I saw an early sign of this several weeks ago. Several months ago I submitted an 'opportunity for improvement' to the KSC website requesting information about ascent profiles and viewing opportunities for ISS missions similar to what is posted for the landings. (a generic launch profile (from sts88?) is floating around and is periodically reposted on this group.) I got a response asking for clarification of what I wanted. I explained, even making a point to connect it with educational opportunities and stimulating young minds yadayadayada. Time passed. There was a terrorist attack on the US east coast. A few weeks ago I finally got a response stating that this information would not be provided due to security concerns. I realized the uselessness of trying to continue the discussion. The PAO was not responsible and could not do anything in any case. I did not contrast the differing policies for landing and launch viewing. In both cases the Shuttle is vulnerable to the lightweight, portable weapons such as those the US itself has sold to its 'enemies' only when within ~20 km of the launch/landing site. Hopefully this will blow over fairly soon. While living in Tucson I've seen several Shuttle entries including the recent STS109. Tucson (at 32.25 N) is in a marginal location for this view of 28.5 degree missions, the visibility being highly dependent on the direction of the first roll maneuver. This one had the as high an elevation as I can remember, between 15 - 20 deg. My time here was interupted by 4 years in Maryland near DC. While there, I was never able to view a high inclination launch, though others in the area have successfully observed and reported on this list. In the meantime... ISS is just about the only place the Shuttle launches to anymore. They launch when the launch site passes through the station's orbital plane. But keep it quiet. Richard Clark rclark@lpl.arizona.edu On Tue, 19 Mar 2002, a thread got started: > > > >>Hello, > >> > >>I just heard on television that launch times for Space Shuttles will not > >>be announced anymore untill 24 hours before launch. > >> > >>Is this true ? > >> > > http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/03/18/ret.shuttle.security.ap/index.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Mar 19 2002 - 12:09:36 EST