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Shuttle Launch Visible tonight!

calibos

By calibos
in The Astro Lounge

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calibos

calibos

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Just a heads up about tonights Shuttle Launch. It was postponed last night due to a Lightning strike at the launch pad and has been re-scheduled for tonight. Very Lucky for us as the weather yesterday and last night was attrocious whereas tonight the forecast is for some clear skies.

Should be higher up and brighter too than if they had launched last night.

Its certainly visible from Ireland and I presume from parts of the UK.

Its going to be a treat of manmade objects blazing across the heavens tonight. At about 12:01 am there is a 70º altitude ISS pass followed shortly thereafter by a Progress Re-supply vehicle on its way to the ISS. Then at about 12:30 we will see the Shuttle and its Jettisoned Orange main fuel tank a degree or so below blaze across the skies 18 minutes after its launch from Florida in the USA.

Get out there with your Bino's and laptops and watch the Launch on Nasa TV. It'll be cool if they show live footage of the Fuel Tank Jettisoning and you'll be able to see the real deal at the same time!

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calibos

calibos

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Go to this website. Click the closest location to you and it will give times, directions and altitudes for both the ISS and Shuttle.

Human Space Flight (HSF) - Orbital Tracking

Not sure if thats 100% reliable. Got some unusual times when I selected some UK locations. It'll definately be about 12:30am for me on the east coast of Ireland and we use GMT yet on that site I was getting 11pm shuttle passes???

Maybe the best thing to do is watch the launch on Nasa TV and you will see it if your geographical location and weather allows you to about 18 minutes after launch and about a half hour after the midnight ISS pass.

Iss pass will be nearly overhead traveling from west to east and Shuttle and Fuel tank will be lower in the south traveling west to east.

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RichieJarvis

RichieJarvis

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Just watching Nasa TV in preparation for the launch - looking good...

However, they've just said T-1hour 3 minutes - it was 22:16 at the time - which means they are going to launch @ 23:19 our time, NOT 00:19!!

Better for us!

Cheers,

Richie

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Hicks

Hicks

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There's a countdown clock on the nasa website here

Nasa quotes launch times in EDT which is GMT-4, so 5 hours behind BST.

The countdown clock shows 55 minutes to launch, but that doesn't include all the planned holds, the scheduled launch clock is showing 1 hour 52 to launch, which puts it at roughly 00:10. Probably best to stick the nasa tv stream on to know for sure though :)

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ashenlight

ashenlight

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Cat, the ISS will pass over a few times tonight (I'm using Heavens-Above Home Page for predictions for my locations - Cardiff - around the UK should be smimilar I imagine.) There's one at 00:02, starting in the West and then finishing in the East at 00:07. The second pass is at 01:37 starting in the West and finishing in the West at 01:37. ISS passes are very bright - unmissable - you should see it no problem. Just look in the general direction of the start of the pass (West) and you'll see it come over the horizon. From what I can gather, the Shuttle will be passing a minute or two later, further to the South, but following the same direction as the ISS. Hopefully someone can clarify this, or give better information.

:)

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Tim

Tim

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Oooooh, the clouds are gathering though. I have just seen the ISS go over, and in front of it on the same orbit it seemed was a smaller thing, maybe the resupply jobby?? I saw it behind the ISS the other night.

You cant miss the ISS, comes roughly out of the west and travels east ish. FAST, and bright

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haitch

haitch

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From what I can gather, the Shuttle will be passing a minute or two later, further to the South, but following the same direction as the ISS. Hopefully someone can clarify this, or give better information.

:)

Careful not to get confused with the Russian cargo pod (forgotten the damn name - you know the ones they fill with rubbish after & burn up in the atmosphere) approaching the ISS following just behind it.

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ashenlight

ashenlight

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Careful not to get confused with the Russian cargo pod (forgotten the damn name - you know the ones they fill with rubbish after & burn up in the atmosphere) approaching the ISS following just behind it.

good point cheers :) hope you all get some good views of this. It has clouded over here so I am glued to NASA TV! :)

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calibos

calibos

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Its looking like being visible a good 40 minutes early. 11:50 instead of 12:30. Seems they moved the launch forward a bit because of a weather system moving inon the launch or abort site. IN other words we will now see the Shuttle and Fuel tank before the midnight ISS pass instead of 25 minutes after.

There will be more shuttle passes later in the night but this first one is special because we will see the just jettisoned main fuel tank just below it. WOn't see the fuel tank on subsequent passes.

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