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Originally posted by ZikhaN
Hmmm, the most populated places in the UK don't have ISS Sightings.
www.aerospaceweb.org...
The majority of American satellites and manned spacecraft, for example,
are launched from Cape Canaveral (ha, ha- yea, a little dated, but still accurate info) ...
located at a latitude of 28.5° North.
Since an orbit must be concentric with the center of the Earth, the orbit of a vehicle launched from such a location
becomes inclined ... into an orbit with an inclination of about 28.5°.
Good examples of this type of orbit include the Space Shuttle and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).
Originally posted by radioactive_liquid
i lived in titusville, fl for 4 years, i used to love whatching the shuttles go up, especially at night time grab a spot right along the indian river, drink a few beers, smoke a bone, and witness space travel. when it would come back it would scare the living hell out of me every time with the sonic boom
Originally posted by Jbird
Originally posted by ZikhaN
Hmmm, the most populated places in the UK don't have ISS Sightings.
ZikhaN , your predicament made me start to think, so I searched for the 'ground track' of the ISS,
and found this short, easily understood page, with several illustrations that show the orbits
of most satellites, on a (mercator) map, and the reasons for their paths.
The short version has to do with the launch location of satellites/spacecraft .
www.aerospaceweb.org...
The majority of American satellites and manned spacecraft, for example,
are launched from Cape Canaveral (ha, ha- yea, a little dated, but still accurate info) ...
located at a latitude of 28.5° North.
Since an orbit must be concentric with the center of the Earth, the orbit of a vehicle launched from such a location
becomes inclined ... into an orbit with an inclination of about 28.5°.
Good examples of this type of orbit include the Space Shuttle and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).
The last color illustration, on that page, (Shuttle Laser Altimeter II ground tracks) says it in a glance.
So most (circular)orbits just don't track far enough North for your area.(Sweden/UK)
Check it out , it's a quick, easy read.
Hope that helps.
Hey at least you have the Auroras, right?
Originally posted by makeitso
The space shuttle and the space station both were visible zooming thru the sky tonight at approx. 10 PM.
I had never seen it before so we all went outside to watch, and sure enough a bright light came out of the northwest moving fast, flew right over my house and continued on out of sight.
Then 2 minutes later the space station came hurtling thru the sky. Right over my house and then it was gone.
Awesome.
Anybody else see it?