Ariane launch visible from E US

From: Michael Waterman (mike.waterman@web-hq.com)
Date: Wed May 01 2002 - 15:14:53 EDT


On the night of May 3/4 an Ariane rocket should launch
the Spot 5 satellite into sun-synchronous orbit from Kourou.

Launch will be nominally at 01:31:46 UT May 4 (= 9:31:46 pm EDT May 3).
If delayed the launch will be 12min or 18 min later;
or the same 3 times on later days.

Launch will be northwards into a near-circular sun-synchronous orbit,
and last part of the launch will be visible from the eastern US and
Canada. The rocket will be to the east of M America, travelling
northwards. 
The elevations below are for a nominal launch time, but will be
similar for the later launch times.

Column T-H0 = time from launch in minutes
       LongE,Lat are longitude & latitude of the rocket
       Ht = height in km
       Sun = angle of sun above horizon for the rocket
       CC = Cape Canaveral -81,28.5    ) Elevation of
       CH = Charleston SC  -79.93,32.77) the rocket
       WI = Wallops island -75.4,37.9  ) above horizon
       NY = New York       -74,40.75   ) 
       BO = Boston         -71,42.3    ) 

 T-H0 LongE   Lat   Ht   Sun  CC  CH  WI  NY  BO
  0.0 -52.7   5.2   -0 -54.4 -18 -19 -19 -20 -20
 10.0 -53.4  16.9  632 -23.2  -3  -4  -3  -5  -4
 11.0 -53.6  19.0  681 -20.7  -1  -2  -1  -2  -2
 12.0 -53.8  21.2  721 -18.4   0   0   1   0   1
 13.0 -54.1  23.5  751 -16.1   2   2   4   3   4
 14.0 -54.4  25.9  773 -13.7   3   4   6   6   7
 15.0 -54.8  28.5  788 -11.2   5   6   9   9  10
 16.0 -55.3  31.3  796  -8.6   5   7  12  12  14
 17.0 -56.0  34.3  801  -5.9   6   9  15  16  19
 18.0 -56.9  37.5  802  -2.8   6   9  18  20  24
 18.5 -57.4  39.2  802  -1.2   6  10  19  22  27 Cutoff
 19.0 -58.0  41.0  801   0.4   5  10  19  23  30
 20.0 -59.3  44.5  801   3.8   4   9  19  25  33
 25.0 -68.5  61.7  798  20.6  -6  -3   3   7   9
 26.7 -73.9  67.3  798  26.3 -10  -7  -2   1   2

At 18.5min after launch the rocket stops firing and so will 
disappear from view, but shortly after the rocket + attached
payloads come into sunlight, and so will be visible again.

I will be at the launch site, and will lose sight of the
rocket maybe 13min after liftoff.

mike.waterman@marconi.com
mike.waterman@web-hq.com


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