The Shuttle is Flying!
 

Just a reminder that NASA has continual coverage of the Shuttle and the ISS, now that the Shuttle took off last night to meet the ISS. It's the same setup as the one they use to transmit the Regionals and Championship games:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

They got 12 days up there (schedule http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasat..._schedule.html) During sleep periods they replay highlights and exterior shots, as well as Mission Control. It's fun supervising their activities and "helping" them do their work. They have cameras everywhere (well, almost:o) even on the helmets when they do their spacewalks.

Docking is Sunday afternoon (US time), and it isn't as quick as you think. It's even slower than you can imagine. Even after they dock and lock they wait an hour for everything to stop shaking before opening the door. Star Wars it's not.

I think the major project this mission is attaching another solar array. Last Shuttle they had problems closing up one they had to move. It was frustrating to watch it live. I knew they had to send someone out there to do it right (and after eight hours of remote folding not working, they did.)

Landing is also live (June 19th, if all goes to plan). You get a cockpit view of the landing and they drop down fast!

Somewhere on the NASA website is a Shuttle/ISS locator. Pick your location and it'll give you the times they fly overhead. After sundown or before sunrise are the best times.

Roger.

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

Oh My! I could see myself wasting a lot of time watching this! I just caught the replay of the launch! :ahh: (It must be sleeping time) Thanks for the link!

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Yeah, it can be a time-waster, but it's better than watching tv... :)

I usually put the screen under my work and listen.

Wake up is usually 9am (central time). Why Mission Control has to send them a song every day to wake them up is beyond me. Couldn't they pack an alarm clock?

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hrm if I were up there I would want to enjoy as much of that time away from Earth as possible and enjoy the quiet sleeping time. No Police or other noisy vehicle passing by. =) But then again you do hold a valid point why not pack an alarm clock OR build one into the Shuttle. They got everything else attached to it, how hard could it possibly be to wire an alarm clock into the system? OR maybe the crew voted on having a song be played to wake them up instead of the traditional alarm clock.

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It sounds like the families pick a song that is used as the wake-up song. So in addition to being an alarm clock it is a communication from the family and friends of each crew member. I thought it was cute! :D The interesting thing on Saturday was that they seemed to be up and doing stuff about an hour before the "wake-up" song.

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Louie Armstrong's version of What A Wonderful World.
That would be amazing.

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That was the wakeup for flight day 3 back on STS-114

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/.../ndxpage1.html

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I got on just in time to see the big welcoming party. (Or it might have been a replay; it's hard to tell sometimes.) The room? Science wing? Main Entrance? (All of the above?) where the connection gets made gets very crowded with (I lost count) eight or nine people going thru. But a 10'x10' pit space is still smaller, though you can't float overhead to get to the other side. It looks like the astronaut's bags are already packed in front ready to go. And some party balloons in the corner.

One bit of trivia I heard this morning: The "mission" start and stop dates have an official position in the schedule. Not when the Shuttle attaches. Not when they greet each other, nothing like that. It's when the seat for the astronaut that comes up to stay is placed in the Souyez emergency capsule. Then the mission number changes.

The map shows them now flying off the east coast of the US, then down thru Europe. Next pass (around 9pm here in Walpole -- maybe) is right on the east coast of the US, then mid-US. Everybody go out and wave this evening when they fly over! (You can see them as a bright moving star.)

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata...ngs/index.html

I hesitate to give you this website. It's very confusing. They had an old one that had a nice interface that would search for just the ISS. This one seems to search for every satellite. I'm not even sure if it's a 9pm flyover for the ISS or something else.

Regarding the music wake-up call. I suspect it's a NASA tradition since Gemini days. No room for an alarm clock back then.

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This link seemed ok for me. :) It gave me two lists, one labeled "ISS" and one labeled "Shuttle." For the next week, the two lists are identical, separating next Sunday night. That seems to match the mission schedule.

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Well the ISS/Shuttle fly-over list worked for me! I set my phone alarm to go off a minute before the time. When it went off I ran to the highest window point in my house facing the right direction (since it was supposed to be fairly low to the horizon...) and there it was! Gliding across the sky! Way Cool! :yikes: Thanks Roger!

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What's really cool is watching it blink out going into the Earth's shadow, or (if you're lucky) watching it pop out of Earth's shadow. Now you see it, now you don't.

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

So everything is slowly coming back on line after all the computers on the ISS crashed. The Russians spent the midnight shift (Earth time, of course) separating their stuff from the ISS, putting them on autonomous mode (which means to them putting on battery power) and somehow getting everything rebooted on their end. A couple of fire alarms later (literally, but no fires) and we're back in business. I guess they were seriously thinking of abandoning ship if things didn't get back up.

The good news (speaking as a programmer:cool:) is they're saying it wasn't a software error. The bad news is that if its a hardware problem, it'll take a while for manufacturing to admit to it (also speaking as a programmer ;).)

