Does anybody have access to preliminary TLEs for the upcoming Shuttle
mission? Back in the 1980s and 90s, I used to have a contact at NASA Johnson
Space Center who would fax me an entire series of TLEs prior to those Shuttle
missions that were of high-inclination. I would use them to run a preliminary
sighting schedule; the schedule almost always had to be "tweaked" because it was
rare that a launch would go exactly on schedule, but at least I had a fairly
good handle on my tv weathercasts as to when I could alert viewers as to when
they might see the Shuttle.
I would assume that upon liftoff from Florida, the ISS will be running
roughly 15 to 20 minutes "ahead" of the Shuttle. Here on the US East Coast, I
suspect that we might have a chance to see STS-114 trailing roughly that many
minutes behind the ISS on Wednesday evening and about half that amount on
Thursday evening. By Friday evening, both ISS and the orbiter should be docked and
will appear as a singular object.
-- joe rao
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