STS-116 is scheduled for launch at 9:35 Eastern time on Thursday (for those of you who don’t read blog post titles). This is a mission to the space station (they all will be except for the one to Hubble in 2008). The weather may scrub the launch for now, with only a 40% chance of launch.
Still, if it goes off, it’ll be a night launch, which is cool. The one Shuttle launch I have seen — which lifted a camera I worked on for Hubble — was at 3:00 a.m. and it was spectacular. BABloggee Daniel Crawford let me know that this launch tonight (if it launches on time) should be viewable all up and down the east coast of the US. He also told me this launch is similar to one that happened in September 1997 when the Shuttle met up with the Mir space station. Back then, some timings were posted to a satellite observers group. The launch trajectory for this mission does look pretty similar, so I’m thinking the timings should be pretty close.
If you want to see the Shuttle on its way up, check that page and make sure you get out a few minutes before the time it says, just to make sure — in other words, immediately after launch. The page gives the time in minutes after launch you can see it at its highest from your location, that height above the horizon in degrees, and the azimuth (0 = north, 90 = east, 180 = south, 270 = west). For most of those locations, the Shuttle will be pretty low to the horizon, and towards the southeast. Make sure you have a clear horizon in that direction or you’ll miss it.
Again, the mission has a pretty big chance of being scrubbed, so keep your ears open for the news.
December 7th, 2006 at 9:07 am
Could someone explain why the track looks like an arc, when the shuttle is clearly not headed back to earth. I’m sure it has something to do with the curvature of the earth, but after that I’m lost.
Also, I’d swear that I saw a trail from a rocket launch at Vandenberg that did a loop-clearly impossible.
Thanks
December 7th, 2006 at 9:14 am
Did it go? I have been kind of news impaired for the last couple hours.
December 7th, 2006 at 10:32 am
“Could someone explain why the track looks like an arc”
The shuttle flies more away than up. At the end of that track, the shuttle is hundreds of miles away, and farther above the ground *there* than it was when it was over your head, but the ground at that point is below the level of your feet. As it flies around Earth’s curve, it *is* going down from your point of view!
Any old airplane does this. It gets closer to your horizon as it flies away.
December 7th, 2006 at 11:27 am
I have seen several Shuttle launches and the ones near sunset are the best!
I was teaching community college in Florida and a shuttle launch was scheduled to take place during my class (an early evening class). I mentioned it at the beginning of class and several students didn’t know you could see a shuttle launch from the west coast of Florida! I asked and most of them hadn’t seen a launch, so we went out toward the end of class and saw the launch.
I live in Arizona now, but can still see launches from Vandenberg sometimes.
Rob
December 7th, 2006 at 11:30 am
I was lucky enough to see the launch of STS-113 a few years ago, another night launch (see http://wading-in.net/STS-113.html). Just awesome.
December 7th, 2006 at 11:33 am
http://users.adelphia.net/~alexmcconahay/Miscel/Miscelsindex.html
There is a good example of “loop the loop” behaviour.
It is pretty hard to explain, but this picture has 4 wind zones. The ones at lower altitude, closer to the camera, appear to move faster because they cause more visible shift than the upper altitude winds. Thing of it as a straight line with the wind blowing curves into it. Big curves near you, small curves far away. The rocket is covering a lot of distance in these pictures, so it intersects a lot of wind regions.
ps. I have seen a rocket go “loop de loop.” (And there is some great archive film somewhere I will have to dig up.)
December 7th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Got NASA TV on now, and just looked at the website.
Things are still go, but I personally don’t think it’ll launch tonight (unless by chance the weather clears up enough).
Thanks to my viewing of the STEREO launch, I at least know where in the sky to look. I wonder how the shuttle will appear compared to that one.
Good luck to the Discovery!
December 7th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
Sorry, that posted before I was ready.
I was lucky enough to see the launch of STS-113 a few years ago, another night launch (see http://wading-in.net/STS-113.html). Just awesome. My viewing angle from across the Indian River Lagoon placed the launch complex, brilliantly floodlit, not too far away from the Vehicle Assembly Building, which sticks out of the Florida landscape like a block on the carpet.
Since the shuttle was going that time for an ISS orbit, it arced to the northeast, almost directly away from me. I watched it well past SRB separation, and wished I’d set a second camera to get something along the same lines as Ben Wang did in the example shot BA posted. The path of the shuttle came straight back down and disappeared from sight, finally, less than two degrees directly above the VAB. Of course, I had no idea at the time it would do this.
If anyone in that area has the chance and wants to try it, set up at the boat ramp on US 1 just north of the power station between Cocoa and Titusville (I can’t locate the name, but put “N28.475080 W80.766683″ into Google maps for a precise location). The view should be great, and from the sounds of things, a very similar path will be followed as the shuttle inserts to orbit.
Meanwhile, I’ll see what there is to see from North Carolina, bummer.
December 7th, 2006 at 3:08 pm
I’ll be watching from Deerfield Beach, FL, a few hour’s drive south of Titusville and Cocoa Beach (home, of course, to Major Nelson and Jeannie).
It is partly cloudy here, though, so even if there is a launch, I may not get a clear view.
I saw the Chandra shuttle launch a bunch of years ago, so I know I can see a launch from my back yard under good seeing conditions.
December 7th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
Ah, I wish I lived on the East Coast. And I would love to see a shuttle launch in person one day.
December 7th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
NASA has a Launch Blog which is updating in near real time.
December 7th, 2006 at 7:58 pm
Scrubarooni.
Bummer.
December 7th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
Bummer that the launched was scrubbed although selfishly was glad since the skies in New Hampshire are cloudy tonight and would love to get another chance at trying to see the shuttle during its flight into orbit.
Have a question… I was reading an article that was saying that end of year flights have been avoided due to a computer problem reconciling the change from one 365 day year to another…. I know it takea a long time to “certify” a computer for orbital duty but is this a software prolem that dates back to Y2K or some other anomoly?…. Just curious.
Clear skies
December 9th, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Many thanks to BA for posting that link to the visibility info. I was able to get outside tonight with my kids and watch the accelerating past the coast of New Jersey. Lets see a squid do that!