Re: Saw Mir & STS-86

Philip Chien (kc4yer@amsat.org)
Sun, 28 Sep 1997 07:01:49 -0400

cyberkil <cyberkil@fcol.com> said:

>i also had the shuttle ahead of mir on my tracking program the last few hours
>before docking. i couldnt find a reacent tle after there last burn so i
>gave up
>and used the mir's vectors.

Like I've said many times - as a general rule when Mir and the shuttle are
docked, they tend to have the same location in space +- a few meters.  ;-)

The NASA site http://www.nasa.gov/ includes *predicted* keps based on
nominal maneuvers.  So you can generate predictions well in advance
assuming things go nominally.

Once the shuttle does its Ti burn the shuttle and Mir are effectively in
the same orbit with just a small separation.


>i use stsplus to track mir and the shuttles.
>is this the best program to use when tracking satellites?

best is subjective.  Different programs have different features.  What's
amusing is there's a copy of STS Plus on a public access Internet computer
at the Kennedy Space Center press site.  It just happened to show up on
that computer after I was using it one day.  hmmm, wonder how that happened.

Occasionally I'll leave STS Plus running - and it never ceases to amaze me
how many reporters and other visitors are astonished that the computer is
showing where Mir is - even when the net's down.

>by the way, it has been raining here nonstop since friday morning.
>no chance of seeing anything this weekend. darn, i have aos for the
>docked the mir and shuttle coming up in 54 minutes.  met-1:24:00:00

yeah, me too for Saturday.  But Sunday morning made it worthwhile -
excellent pass.  Too bad the weather didn't cooperate on Saturday, it would
have been nice to see the shuttle approaching Mir.



Philip Chien [M1959.05.31/31.145//KC4YER@amsat.org]