RE: STS-114 reentry path

From: Bob Hart (bobh@newmexico.com)
Date: Fri Aug 05 2005 - 10:34:47 EDT

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    I think they've committed to a southern approach as they've staged their
    airborne camera platform to Central America, according to Hale at a news
    conference Wednesday.
    
    bOb
    -----Original Message-----
    From: fenske@rgfpc.electro.swri.edu [mailto:fenske@rgfpc.electro.swri.edu]
    On Behalf Of rfenske@swri.org
    Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 7:58 AM
    To: Louis Carrier
    Cc: SeeSat-L@satobs.org
    Subject: Re: STS-114 reentry path
    
    
    
     	The Shuttle's reentry path will always be roughly along a path that 
    is the same inclination as it's mission orbit.  For the landing there's two 
    choices: coming in from the north or from the south.  With the ISS orbital
    inclination of 51 deg. the reentry path will be more north/south than 
    east/west.  So it either has to come in over the central/east USA or over
    the 
    Gulf of Mexico.  They've used both for previos missions.  I don't know if 
    there's now a deliberate plan to only approach from the south, but a landing
    
    from the south is consistent with what's been done in the past.
    
     	Columbia was the favored Shuttle for the lower inclination missions 
    (including the HST servicing missions) because it takes less energy to reach
    
    the more equatorial orbits and it was the heaviest of the four.  So when it 
    reentered from the north its ground track would cover a broad of the USA, as
    
    it did during its last and fatal reentry (which I witnessed).
    
    
    On Fri, 5 Aug 2005, Louis Carrier wrote:
    
    > and looking at the orbital plane for those times,
    > it seems the orbiter won't fly over much of the USA
    > as did Columbia but mostly over water (unpopulated areas)
    > and shortly over Central America or Mexico.
    >
    > Am I right in saying so?
    > If yes, is it a new procedure consecutive to the
    > Columbia disater or is it a regular one?
    
    
    Robert Fenske, Jr.   rfenske@swri.edu    Sw     |The Taming the C*sm*s
    series:
    Southwest Research Institute            /R---\  |
    Signal Exploitation & Geolocation Div  | I    | |"The Martian canals were
    the
    San Antonio,Texas USA  ph:210-522-3931  \----/  | Martians' last ditch
    effort."
    
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