Lift-off is scheduled for 2007 Jun 08 at 23:38:02 UTC. Spaceflight Now reports that, "forecasters now predict an 80 percent chance of good weather at launch time": http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts117/status.html NASA's estimated elements are available at the following URL. They take into account all planned manoeuvres, and are revised throughout the mission, as required. http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/JavaSSOP/orbit/SHUTTLE/SVPOST.html As usual, NASA's MECO (main engine cut-off) 2-line elset is unreliable for predicting visibility on the first pass over Europe, because it predicts nearly double the correct altitude: 1 99117U 07160.04256747 .00014500 00000-0 95600-4 0 9002 2 99117 51.6339 146.4529 0057288 349.0165 10.9798 16.70528064 20 so I have generated the following by converting NASA's True of Day Rotating (TDR) [aka Earth-Fixed Greenwich (EFG)] Cartesian state vector to SGP4, using Ken Ernandes' VEC2TLE program, and added realistic decay terms for the brief duration of existence of the orbit, from Jun 08, 23:48:30 UTC (MECO) to Jun 09, 00:16:58 UTC: MECO 1 99999U 07159.99201389 .01000000 40444-5 44382-6 0 00 2 99999 51.6339 146.7465 0132784 348.8013 68.9735 16.48549729 02 According to these elements, from the vantage point of the U.K., the shuttle will enter eclipse just as it rises above the horizon. Our web site has a link to Ken's program: http://www.satobs.org/orbsoft.html#Other Ted Molczan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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