Family and friends of British-born astronaut Piers Sellers will be able to catch a glimpse of the International Space Station (ISS) he is visiting, on Wednesday evening.

The space station will be visible for just three minutes from the London area.

The crew of the shuttle Atlantis will dock with the station at 1630 BST and deliver food parcels and other supplies to those on board.

The platform, with the orbiter attached to it, will be visible from London at 1916 BST.

Piers Sellers will take three space walks on the trip

The ISS appears in the evening sky like a star, but moves overhead faster than a high plane.

The platform will transverse the sky eastwards from the north-west.

The first handshakes between the shuttle and ISS crews are due to take place 40 minutes before the orbiting structure becomes visible from Britain.

Dr Sellers became the third British-born person to go into space when the shuttle blasted off from Florida on Monday.

The father-of-two, originally from Crowborough in East Sussex, is one of a six-strong crew on the 11-day Nasa mission.

Dr Sellers had to become a US citizen to fulfil his dream of going into space.