[Launch Alert] Space Shuttle Reentry Visible

[Brian Webb]

		ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
 				  
				Brian Webb, KD6NRP
			 Ventura County, California
			E-mail: kd6nrp@earthlink.net
		Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp
 				       
					    2003 January 30 (Thursday) 20:00 PST
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			SPACE SHUTTLE REENTRY VISIBLE

The Space Shuttle Columbia is set to land this Saturday morning at the
Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Prior to landing, the spacecraft will
reenter the Earth's atmosphere and become an artificial meteor.

During reentry, Columbia's groundtrack will pass north of San
Francisco at 05:53 PST and continue east. The Shuttle will then pass
immediately south of Lake Tahoe and cross southern Utah.

Because the Shuttle will cross northern California before sunrise and
be at an extremely high altitude (above 220,000 feet), the reentry
should be visible over a wide area. The event will theoretically be
visible up to 575 miles north and south of the track. However, at this
distance, the vehicle will attain a maximum elevation of 0 degrees.

In reality, the maximum distance the reentry will be visible is
probably about 431 miles north or south of the groundtrack. This means
observers across all of southern California have a chance to see it.

If you live in southern California and would like to see the reentry,
my advice is to go to a very dark site with an unobstructed northern
horizon. Then scan the horizon from the northwest to the northeast from
5:48 to 5:58 a.m.

For the best view, go north and try to get a close to the groundtrack
as possible. Rick Baldridge has a map of the track and a plot of the
spacecraft altitude versus distance-to-touchdown posted on the Web at:

	http://photos.yahoo.com/rickbaldridge

Go to the area titled "Astronomy Stuff" and look for the files
"__hr_Shuttle Reentry over Bay Area" and "__hr_STS Reentry Dist vs
Altitude".

Regardless of where you observe the event from, try to bring along
an observing partner. Locating a fleeting manmade meteor is a lot
easier if you have another set of eyes scanning the sky.

Current Space Shuttle mission status is available at:

	http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts107/status.html

If any of you end up seeing Saturday morning's reentry, please let me
know.