Space Shuttle observation

I drug the kids out into the front yard this evening and we got to see the Space shuttle and the ISS pass overhead. It was way cool and awe inspiring to me. The kids thought it was pretty cool too.
They were both surprisingly bright and you could see them disappear when they reached the point where the earth blocked the sun.

OH NOOOOOOOO! You drugged your kids......

Just kidding...

You still believe in that whole "we went to outer space" thing?

Damn Squirrels said:

You still believe in that whole "we went to outer space" thing?

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Hey. I have to believe in something at this point...

That is a pretty cool experience. I remember waking up early in the morning a couple times years ago to do that, although at that time it was only the shuttle.

I remember watching the Echo satellites go over back in the early '60s. I've seen both the shuttle & ISS, but never together.

Was it visible nationwide? Bummer regardless. Lost of cloud cover here the last two days...


Wonder if anyone at Nasa ever thought of making zero gravity beer?





Sorry, it's early and I'm tired....


Ize

When I was a kid we used to vacation in Northern Maine, we'd sit outside and watch the satellites pass overhead all night long.

Once watched a night liftoff of the shuttle, from about 5 miles away on Cocoa Beach. Awesome, awesome sight. Everything dark and quiet, then suddenly the whole sky to the east lights up like it's sunrise, then a second or two later the roar. Then within a couple minutes, it's gone far enough, fast enough that you can't see it any more.

Ize said:

Was it visible nationwide? Bummer regardless. Lost of cloud cover here the last two days...


Wonder if anyone at Nasa ever thought of making zero gravity beer?





Sorry, it's early and I'm tired....


Ize

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Papazian has a wierd, involved chapter in one of his books about what brewing beer in space would be like.

jerly said:

Papazian has a wierd, involved chapter in one of his books about what brewing beer in space would be like.

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Im pretty sure they recently gave that shot. But it didnt really work.

Ize said:

Was it visible nationwide? Bummer regardless. Lost of cloud cover here the last two days...


Ize

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Well the Shuttle has landed but you can still see the ISS. Here's a web site that will help you determine when it will be visible at your location:
http://www.heavens-above.com/

Was glad to see that it made it in safely. I have a hard time trusting NASA when they say don't worry about it. Their lax attitude toward things has already cost us 14 lives since 1986.

The thing that p!sses me off is that the shuttle never had any problems with foam coming off the external fuel tank and damaging the orbiter during the launch before the nutbag environmentalists lobbied congress to outlaw the use of CFC's in the manufacture of polystyrene foam. I can see not using it in the manufacture of foam for public consumption, like refrigerators and such, but to be directly responsible for the deaths of seven astronauts and risking the lives of many more, it's unconscionable!

I'm sorry John, but you're logic seems questionable.

johnsma22 said:

The thing that p!sses me off is that the shuttle never had any problems with foam coming off the external fuel tank and damaging the orbiter during the launch before the nutbag environmentalists lobbied congress to outlaw the use of CFC's in the manufacture of polystyrene foam.

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Not actually true, the foam has been falling off for years, they just didn't think it caused any damage until the Columbia disaster. Now it is something they are actively looking for so they are finding it hitting the shuttle all the time. Also they outfitted the shuttle with a means of inspecting the tiles while in space (something it did not have prior to the Columbia explosion) so they are detecting damage (and reporting it in the media) that they would not have known about before even if it was there.

I'm not saying the enviros don't sometimes go overboard with things, just saying I don't think we can blame them for this one.

The kids and I went to Disney World and on a cruise in January 2003 and saw the Columbia take off. It was an amazing sight. We were so sad when the disaster occurred two weeks later- it seemed so awesome and invulnerable when we watched it lift off. Quite a sight!

McKBrew said:

Was glad to see that it made it in safely. I have a hard time trusting NASA when they say don't worry about it. Their lax attitude toward things has already cost us 14 lives since 1986.

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I have a hard time trusting the government when they keep saying 'trust us on Iraq' while thousands of our soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians have died....makes 14 seem sort of irrelevant.

ColoradoXJ13 said:

I have a hard time trusting the government when they keep saying 'trust us on Iraq' while thousands of our soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians have died....makes 14 seem sort of irrelevant.

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Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Maybe my thinking is different being in the military, but I look at the War on Terror in a different light. Basically if we take on the enemy over there, they won't be as likely to come over here.

ColoradoXJ13 said:

I have a hard time trusting the government when they keep saying 'trust us on Iraq' while thousands of our soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians have died....makes 14 seem sort of irrelevant.

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McKBrew said:

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Maybe my thinking is different being in the military, but I look at the War on Terror in a different light. Basically if we take on the enemy over there, they won't be as likely to come over here.

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and all I wanted to do was talk about how cool it is to see the shuttle and the ISS pass over head. Maybe get some other folks to go out in their back yards and see it.

Yooper Chick said:

The kids and I went to Disney World and on a cruise in January 2003 and saw the Columbia take off. It was an amazing sight. We were so sad when the disaster occurred two weeks later- it seemed so awesome and invulnerable when we watched it lift off. Quite a sight!

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Wow! I bet that experience will stick with you for the rest of your lives.

We received news that our unit was activated for gulf war II (Iraqi Freedom) the day the shuttle broke up. What a day that was!

RichBrewer said:

and all I wanted to do was talk about how cool it is to see the shuttle and the ISS pass over head. Maybe get some other folks to go out in their back yards and see it.

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My fault for the off topic. I did look at the website you put up yesterday to see if it would be in my area, but the weather has been overcast.

sorry, my bad on the off topic too, just sometimes like to spout...

I wish I had known it was going over CO, would have been cool to see.

ColoradoXJ13 said:

sorry, my bad on the off topic too, just sometimes like to spout...

I wish I had known it was going over CO, would have been cool to see.

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Check the chart. It's over Ga 5 days this week. Tomorrow will be best view for us.

cool, we're having a party in oakland on saturday. maybe i can see the satellite from there:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=United_States&region=California&city=Oakland