I've just seen the spacestation & shuttle fly past!

[zephyrgirl]

Wowee!
Just been outside and watched the International Space Station zoom past with the Space Shuttle following it.

I'm in South Wales at the moment and phoned my husband in Hampshire to tell him to get out in the garden and look towards Orion.
There was a time lag of approx 15 seconds before he saw it at the same position as I had.

It's really plain to see if you look west at around 20:35ish.
It could be mistaken for an aeroplane except that it is a continous bright light moving across the sky.
The Space Shuttle came just after it on the same orbit, but approx 20 seconds later.

Well worth getting out there and gazing at if you have a clear sky.

Further info here
https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7956332.stm

Edit/
Just found this...
https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/index.html

Look here, if you want to see when it flies over your town!
https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/skywatch.cgi?country=United+Kingdom

Damn, it's amazing.
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[Drew]

Shouldn't the shuttle be docked to the the space station?

EDIT
according to that link

ISS Fri Mar 27/08:28 PM
SHUTTLE Fri Mar 27/08:27 PM

So shuttle passes a min before for me :S

[zephyrgirl]

I think the shuttle has completed it's Special Delivery Service and is just zooming about getting ready to come back.

Perhaps.

Hell, I don't know.

I'm not an astrophysicist.
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[Blue_SV650S]

[zephyrgirl]

Well, according to the tracker, the Shuttle is orbiting slightly ahead of the ISS, not following it as I originally thought.

It's mad to think that there are humans zipping above us, travelling at 17,000mph.
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[Flip]

Cock it, I'll try and catch it tomorrow.

[Blue_SV650S]

[LeeR]

You mean I was stood in my mate's garage drinking half a bottle of scotch and missing this, whilst talking forks, calipers and back end stability...? Shit!
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[zephyrgirl]

I've become quite jaded to the 'powers of the internet' recently, but I have just been listening to the live mission control feed from Space Shuttle Discovery and it is flippin' fantastic!

It's all broken up and slightly hissy, but to hear the most mundane thing, such as they are securing the exercise bike in preparation for re-entry is bloody fascinating.

ETA Shuttle landing at Kennedy Space Centre, Florida is 1:39EDT tomorrow.
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[Drew]

You sure Zephy? as that link you posted said the shuttle is flying over me on Saturday and Sunday night?

[zephyrgirl]

Well, that's according to NASA.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/

Maybe the tracker sighting times are predicted if the shuttle cannot land and has to remain in orbit until the next opportunity.

Hmmm...

Maybe it's all a hoax anyway.
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[Drew]

I've never actually been on the nasa website.

just looked at future missions, and see this
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition19/index.html

they launched yesterday, and dock tomorrow. It has a paying space traveller on board (that has paid before) Charles_Simonyi

Edit, paper link here
$35 million space flight

[carvell]

The IIS isn't the only thing you can see flying past. You quite often see satellites and all sorts flying past.

Stick your location into this site:
https://www.heavens-above.com
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[Blue_SV650S]

[zephyrgirl]

Damn, those little embroidered mission patch badges are cool.
A different one for each mission.

Do you think they get their Mums to sew them onto their jumpsuits for them?
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[The Shaggy D.A.]

No, they get their sewing proficiency badge as part of spaceman traning, just after the knots, firestarting and "I can fly a spaceship, me" badges.
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[Bendy]

[NinaMarie]

thats weird i think i might of seen at about 10:15

Was it a bit like a shooting star that was REALLY bright and big then got smaller?

EDIT: cant of been, flew over at 8:26
Can't of been a star though, it was HUGE, and wasnt really going as fast as a star
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[Charlie]

I think I have might have seen the space station a couple of years a go... or it could have been a satellite maybe?

Was in North France with a girl I had pulled and we were watching the stars.... saw a few shooting stars and then spotted a very slow moving star that went over an arc in the sky... I guessed at the time it was a satellite of some sort.

Being able to see the space shuttle too much be pretty good.
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[AJI]

This is pretty cool. I've never really thought about looking for satellites before. Apparently though there are several hundred thousand tonnes of man-made junk orbiting the planet, so if you live in a very clear area with no light pollution, you could probably see numerous bits floating past.

For anyone interested, the planets Saturn and Venus are very visible this time of year - Venus in the early morning and Saturn in the early evening.
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[Louise]

[Louise]

Ive just been out - my scope isnt properly set up at the moment so was near on impossible to aim for certain stars.
Can see Saturn with eyes altho cloudy.. Hope for a clearer night tommorow

[Mac_Black]

I think I may have seen it actually as I was walking up to town at around the time it's listed for worcestershire...
I saw it come from over the hills (west)... It was very clearly visible and looked quite big but was very quite which I thought was odd, it also apeared to move quite slowly.
It had red and green lights also?
Sound like it or did I just spot a big plane?
Either way it had somethign quite unusual and cool about it

[Louise]

[Didge]

Just watched it SW of me. Got the next door neighbors out to look as well.

Very clear sky tonight, and it arrived dead on time. Was visible for about 3 minutes.

Bloody brilliant!