On Sunday, November 23, Italy's first female astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti, was launched into space to serve aboard the International Space Station. Thanks to this charming interactive visualization, for the next six months, you'll be able to see exactly where she is as she tweets her way across the night sky.
Created by Italian information design agency Accurat, Friends in Space will track Cristoforetti for the next six months, polling your location and, if she's visible, showing where in the sky above you you can see her. The ability to pinpoint Cristoforetti's location is pretty impressive considering the ISS will be moving so fast that Cristoforetti will circle the planet 15 times every day.
You can also track where Cristoforetti is when she tweets (@AstroSamantha), and who on Twitter is sending her messages as she circles overhead. You can even go back in time to see where she was and what she was tweeting at that time.
Over the last few years, starting with the Bowie-crooning Chris Hadfield, we've seen a growing number of astronauts at the International Space Station raise awareness of their mission by reaching out to the people trapped on the big blue marble below. Friends in Space seems like a good continuation of that tradition, making it easy to wave to one of the few humans in space as she zooms by.