[AZ-Observing] Re: Flare+HST+SS
- From: Paul Dickson <dickson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 23:07:39 -0700
On Mon, 11 Mar 2002 18:54:32 EST, SaguaroAstro@xxxxxxx wrote:
> Paul,
>
> Given the orbital path required for a landing at KSC, the shuttle would be
> about 530 miles SSE of Phoenix at it's closest approach during decent. It's
> altitude would be about 43.5 miles. Given this, it's elevation as seen from
> Phoenix would be about 4.5 deg above the horizon. Since it would be near the
> maximum heating during it's reentry at this point I imagine those folks along
> a line from Chihuahua, Mexico, corpus Christi to the oil rigs off New Orleans
> get a pretty good show. The plasma trail would be very evident even in
> daylight (a cousin of mine was on board the Hornet when Apollo 11 landed. he
> said the trail was very bright & obvious). Keep in mind they won't land in
> darkness, and they are about 12 minutes from touchdown when they exit the
> reentry phase, so probably late twilight would be the best an observer could
> hope for.
>
> BTW I got the trajectory and altitude info from "The Space Shuttle Operators
> Manual" (Thanks Jenn).
I'm not to sure of your facts. The landing is indeed at night, 4:32 AM EST.
Whether it's visible from Phoenix is unknown and depends on where they are
in their orbit. The reentry phase is definitely visible from Arizona and
has been seen in the past from Tucson and Flagstaff, but because of HST's
low inclination, this might end up too far southeast of AZ to be seen.
Currently J-Track can not get the orbital elements for the shuttle so it's
hard to even guess.
-Paul
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