The space shuttle just flew over my house!

The space shuttle and the space station both were visible zooming thru the sky tonight at approx. 10 PM.

I had never seen it before so we all went outside to watch, and sure enough a bright light came out of the northwest moving fast, flew right over my house and continued on out of sight.

Then 2 minutes later the space station came hurtling thru the sky. Right over my house and then it was gone.

Awesome.

Anybody else see it?




[edit on 7/5/06 by makeitso]

You can find accurate information about the flyovers from Heavens-Above.

I've been an avid "watcher" of the space shuttle and the International space station for a number of years. Seeing the pin-point of light moving rapidly across the sky has never failed to thrill. It's the realization that human beings are, well, "up there" in space that always seems to excite and give me goose bumps. I'm sure that you must have felt the same when you saw your first pass over.

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I saw the SS Columbia that fateful Saturday morning as it
flew over NE Texas !!

It was flying low and had a vapor trail coming from it.
I saw something small and shiney following behind it... debri ?

A couple of minutes after it passed my area, it exploded !







[edit on 6-7-2006 by Ivanova]

[edit: removed unnecessary quote of Entire previous post]

I had told a friend over and over before the SS Columbia launched
that it was doomed... when it launched successfully, he gloated and
said, now will you shut up !... to which I replied.... well, it hasn't landed
safely YET !!

The rest is history !




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Quoting – Please Review This Link.

[edit on 7/6/2006 by 12m8keall2c]

Originally posted by Ivanova
I had told a friend over and over before the SS Columbia launched that it was doomed... when it launched successfully, he gloated and said, now will you shut up !... to which I replied.... well, it hasn't landed safely YET !!

I'm sorry, but I fail to see why that's something to gloat about... :shk:

Originally posted by Ivanova
[edit: removed unnecessary quote of Entire previous post]

I had told a friend over and over before the SS Columbia launched
that it was doomed... when it launched successfully, he gloated and
said, now will you shut up !... to which I replied.... well, it hasn't landed
safely YET !!

The rest is history !

Since when did the columbia become a gloating/laughing matter?

Originally posted by Mouth
Since when did the columbia become a gloating/laughing matter?

It never did - I think you need to reread Ivanova's post.

Anyway I really want to see it pass over my house - im in the UK does anyone know if I can expect to see it any time soon? I watched the launch on NASA TV, but it doesnt compare to actually being on a beach, 15 miles from the launchpad watching Discovery launch with hundreds of people like I did when I was 15.

spaceflight1.nasa.gov is cool. The page may take 10-40 seconds to load.

sanc

Oh, and there's also Real Time Satellite Tracking.

Originally posted by jimi


I think you need to reread Ivanova's post.

Yes, the trolls here have a habit of mis-reading my posts... on purpose

And, don't get me started on the control freak moderators



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Thanks for the links cmdrkeenkid.

I meant to watch them both pass overhead tonight since they joined up, but I got busy and forgot.


BH, it was a thrill, and the kids liked it too, along with the lightning bugs of course.


[edit on 7/6/06 by makeitso]

i just saw it a couple minutes ago,passed right over my state.
It moves pretty fast i only say it for like 45 seconds.

i tried to take pics but ive got a crappy camera

I have seen them (shuttle and ISS), for the first time - the size of the light was like a medium star, it crossed the sky in a couple of minutes, went just under the moon and dissapeared in the SE sky. The visibility was fair, no clouds but not completely clear. I guess people who have telescopes could have seen much more. Still, it was exciting.
Can anybody explain how they get to go that fast? Do the engines bring them to that speed, gravity? It is amazing...

Oh, I forgot: I live in a SW suburb of Chicago

Originally posted by swimmer
The visibility was fair, no clouds but not completely clear. I guess people who have telescopes could have seen much more. Still, it was exciting.

Maybe with a decent set of binoculars and some experience behind them. Sats are actually rather hard to track manually with a telescope, even the bigger ones.

Can anybody explain how they get to go that fast? Do the engines bring them to that speed, gravity? It is amazing...

It's kind of a combination of the two. The engines get the craft moving, but they're litterally falling around the planet, being kept in place by the motion of moving in a circle. Despite that, due to atmospheric drag and a number of other things, the crafts will slow down and the orbits move closer to Earth. That's why having the Shuttles service the ISS is so important - it's the only craft powerful enough to boost the ISS to a higher orbit.

I hope that that makes sense, I'm a bit tired, so if not I'm sorry.

Yep, I saw them both last night. First the ISS went by and was very bright, -2.0 magnitude, then the shuttle came a few minutes later. I've seen the ISS many times, but the shuttle was a first for me.

I heard a little transmission from it when its first passed over

The SS is due to return on July 17

A very interesting date.

The date of the G8 Summit in St Petersburg.

The [Gregorian] date of the murder of Russia's Tsar by the bolsheviks.


The SS launched on July 4 - same day as NK missiles.

It's due to return 13 days later, July 17

According to the Tsarist Russian Orthodox Church [Julian] calendar,
which is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar, July 17 = July 4.



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[edit on 9-7-2006 by Ivanova]

Originally posted by Ivanova

The SS is due to return on July 17

A very interesting date.

I'm not into numerology at all. One can pick just about almost any date in history and find something interesting to compare to. So I never really understand the significance of doing that. But with that said, on July 17th, 1975 was the date when the US and Russia did a joint mission together in space. Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 docked together in space. Just thought I'd mention that since it's space related

Originally posted by jra

on July 17th, 1975 was the date when the US and Russia did a joint mission together in space. Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 docked together in space.

This July 17 may turn out quite differently !