STS-114 MECO Arc Sun Transit

From: Gerhard HOLTKAMP (grd.holtkamp@t-online.de)
Date: Mon Jul 25 2005 - 15:42:05 EDT

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    Using Ted Molzcan's MECO TLE's for Discovery's launch (why can't NASA come up 
    with proper MECO TLE's - I get correct results with their state vector but 
    their respective TLE's are all over the place! Should we recommend Ken 
    Ernades' VEC2TLE program to them?) I get the following times and places where 
    a transit of Discovery and the External Tank in front of the Sun would be 
    visible (times are in UTC):
    
    14:58:30	52.193	-7.461
    14:59:00	51.829	-4.164
    14:59:30	51.371	-0.920
    15:00:00	50.822	2.262
    15:00:30	50.184	5.374
    15:01:00	49.462	8.409
    15:01:30	48.659	11.365
    15:02:00	47.779	14.240
    15:02:30	46.825	17.033
    15:03:00	45.802	19.748
    15:03:30	44.711	22.389
    15:04:00	43.556	24.962
    15:04:30	42.338	27.476
    15:05:00	41.057	29.942
    15:05:30	39.715	32.377
    15:06:00	38.306	34.801
    15:06:30	36.825	37.245
    15:07:00	35.260	39.758
    15:07:30	33.581	42.430
    15:08:00	31.722	45.457
    15:08:30	29.435	49.537
    
    The observation would be most challenging at the Western part of this line 
    where the transit last a mere 0.4 second and you have to be within about a 1 
    km of the central line. Conditions are more relaxed toward the East. In 
    Turkey the transit lasts 1 second and it's enough to be within 3 km of the 
    central line. How accurate the actual insertion at MECO is and what would 
    happen if the launch gets delayed toward the end of its window I don't really 
    know. 
    
    In the two days that follow Sun transits of the ISS and Discovery can be 
    observed at selected locations in the Northern hemisphere. Currently it looks 
    like I might be able to see a transit of the ISS followed a few seconds later 
    by a transit of Discovery from my very hometown on 28-JUL-05. Let's hope they 
    don't mess up the launch again!
    
    Gerhard HOLTKAMP
    Darmstadt, Germany
    
    
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