[TriLUG] OT -- NASA Shuttle Launch Today

Joseph Mack NA3T jmack at wm7d.net
Fri Jul 8 13:15:46 EDT 2011


On Fri, 8 Jul 2011, Warren Myers wrote:

I'm sure a TSA pat down is involved somewhere.

> My guess is that since they can't know the actual launch 
> time in advance (eg, today it was !2:30 late), that timing 
> the arrival is more complex

Early launches to the ISS had a window of just under 
+/-1min. Outside that I'd assumed that you wouldn't have 
enough fuel to get to the ISS. The delay today was outside 
the window of the earlier launches

> The ISS orbits in a plane that is not optimal for launches 
> from Kennedy to reach, but is instead a compromise to 
> allow Soyuz launches from Baikonur.  It takes time for the 
> small OMS thrusters on the Shuttle tomake the needed 
> changes to the orbit.

A shuttle launch to the ISS is at an inclination of 51.6deg,

http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/nasafact/tal.htm

(which is why you can see the shuttle on a night launch to 
the ISS from anywhere on the East coast). This is the same 
as the inclination of the ISS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station

so no plane change is required. A plane change is enormously 
expensively energetically, and AFAIK aren't feasible.

The lat of Baikonur I just found is 45.9551.

http://www.spacetoday.org/Rockets/Spaceports/LaunchSites.html#Baikonur

I'd assumed the inclination of the ISS was the lat of 
Baikonur, so I don't know what's going on there.

Joe

-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
generator at http://www.wm7d.net/azproj.shtml
Homepage http://www.austintek.com/ It's GNU/Linux!



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