Spot the Station Reviews

I am a widowed dad with an 8 year old. SpottheStation is wonderfully engaging and has very cool features. Will also be fun to build confidence and an opportunity to share roe tool and how to use it with his peers so they can show the parents. And it is free! Thanks! Dale and Julian

I’m so glad that SpottheStation now exists. As an avid user of the Spot the Station text messaging service, I’m very pleased that I can now access even more information with greater ease.

Well designed app, easy to use, lots of great info! I just wish I had known about it MUCH sooner! And that comment is from someone who visits the NASA website almost every day!

I would like to be able to advance the time to when the next pass of ISS occurs even if it’s not visible.

SpottheStation is awesome! I love getting notified when I should look up and waive.

When I hit the button to use the camera SpottheStation crashes. Every time. Even after deleting and re-downloading SpottheStation . Hopefully this is a known bug that will be resolved soon.

SpottheStation crashes every single time I try to launch AR mode. I’m on an iPhone 15 Pro Max, so it’s definitely not the phone. All the other information in SpottheStation is great, but without the AR mode mode, most of its functionality for me is non-existent.

Great start but AR mode crashes on iPhone pro max

When I try AR mode on my iPhone 15 Pro, app crashes. Also, a white splash screen when app is loading does. It make sense for an app used in the night.

To go into AR mode, app crashes. Otherwise, app is neat, but main function causes crash.

I downloaded this NASA app for tracking the space station. Everything seems to work. You can pick which passes you want alerts for or get them for all upcoming passes. But who wants to wake up at 4:40 a.m. to see it for a minute or two? Best of all, it’s from NASA, and it’s free. I’ve downloaded so many other trackers, and none seem to always work at tracking the station.

SpottheStation is really cool, but I also can’t access the camera tab. SpottheStation just immediately crashes or closes

I’m so glad for SpottheStation! I’ve used this app.gov since it was released. The graphics in SpottheStation, especially the 3D Earth and ISS orbit, are nicely done. I’d like to see a setting so you can select alerts for only morning, only evening or both, which the website has. I’d like to see a setting for a threshold of a 3- and maybe even 4-minute pass. And I’d like to see (literally) a replacement for royal blue text on black background.

Found my closest location on the web version but the IOS App doesn’t get past the search. I tried detecting and putting in a manual location. Nothing happens so I can’t use SpottheStation . Looking forward to when it is fixed.

After downloading SpottheStation , it tries to “determine my location” which I allowed, but it never does - the wheel just keeps spinning. It also lets you manually input your location instead, but once typed in, there is no way to advance to the next screen. Without getting past this screen, SpottheStation is useless.

I expect better from NASA.

Once I’m able to get SpottheStation to load my location I’ll write another review. But so far SpottheStation won’t dry up my location.

Got nowhere with SpottheStation as noted above. Strong cell and WiFi signals, even turning off VPN made no difference. Disappointing.

It was unable to locate positions and never connected in my iPhone.

Even when I enter my zip code, it can’t find my location. Worthless app.

You do realize SpottheStation locks up after the first 2-3 set-up pages. Won’t load past that. Does nothing.

I was very excited to find out SpottheStation exists. I immediately downloaded it. The first thing it asks was to allow notifications, which I said yes too. But the very next screen asks me to either enter my location or let SpottheStation detect my location. I've tried both options and neither one ever goes anywhere. It's just stuck on that screen and I can't do anything else with SpottheStation . SpottheStation is totally worthless in it's current state. I sure hope SpottheStation development team and the team creating spacecraft to put humans into space are different people.

It seems to be good… but immediately crashes when trying to access the second tab from left. I’ve allowed camera permissions but no dice.

Loaded app and couldn’t even get past the location detection feature. I deleted and reloaded SpottheStation , tried again and nothing. There is no way to use app without using location detection and it won’t work. Waited 60 seconds for app to find my location (yes, I made sure I allowed it to) and nothing. Terrible. Deleted app again because unable to use.

Wish this worked. But it doesn’t. I can’t get past the screen where it detects my location. Maybe they will fix it someday. Happening to others too.

If it doesn’t work for you , try SpottheStation ISS Spotter. It works great and I’ve been using it for years.

Everyone so impressed when you point up and say “here some the ISS”. 🤯

Hearing so many good thing on SpottheStation I decided to load it. All was going well until it tried to locate my location. It seems unable to do so even when manually inputting my location. Rather disappointed and low rating. Will rewrite review if it ever loads my location and starts working properly.

App cannot find my iPhone location, even when I manually enter my (major US) city.
I was a subscriber to the text messages, and enjoyed spotting the station via that.
I thought SpottheStation would be a step up from that, but instead, I can’t use it at all.

Can’t find itself on my iPhone and won’t accept a manual location. Doesn’t work until it knows where you are (of course!). Wait for the next update before installing this one.

SpottheStation would never detect my location. They give you a field to enter your location but don’t tell you if they want your address, city or zip. Could never get it to work either no matter what I entered.

Downloaded and it gets stuck at the ‘location’ screen. Neither the detecting location or enter location options work. Just is stuck. Disappointing.

Location-detection bugs are fixed, and SpottheStation is much much better. Looks nice and works fine. I wish sighting opportunities included max elevation information, and that the globe could (optionally?) show the next orbit’s ground track, instead of only the current one. Looking forward to SpottheStation ’s progress

Like many others I can’t get past the detection screen for my location.

Update: latest version of app fixed the problem. Works perfectly now. Thank you!

When at the point to detect location on initial setup even with 5 bars 5G, it just spins and never detects location. Let it go for 30 minutes and was still spinning.

No issue with location on iPhone 15.

What a great app!!! I love the Augmented Reality View which makes it so easy to know where to look in the sky!

As a student, I love the AR feature of SpottheStation to track the station in real time. There are also many other good features. Great job!

What’s not to love? Made by nasa for spotting the ISS. Also had AR, which is awesome and good customization for notifications. I use other sat tracking apps too, but am glad to add this to the list and will rely on it for ISS. My interest is primarily for AMSAT (amateur radio satellite communications) and love to make contact via satellites. Would be super cool to actually talk to an astronaut aboard; maybe one day. Also enjoy the ISS events such as SSTV, which you don’t even need to be licensed to receive.

It does one job, and does it well. Thanks NASA!

I love SpottheStation , I’ve been using it for awhile now but I would love to have an option of the map to show where it’s at like which country or state it’s flying over

The ‘next sighting’ tells you a date but not the time. Next to this has a countdown, so you have to calculate the time. Otherwise you have to click on the next sighting to get the list and then it tells you times. Would be nice if the next sighting button had the time with it too, rather than have to go to the list.

App is not able to detect location. Shame, cuz idea is nice.

Update: starting from 11/12 everything working fine on iOS.