visit the NASA — ISS and NASA — Space Shuttle Web pages. To actually locate the position of the ISS and the space shuttle, visit the Human Space Flight (HSF) — Orbital Tracking Web page. There, you can view a map that displays the current location of the spacecraft. By clicking on the Sighting Opportunities button or going directly to the HSF — Realtime Data Web page, you can find out when the spacecraft will be visible over your town.

Have fun and be part of the “real thing” in your own shack!

Thank you, Carl Zelich, AA4MI, for co-writing this week’s Surfin’. Until next time, keep on surfin’.

Editor’s note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, collects tools, and someday he intends to use every tool in his accumulation. To communicate with Stan, send him an e-mail or add comments to his blog. By the way, every installment of Surfin' is indexed here, so go look it up (whatever it may be).

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