Space Shuttle Launch Visible from East Coast

[vince77]

Space Shuttle Launch Visible from East Coast

People in the eastern United States will get a great opportunity, weather permitting, to see the space shuttle Discovery launched into orbit early Tuesday morning. This flight (STS-128) will be the 30th to rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station (ISS), and the glow of the shuttle's engines will be visible along much of the Eastern Seaboard. A SPACE.com map shows the area of visibility.

To reach the space station, Discovery must be launched when Earth's rotation carries the launch pad into the plane of the station's orbit. For mission STS-128, that will happen at 1:36:05 a.m. ET on Tuesday, resulting (if all goes as planned) in NASA's second nighttime launch of a space shuttle in 2009 (the most recent was March 15).

What to expect

In the Southeast United States, depending on a viewer's distance from Cape Canaveral,Fla., the "stack" (shuttle orbiter, external tank and solid rocket boosters) can be easily followed thanks to the fiery output of the solid rocket boosters. The brilliant light emitted by the two solid rocket boosters will be visible for the first 2 minutes and 4 seconds of the launch out to a radius of some 520 statute miles from the Kennedy Space Center.

After the solid rocket boosters are jettisoned, Discovery will be visible for most locations by virtue of the light emanating from its three main engines. It should appear as a very bright, pulsating, fast-moving star, shining with a yellowish-orange glow. Based on previous night missions, the brightness should be at least equal to magnitude -2; rivaling Sirius, the brightest star in brilliance. Observers who train binoculars on the shuttle should be able to see its tiny V-shaped contrail.

Mid-Atlantic region: Look toward the south about 3 to 6 minutes after launch.
Northeast: Concentrate your gaze low toward the south-southeast about 6 to 8 minutes after launch.
For most viewers, the shuttle will appear to literally skim the horizon, so be sure there are no buildings or trees to obstruct your view.

If the weather is clear the shuttle should be easy to see. It will appear to move very fast; much faster than an orbiting satellite due to its near orbital velocity at low altitudes (30-60 mi). It basically travels across 90 degrees of azimuth in less than a minute.

Discovery will seem to "flicker," then abruptly wink-out 8 minutes and 24 seconds after launch as the main engines shut-down and the huge, orange, external tank (ET) is jettisoned over the Atlantic at a point about 795 statute miles uprange (to the northeast) of Cape Canaveral and some 430 statute miles southeast of New York City. At that moment, Discovery will have risen to an altitude of 341,200 feet (64.6 statute miles), while moving at 17,552 mph (mach 24.6) and should be visible for a radius of about 770 statute miles from the point of Main Engine Cut Off (MECO).

Getting views during the mission

During this 13-day mission, both the shuttle and the International Space Station will be visible during the predawn hours across North America and Europe. Those across the northern US and Canada will have visibility through all 12-days, but those across the southern states will only have views during the last several days of the mission.

During the mornings of Aug. 25 and 26 and Sept. 5 and 6, it may be possible to see Discovery and the ISS as two separate entities, appearing as bright moving "stars," At all other times during the mission, you'll see only one singular bright moving star, as that will be when the two space vehicles are docked together.

[Severa]

Unfortunately, the launch was scrubbed this evening (FL summer weather)
They're going to try again at 1:05am Wed.

[Bann (Premo)]

I won't be up to see the launch when they try again - too late/early for me! But when I lived outside of Jacksonville, we could see the launches when they went off at night. It looked like a Roman candle in the sky!! Awesome, even 2-1/2 hours away!

[dgates80 (Premo)]

What tool do you prefer to use to predict viewing times / angles? I am familiar witht he various sites to predict on orbit passes but not with launch viewing. Also with the 24 hr push, are updated launch ground tracks available?

Thanks!