This updates my message of 2002 Nov 24. Observers at mid Northern and Southern hemisphere latitudes will have an excellent opportunity to observe STS 113 in close proximity to ISS after undocking on Monday 2002 Dec 02 UTC. Here are the scheduled times of the key events: Undocking 20:05 UTC Final Separation 21:01 UTC Separation will occur too late for European observers, but just in time for North American observers, who will have the closest proximity passes. For example, the Toronto pass will be SW to NE; the Shuttle will culminate 61 deg above the SE horizon at 22:29:28 UTC EST. ISS will trail by 1.8 seconds (of time). Their greatest angular separation, which occurs at culmination, will be 1.70 deg. This same pass will be visible throughout south-eastern Canada and north-eastern USA. Locations farther west will see later passes. In general, the best passes will occur between about 35 N and 50 N, but observable passes will occur well outside that range. I have not looked at the southern hemisphere in detail, but observers near 35 S appear to have good passes, though well after undocking, by which time the separation will have grown. Observers should make predictions for their locations using the following projected elements, issued by NASA on 2002 Nov 27, which take into account the three ISS re-boosts, which have been completed successfully, and the shuttle's subsequent undocking and separation burn: ISS 1 25544U 98067A 02337.18350675 .00041100 00000-0 34010-3 0 9076 2 25544 51.6346 284.4496 0004353 213.7015 146.3863 15.56697788 10439 STS 113 1 27556U 02052A 02336.92670261 .00088000 00000-0 11500-3 0 9076 2 27556 51.6316 285.7320 0006208 225.8860 134.1784 15.57208311 1409 Judging by the latest state vectors, the projected elements are likely to be 10 to 15 s too early for Monday predictions. Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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