Clear skies let Metro Vancouver residents spot ISS overhead

On a clear March evening, Metro Vancouver residents looked skyward and glimpsed a football-field-sized laboratory hurtling through orbit at 28,000 kilometers per hour — a reminder that humanity's reach now extends beyond the atmosphere, and that this extraordinary fact remains visible to anyone willing to simply look up. The International Space Station, third-brightest object in the night sky, passed over the region on March 17, 2024, offering a rare convergence of clear weather and cosmic proximity. In an age of screens and abstraction, the moment invites a quiet reckoning with what it means