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Okay, so there's not much chatter here about ISS/Shuttle activity. Half the week I'm away from my computer which can get a live feed, but I'll be on line Thursday for the landing.

According to the NASA schedule (which is always subject to change) it'll be just before 2pm EDT, so if you get on by 1:30pm EDT you can watch the nail-biting land/no-land decisions. The last landing I watched they were keeping a careful eye on the weather and how this one cloud may get too close. Once you decide to land there's no going back up!

Sigh. I can't wait for 2001 when this becomes a ho-hum commute.

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

For all you space nuts out there on CD, the following is the link to track the ISS flyover/sightings. Navigate to your location, look up the data, go outside at the required time, look up......BINGO! There it is! (If there are no clouds)

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata...ngs/index.html

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

You have no idea how much trouble this is causing my family! Every night I'm out there (sometimes twice depending on the schedule) annoying my family and especially my daughter since I always text her with the 5 minute warning. Her response last night..."Aww mama, you are nerdy"

Last night I had my son (age 20) and about a half dozen neighborhood kids with me. I told them that it would be about as bright as the planet Venus that was visible near the moon last night. None of them knew that was a planet! What are they teaching in school these days!?

And then the ISS/Space Shuttle flyover was outstanding! The kids were definately impressed! My son was so proud that he had such a cool mom! I can't wait to look tonight to see the difference with the two objects separated! I hope it isn't cloudy! Am I really nerdy? :rolleyes:

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

That answer would be yes, Cynette.
Take heart, nerdy = way cool.

Enjoy it. May the sky be cloudless tonight.
Jane

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

I have had several nights of flyovers where I had neighbors and the kids in my backyard also.....the kids thought I was out of my mind.........then as they got older, they understood........

"My dad makes the space suit and life support hardware on ISS and Shuttle!", they would tell their teachers.

Make popcorn for those "double fly" nights. Like tonight.......:D

Keep bringing the kids out. They'll understand later.

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

Getting there.

Ask again when you get binoculars to see ISS/Shuttle up close.

Even better when you get a telescope to look at (I think) Saturn coming up in the east in the evening. May be Jupiter. Or Mars. (ISS is too quick for a telescope.)

When you start searching for Mercury...

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Missed the one for today. :( I'll try to remember the one for tomorrow. I should be up at that time (Just before 11 PM) Now I'm going to reinstall my skywatching software. It's been a while since I have had it up and running.

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Last night's dual flyover was not visible because of clouds. :(

The space flight list says it was updated today, but it still looks like the two objects are flying together and that the shuttle will be up on Thursday and Friday night.

Do any of you regular satellite watchers have a sense for how far apart the shuttle and the ISS will be tonight? I'm hoping the weather cooperates for one last shuttle viewing for this mission!

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

The map on the NASA video shows them still together. Did they separate yet? Gosh, I guess I'm not paying attention!

NASA schedule still has them landing Thursday afternoon, deorbit burn starting at 12:50pm EDT; KSC landing at 1:55pm EDT.

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

Yes, seperation was yesterday afternoon......

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I saw the dual flyover last night and it was amazing. I convinced my friend to go to the park with me, little did he know we were going to watch the sky forever and he was going to get a mini lecture fom me.
There should be another one tonight in the Chicagoland area at 9:53pm starting in the West and going to the East/South East so I will be embracing my inner nerd and watching.

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

The weatherman on one of the Boston TV stations got in on the act. Of course, I missed most of his talk, but the upshot was the Shuttle (or maybe the ISS) is supposed to pass close to the Moon this evening, which, by the silly sightings webpage, is at 9:17+. The clouds are already gathering...

The reason I call it silly, is the old website had a simple map showing the sky. This one you have to figure out azimuth and elevations. 350 Deg E of N -- isn't that like 10 deg west of north? This is why I got a computer, to do these calcs for me!

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

Perfectly Clear night. Looked at the moon through my binoculars and got an astonishing view! Better than any of the pictures. The only thing I'm missing is a laptop with my skycharts to track the ISS. I would go and get my telescope out, but I really don't want to wake up my brother and sister. I keep running in and out to see the time, charts, and look at the stars. What a View! To bad I live in the middle of town. Trees and houses everywhere:(

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

That was GREAT!!! Clear Sky tonight!

Neighborhood kids and three moms! (4 if you include me) We set up the telescopes to try to identify the planets while waiting for the big moment! Didn't do really well so we because of ancient equipment so we finally settled on the moon. Cell phone alarms told us when to stop messing around and start looking for the satellites. Hey, there it is! No, False Alarm! No, wait, you're right, that is it. Hey there is two of them!!

The moms got such a kick out of seeing the two objects following one another. I told them I'd let them all know when the next interesting night sky event is happening! Meteor showers in August? Dana, if popcorn is for the ISS / shuttle spotting, what do I serve for meteor showers? :p

I wish the shuttle crew all the best as they make their return tomorrow! I hope it is sunny skies and smooth landings!

