STS-96 was sighted on second orbit from Qantas Flight 101, VH-OJL "City of Ballarat", Auckland-Los Angeles. Position N18 55, W137 55. Aircraft track 036m. Altitude 35000ft. Time 27/1353UTC. First seen 4 o'clock, elevation mag 1, . Passed ahead to 12 o'clock, faded at elev 25d against approaching sunrise. External tank reentry was looked for but not seen on previous orbit. Predicted impact zone was SE-NE of aircraft position below horizon as per NOTAM. Predictions and real-time monitoring were done running STSOrbit Plus (thanks Dave), using post-OMS2 preflight predicted tles (thanks Ken) on a Dell Inspiron notebook (thanks Michael). Captain Peter Hunter. (sent on arrival Los Angeles).