Where to see the ISS (International Space Station) tonight, 10th October 2026

Passes overhead of the ISS aren't exactly rare, but they're always a wonderful sight. There have been several visible passes over southeastern Australia in recent days and here's a chart of how to see it tonight, 10th Oct 2026. 

There's no need to use any optical gear. Your eyes are all you need. Head outside a few minutes before the pass and get your bearings. It will also be bright enough to be seen in light polluted suburbs. 

People often think that an ISS pass is an aircraft and it might take you a moment to realise that it's moving right across the sky and often from horizon to horizon which is something planes don't seem to do. It also doesn't have any blinking lights.

If you miss this one, don't worry. There's a great NASA app that will let you spot the ISS from where you are. Check it out here. 

Can I see more of the ISS with binoculars or my telescope?

Binoculars won't show much more of the ISS, possibly turning into more than just a single speck of light. It will depend on what you have of course. Telescopes, especially those with longer focal lengths such as SCTs from Celestron can show a lot more detail. "Locking on" to the ISS and then tracking as it moves across the sky in a couple of minutes will require a fair bit of planning and technique. 

It is possible to capture images of the ISS with amateur telescopes, but you really, really have to know what you're doing. 

Here's a set of images taken by Andy Casely and posted to the BINTEL Society Facebook group here. 

Andy used a Celestron C14 and a ZWO ASI585MM camera to capture these frames from the Blue Mountains west of Sydney a couple of nights ago. He commented that it was a bit like being buzzed by a TIE fighter, but it actually was the ISS!

Could a little piece of Mars land in the Australian outback?

Yes, sort of.

Illustration of the MMX spacecraft during Martian Orbit Insertion (MOI) Image via JAXA

In just over a week, on the 20th of October 2026, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will be launching its Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. This will travel to Mars and explore its moons, Phobos and Deimos, when it arrives there in 2027. It plans to land on the larger of the two, Phobos, collect at least 10g of soil and return to Earth. Landing of the spacecraft and collected samples is planned sometime in 2031 in the South Australian outback.

Is this mission looking for signs of past life?

Possibly, although its main job is to work out where Mars’ moons came from. Are they captured asteroids, or did they form from debris after a much larger body hit Mars? There’s another intriguing possibility. Phobos is expected to have collected material blasted off Mars by impacts. Some of those tiny particles could preserve clues about conditions on ancient Mars, and perhaps evidence relevant to the search for past life. No promises of Martian critters, but scientists will certainly be interested.

(One of the main outcomes of the Apollo program was establishing that our own Moon was produced by a large body hitting the early Earth billions of years ago.)

A full NASA sample return mission to bring back these special samples is still some time away after it was cancelled by the US government. (See our article on it here  from earlier in the year.)

There have already been plenty of Martian meteorites found on Earth, and you can even buy them online. (Hey, I’ve got one!) They’ve taught us a great deal about Mars. However, their journey through space and time on Earth can alter them, and we usually don’t know exactly where on Mars they came from. A sample-return mission brings material collected under controlled conditions, with much better information about its collection site.

Why land MMX in South Australia?

A few reasons. The area chosen for the landing site is vast. The Woomera Prohibited Area covers over 120,000 square kms and allows for the safe retrieval of a spacecraft carrying such precious samples. The approach paths are also ideal for this region. 

There's already been samples returned from elsewhere in the Solar System that have landed at Woomera. Australia previously supported JAXA's Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 missions, including the successful landing and retrieval of samples from asteroid Ryugu. 

You can read more at the Australian Space Agency website here as well as JAXA's page here.

Cheers,

Earl White

BINTEL

10th October 2026