The International Space Station in 2011. NASA photo.
The International Space Station in 2011. NASA photo.

The International Space Station will be visible above San Diego during brief periods Friday through Sunday.

The football-field sized station is currently home to six men and women and is the third brightest object in the sky after the sun and moon.

The station will be visible Friday for three minutes starting at 6:39 p.m., 10 degrees above the west-northwest horizon moving to the southwest.

It will be visible on Saturday for six minutes starting at 5:47 p.m., 10 degrees above the northwest horizon moving southeast.

And it will be visible Sunday for one minute at 6:35 p.m., 13 degrees above the southwest moving to the south-southwest.

The complex now has more livable room than a conventional six-bedroom house, and has two bathrooms, a gymnasium and a 360-degree bay window.

Currently on the station are NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore, the commander; and Terry Virts, a flight engineer; Russian cosmonauts Elena Serova, Alexander Samoukutyaev and Anton Shkaplerov; and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

More information on viewing the station is available online at spotthestation.nasa.gov.

Chris Jennewein is founder and senior editor of Times of San Diego.