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The children of Britain looking to the sky to see Santa's sleigh tonight could catch a glimpse of a craft at the International Space Station passes over the UK.

From around 5.22pm for around three minutes and again at 6.58pm for two minutes, weather permitting, the craft will be visible in our skies says NASA data.

Astronomer Jon Marchant, of Liverpool John Moores University, said the space station will look similar to a fast-moving plane.

He said: "That's only what it will appear to look like, it's actually moving a lot faster – four-and-a-half miles per second or about 17,500 miles per hour."

The station, in orbit about 220 miles above the Earth, is a large spacecraft which has enough room for seven astronauts on board.

Mr Marchant said: "It looks pretty much like a bright star. There's plenty of opportunity to get a plane mixed up with the ISS.

"However, the ISS doesn't have any flashing lights and doesn't make a noise, so that's two ways to tell the difference."

To give you a true measure of the speed it's travelling, the spacecraft completely circles the Earth about every 90 minutes, meaning the crew get to see 15 sunrises every day.

The space station is the length of a rugby pitch, and over the past 14 years has been home to more than 200 astronauts from eight countries.

If you want to spot the festive flyover get yourself and your children outside just after 5pm to become accustomed to the dark.

Those in southern Britain will get the best view of the space station at 5.22pm for around three minutes.

In London people should look up at around 35 degrees from the horizon and watch for a ball of light moving across the sky from the west.

The ISS will also be visible from Cardiff, where it will be around 32 degrees before moving up to around 53 degrees.

In Merseyside, facing west, south west, look for a very bright looking "star" that will be travelling in a straight line towards you.

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