The space shuttle just flew over my house!

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?

I did catch a look at the station at 10:05pm last night, way off to the west at 22*. It was faint, and only there for a minute passing north to south, but it was cool to see it again.

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 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

ha,i remember when i was maybe 5 or 6 (im 20 now) the shuttle was landing at edwards afb. It flew over my grandmothers house and boom was horrendous. Shook the entire house,and rattled the glass in the old -style cabinet doors pretty bad.

She said she remembers where a crack in the glass came from before they put the bans on supersonic flight over densely populated areas.

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?

Yeah, thanks a lot. That cleared up a lot more than necessary, but I appreciate it

I kinda figured though that it had something to do with the orbit of the ISS. I just think it's kinda like they're teasing us if they have Sweden as an option, but with no sightings available, hehe. But it's all good

Oh and about the auroras. I've never actually seen one. But don't they also appear in America as well? Damn you Americans, you get everything

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?

Yup, I saw it last week. I went outside and saw a large yellowish star traveling fast across the night sky. There was a smaller whitish light following it a little ways back. I'm assuming the yellowish dot was the space station and the white dot was the space shuttle after undocking.

Final report.

Space shuttle just flew over my house [atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/aad51bcafd10.gif[/atsimg]


for the last time ever.

reply to post by makeitso


I have been spending the day watching nasa tv, the launch, remembering all the Launches of Atlantis.

What will we do when all the shuttles are just a piece of history?



Anyway, don't you have a few more, 2 that is to fly over before they are done?

Ha! Your right.

I was thinking this was it, but its only Shuttle Atlantis last flight. There is one more flight in September, and one in Novermber.

Thanks, I was sad, but you made my day.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/aad51bcafd10.gif [/atsimg]




[edit on 5/15/10 by makeitso]

I am happy that there are 2 more flights as well!