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Dan Pontone, Morgan Kavanaugh, Joe Tietz, his wife and two children and Kay Sears

saw our shuttle Atlantis roar up the New Jersey coast six minutes after launch. Most people think that shuttle launches can be seen only from Cape Canaveral because that is where they are launched, but that is not so. In fact, New Jersey viewers can see the shuttle in the last minute or so of the powered portion of the insertion into orbit and marvel at the ride those folks are enjoying.

We were lucky tonight. It was raining in Keyport when I left home only 30 minutes before launch. When I arrived at the Holmdel observing site on Roberts Road the clouds were rapidly clearing to the east. Jupiter and Saturn were bright and stars were visible down to about 40 degrees above the horizon. By launch time only a few low clouds remained on the horizon to the east.

We listened on the radio for confirmation that Atlantis had been launched on schedule, Dan Pontone set up a camera on a tripod, and we patiently waited for the exhaust to become visible. Right on schedule, six minutes after launch we caught sight of the bright orange exhaust plume approaching from the south over the Lucent Technology Lab building. As it moved to our east it brightened until it was about magnitude -2, almost as bright as Jupiter. We lost sight of the fireball for a few seconds and thought that main engine cutoff had occurred early; but the shuttle had only moved behind a cloud, soon reappeared and continued moving to the northeast. Suddenly the exhaust disappeared again, this time it was in the clear but did not reappear; we knew then that the engines had cut off.

After MECO the shuttle is programmed to coast, continually climbing using the inertia of the last portion of powered flight, until it reaches maximum latitude of 51.6 degrees over Ireland and maximum altitude over the central Pacific Ocean. At that time the engines will be fired again to increase the velocity for insertion into final orbit.

The shuttle was visible to us for less than a minute, but everyone agreed IT WAS WELL WORTH THE EFFORT TO COME OUT AND SEE IT. There will be only one more flight of our shuttles in this orbit. Future flights may not be visible to us.

Penny Orell

reports from Englishtown:

My brother Glenn and I watched the picture-perfect launch on TV. Several minutes after the launch, we went outside under semi-cloudy skies. However, this time we were lucky to have the southern sky clear.

I had considered driving to a field somewhere to obtain a better horizon line, as I had heard that the shuttle may not have reached over 8 degrees elevation. But I hoped for the best.

Suddenly, I saw the shuttle in the south. It was going very fast and looked like a plane. It was at least 15 degrees high in elevation, and it cleared the trees.

I had come out prepared with binoculars, because I heard you could see some neat things during the insertion. Sure enough, binoculars showed this to be no plane. A V-shaped orange flame-like contrail was clearly visible behind it.

In too short a time the shuttle appeared to "wink out", came back again for a few seconds, and then winked again for good. I estimated the magnitude to be about -2.0 from here.

This was a great experience and was WELL worth going outside for. Between the TV and the binoculars, I felt like I was there at KSC watching the launch live.

I'm looking forward to the MIR/Atlantis docking. If I get the gumption up, I'll try and make it outside tomorrow a.m. for the Mir pass. By then the two should be visible, correct? So glad everyone got to see it!

Penny Orell

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Our friend

Jay Respler

from Freehold reports:

I just came in and can confirm from personal observation that the shuttle has been launched. The SE horizon was cloudy/hazy and I was not sure whether we would be able to see anything. I was scanning with binoculars when my wife Judy yelled "there it is" picking it out through a tree due south of us. It was much brighter than I expected through the haze. I then picked up STS with the binoculars. There was a little tail going up like this ./ and a longer, brighter tail downward \.

There were several pulses with flame on for a second, then off for a few seconds. Shuttle finally set behind trees in east.

This is about the 5th or 6th live launch seen from here in New Jersey. It's still exciting.

Jay Respler

Most of our shuttles are launched from Cape Canaveral which is at 28.5 degrees north latitude and fly due east away from the coast. This allows heavier payloads to be lifted by taking advantage of the earth's eastward rotation. This also means that the shuttles launched in that direction reach maximum northerly and southerly latitude of 28.5 degrees and are seldom seen by observers this far north. Hubble Space Telescope is in such an orbit and seldom is seen higher than 15 degrees above the southern horizon when viewed from 40 degrees north latitude.

MIR was launched from Baykonur, Russia into an orbit inclined 51.6 degrees to the equator. As it orbits around the earth it crosses the equator going south at an angle of 51.6 degrees, reaches 51.6 degrees south latitude, then crosses the equator going north at an angle of 51.6 degrees, reaches a northerly latitude of 51.6 degrees, then heads south again to repeat the cycle.

When the US launches a satellite from Cape Canaveral whose mission is to dock with MIR it must be launched within a narrow window of time (7-10 minutes) and in a direction that will allow it to match the latitude of MIR, (51.6 degrees). If you draw a great circle around the earth that passes northbound through Cape Canaveral it reaches 51.6 degrees north latitude a few degrees south of Dublin, Ireland. It continues eastward over northern Europe, then southward past Saudi Arabia, crosses the equator southbound over the Indian Ocean south of India, then continues south of Australia and New Zealand. It's northward pass crosses the vast expanse of the South Pacific Ocean, crosses the equator northbound due west of the Galapagos Islands, then continues northeastward over Yucatan, the Gulf of Mexico, and back to the starting latitude of Cape Canaveral. Luckily for us on the east coast of the US it also parallels the coast a short distance offshore and residents from Florida to New Jersey can view night launches and marvel at the fiery ascent of our astronauts as they are accelerated to the height above the earth required for docking with MIR.

The great circle that passes through Cape Canaveral and 51.6 degrees north latitude is just that...a great circle, and does not describe the actual path of the shuttle over the earth's surface. It takes approximately 90 minutes for the shuttle to circle the earth, and in that period of time the earth rotates eastward 22 1/2 degrees, so when the shuttle returns to our latitude it passes over areas west of the great circle just described. Displacement from the great circle will be greatest at the end of the orbit, while there will be no noticeable difference shortly after launch.

During a mission the shuttle (now an orbiter) appears as a very bright object often changing brightness due to the ever-changing sun-object-observer viewing angle especially when payload bay doors are open or if payload handling equipment is being used or payload objects are being launched. Sometimes satellites can be seen as separate objects when they are deployed.

Atlantis will rendezvous with MIR Saturday the 27th and remain docked for six days while a new computer and much needed supplies are transferred to MIR. Dave Wolf will replace Michael Foale on MIR and will stay there until January of 1998. If we are lucky enough to be in the right position when docking maneuvers are in progress we could see Atlantis and MIR as two bright objects flying together. When docked, the pair appears as one object the brightness of which is difficult to predict because of shadowing of one by the other and the observer-object-sun angle. Watch every MIR pass you can for the next week.

After the shuttle is in orbit watch our 'Satellites over Holmdel' page for predictions of MIR/Orbiter visibility. We will alert you when we think the pair will be visible as separate objects, and when they will be visible docked together as one object.

Last updated 26 Sept 1997