Why does it take 3 days to get to and from the space station...?

Richard Hoagland asked a simple question... and I have no answer...
why does it take the Space Shuttle 3 days to reach the space station...?
they are traveling 17,000+ miles an hour and they circle the earth every
what 45mins. yet, when its time to enter and exit the atmoshere we have
this missing 3 days... ???? thought this would cause some of you to think
maybe we have more than one Hubble and more than one station ...



[edit on 17-7-2009 by BornPatriot]

[edit on 17-7-2009 by BornPatriot]

There is more than one space station...its obvious to even the most casual of observers, the possibility of matching altitude and velocity taking so long is easily answered.

Its about time the US shadow government stopped its ultra secrecy with humanity, the only possibility I could fathom why all the secrets is that we are the enemy.

"Why does it take 3 days to get to and from the space station...?"

Because NASA refuses to develop and use anti-gravity flying saucers.

[edit on 7/17/2009 by Larryman]

hi there, im no expert but i found this webpage. seems to make sense to me!

sci.tech-archive.net...

seems to be all about timing. Also i think there are many rigorous checks involved before docking for safety reasons.

it also takes 3 days to go to the moon right? hmmm. I never knew it took that long to go to the space station. maybe there are a few of them. someone had really cool pics they took on their telescope of interesting objects in space. maybe some of those are other stations they stop at first.

Well, the Space Station is traveling at about 17500 in order to maintain orbit and thus the shuttle travels at about the same speed in its intercept course.

The amount of time depends on the space stations orbit and that's why the launch windows are small - in order that they can catch it. I thought it was only two days this mission.

reply to post by verylowfrequency


Good one, Mate...~! ... ah, Richard Hoagland asks .... check out dark mission or where this information came from was the Camelot Series Interview with RIchard Hoagland.

well is this all you guys can dig up on this subject...?
you guys need to ask the right questions to get the answer from Nasa.

reply to post by mazzroth


When I was in the AF and stationed in AK, I made site visits to Healy. Their was a space command unit there then. It had been part of NORAD with the whole gigantic radar array. (There had been many of them - even Ft. Yukon area - before reliance on Sats.)

Anyhow, I wondered aloud once about the ability of earth-based scopes to see tranquility base, and objects in low-earth orbit. My thought was met with silence.

Theres basically "windows" in which NASA uses the most of Earths gravity to propel the Shuttle towards the ISS without using as much fuel as possible. Basically if the shuttle went straight up then Earths rotation and drag would mean theyd need a significant HUGE spacecraft to get it out of Earth orbit, this is the reason the Shuttle and any other craft conducts a "Roll" manouver about a minute into flight, to capture Earths rotation and use this (along with the boosters) to propel it against gravity.

Also with this factor means you have to at some stage dump those boosters, and you cant just launch anywhere as boosters coming down over Cuba or other landmass countries wouldnt go down well. So NASA has to time the jettison of both the 2x SRB and external tank perfectly.

Then you have to take into account the ISS is already doing a x45 minute orbit of Earth in which you have to get the shuttle from 0 to almost 7 miles a second within the space of a day simply to play catch-up, aswell as avoiding debris, other satellites etc.

Then take into account for landing you have to do all of this but in reverse, manouver the shuttle into the correct alignment for landing whilst going into LEO, pitching, avoiding debris and so forth.

reply to post by BornPatriot


Spend 30 minutes and watch this video.

But, before you watch, try to imagine the ISS in orbit. Its speed is relatively constant. The Shuttle is launched to the same altitude and inclination, except "behind" it. If the Shuttle accelerates too much, its orbital altiude will increase. SO, they play 'catch up' for many orbits, slowly closing the gap. AND, they have a post-launch checklist and various procedures, followed by a sleep period, followed by a duty 'day' period, all in preparation for the ultimate rendezvous and docking.

Oh, and with Apollo and the Moon? They didn't just launch, and three days later arrive at the Moon. They launched to orbit, did stuff there, THEN fired the TLI burn, and that's what takes three days, from here to there.