NASA posts the reentry ground tracks 24-48 hours before landing. The reason they aren't available sooner is because they simply are not produced sooner. They don't waste time generating ground track estimates until they get within 24-48 hours from landing. You can easily make pretty close predictions from the orbit and landing time but the details in the last few hundred miles vary widely. The shuttle has over 1000 mi cross-track capability. Both scheduled landing times bring it in over Central America which has been the norm for years. The Columbia track was a little out of the ordinary and they haven't had a descending reentry across the US since about 1994 when they used to come down over the NW and upper Midwest. From past experience I would bet that the first landing opportunity track comes up the Florida east coast and loops around and the second crosses the state from the Gulf but doesn't go over the SW US at all. All the old actual and alternate ground tracks are online in the mission histories for comparison. Dale > -----Original Message----- > From: Louis Carrier [mailto:lcarrier@cegepbceapp.qc.ca] > Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 6:27 AM > To: SeeSat-L@satobs.org > Subject: STS-114 reentry path > > Hello, > > According to the estimated landing times for a KSC touchdown: > 2005-08-08 04:37 EDT > 2005-08-08 06:12 EDT > ref: http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/launch/index.html > > 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? > > > After a quick search I was unable to find any document > describing the reentry path. > (even in the "Mission STS-114 Press Kit" ) > > Any comment? > > Louis Carrier > St-Georges, Quebec, Canada > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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