International Space Station

It's 2001 at last, stargazers, and we have a space station. Cue the orchestra and bring up the "Blue Danube" waltz. OK, so NASA's gawky International Space Station can't spin gracefully to the Strauss waltz, as Stanley Kubrick's big space-wheel did in his 1969 film, "2001: A Space Odyssey." But at least this space station is real. It's permanently inhabited now and visited regularly by shuttles and supply craft from Earth. Best of all, you can see it easily from your back yard. It's sure to be one of the new year's most reliable targets for backyard stargazers.

It's been called the biggest engineering project in history, but you can't tell by squinting at the blueprints.The prefab structure will be assembled on a remote site by a few dozen laborers. There will only be enough room inside for seven people to live and work. No tourists in T-shirts and shorts will ever tromp around outside. When it's finally finished, it will resemble some bus-sized beer cans stuck together like Tinker Toys and fitted with metal dragonfly wings.Still, the completed International Space Station should be an awe-inspiring sight -- in part, because it will have survived so many technical and political crises.

When Icarus flew too close to the sun, the heat melted the wax that held his homemade wings together and sent him plummeting to his death.The sun's energy still poses significant, unseen hazards for those who fly too high.Take Russia's aging Mir space station. Launched 13 years ago, Mir has outlasted computer crashes, a fire, a collision with an unmanned supply ship, its five-year life expectancy and even the Soviet Union that designed and built it.More than 100 people, including seven U.S. astronauts, have visited Mir for research in science, engineering and long-term weightlessness.

Space cadets! Did you miss the International Space Station on Thursday? Shoo the clouds and watch the ISS and docked shuttle Endeavour as they cross the sky tonight, 221 miles over Baltimore. The pair will rise at 5:29 p.m., in the southwest, just to the right of bright Venus and Jupiter. They'll be high overhead by 5:32, passing very close to the bright star Vega, before moving off toward the northeast.