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

I'm sorry to say that I missed the ISS (Still blame the houses and trees and being in the middle of a town). But, at the moment of time when I should have been able to see the ISS, I saw a different satellite- FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC. Here is the wiki of the 3 sets of satellites. It was going in the opposite direction and thanks to my software, I was able to identify it. Very impressive satellite, I must say.
Here's a picture.

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

I saw the two flying about an outstretched fist apart. Straight down my (short) driveway, west to east. (Not near the Moon at all.) I've got tall trees all around, but they dodged them all, and the clouds, too.

The first one was brighter, and I thought it was the ISS, being bigger and all, but it was the Shuttle. Must be because of the doors being open.

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

In our view, they passed under the moon, but with the arc it was sort of near the moon. All the sky watch websites I found said the ISS was first and the Shuttle was second. Did you see it described differently somewhere?

Thanks a lot Seth (cooker52), now I'll be out watching for the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC to go by.:eek:

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

My sister is one of the original Challenger Center for Space Science Education Fellows and is always letting me know about things like this. She and my mom stopped overnight for a visit last night and as soon as they hopped out of the car they started pointing out Venus, etc. and sure enough, the ISS and Shuttle came into view! It was truly awesome.
I'm hoping when my kids are parents they will tell their kids about how I would let them stay up late and lay in the backyard to watch for planets, etc. (With my luck they'll probably tell my grandkids how I never did any housecleaning! :rolleyes: )

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

Tonight in the New York area, FORMOSAT 3 rise in the in the North North Eastern sky around 9:05 ish and leave in the East North Eastern sky around 9:25 ish. Don't expect this to be fully correct. For this is in the New York area without any specific towns, so it's very ruff.

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

The NASA video. Or at least I thought I heard it that way. Guess I wasn't paying attention to closely.:o I'm glad my observation intuition was better than my listening.

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

The Shuttle is Still Flying! Bad weather has forced the shuttle to stay out one more day. Lucky for us! We might get one more chance to see the flyover! It looks like there will be a significant distance between the two, maybe even up to a minute apart.

So I haven't had a chance to get to a computer which will allow me to watch the crew in action. What do they do with an extra day? Are they all sitting around twiddling their thumbs? Bouncing off the walls? :rolleyes:

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

Maybe they leave the bouncing to us on the ground -

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sh...ain/index.html
This might give you something to look at for a little while. :)

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

Getting ready to land at Edwards! The convoy of equipment is parading out. KFC -- er, KSC is too cloudy and rainy to land. 3:49pm EDT landing.

In the history of commercial airplanes, which probably has the closest parallel to spaceflight, there were the pre-commercial flights -- rich (or maybe stupid) people that needed to get from one far place to another. Then the "named" flights. I have a Peter Whimsey book where he flew from the US to UK at the very last minute to save the day. "I took the Victoria," he said, and everybody acted like they knew exactly what the Victoria's schedule was. Then flights became more common, but you got dressed up and it was exciting and you were treated like a king. That eventually went into numbered flights, and rushing to catch the plane and cattle cars and all the rest. (We'll gloss over the dark cloud it has currently become.) My grandmother was born in the Wright Brothers era, and flew (probably her first time) in the 1960s, and loved it, visiting all her relatives that way.

The Shuttle is still in Whimsey's day -- the Atlantis is coming in, depending on the weather, he would have said. Rich people can book a flight, but only for special reasons. Someday it'll be like 2001: A Space Odyssey, expensive but commonplace, like my grandmother travelling cross-country to far-away California.

I hope I don't have to wait too long.

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It's Landed! I'm kind of bumed to not have heard the BOOM though...

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They're baaaaack!

Wheel stop was about 45 seconds ago. :D

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And they're still on page 5 of the manual.

Now comes the long wait for an open slot at a gate.

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

It took about an hour for the "gate" to come to them and be loaded. I am pretty sure that that was more like section 5, page___.

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I'm really glad to hear that it landed in California, mainly due to the fact that last November I got to sit in the captains seat of the airplane that "piggy backs" the shuttle back to Florida. In the pic is Rufus Cochran (447) and myself.

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The shuttle finally made it back to KSC.

Next flight is August 7th!

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ugh. I am Disappointed it landed in California... I love the sonic booms... even worse I got to work 20 minutes after the 747 landed at the landing facility. Oh Well, Rollout (of the vehicle assembly building to the launchpad) for Endeavor will be next Wednesday. Can't wait to see Endeavor again, it hasn't been in space for over 4 years!

Re: The Shuttle is Flying!
 

Here's an older but still good picture of the Shuttle riding the back of a 747 (Astronomy Pic o' the Day).

Ha! Who says they don't have any fun? (wiki pic detail at attach point.)