Nobody will have a better view of the Leonids than the folks aboard the International Space Station. Sorry, sold out. Even pop star Lance Bass couldn’t get a sky-high seat for this show.

The ISS’s route happens to put the lucky few over Europe during the first predicted peak there, and over North America a few hours later, when the second peak is due to arrive there.

But the crew won’t be looking up. They’ll be looking down. The station flies at 240 miles (386 kilometers) high, well above the atmospheric density required to get the typical meteor fired up.

Here is how astronaut Frank Culbertson described his 2001 view of the Leonids from the orbiting outpost: "It looked like we were seeing UFOs approaching the Earth flying in formation, three or four at a time" -- good thing Culbertson knew what he was really looking at -- "There were hundreds per minute going beneath us, really spectacular!"