Was it Soyuz TM-27 or Progress M-37?
JRBURCA@aol.com
Mon, 2 Feb 1998 08:08:46 EST
I'm still wondering about the object trailing Mir seen around 02:36 UTC
Jan. 31 UTC (18:36 PST Jan. 30 PST), Friday evening in the USA.
I think it was the previous pass that was seen best in Texas and vicinity.
I've read all the posts in SeeSat and also the "Three Spacecraft To
Appear in Skies Tonight" thread in sci.astro and sci.space.shuttle
and the "Sweeeeeet!!!!!" thread in sci.space.shuttle. From the Usenet
thread "Three Spacecraft....." someone mentioned that Rob Matson
had identified the object trailing Mir as Progress M-37 and also James
Oberg identified it as Progress M-37. And most of the posters in SeeSat
thought it was Progress M-37. That seems pretty authoritative to me.
The posters in the sci.space.shuttle "Sweeeeeet!!!!!" thread all seem to
be happily convinced that it was Soyuz TM-27 a few hours before docking.
This is also what I thought when I saw it Friday night trailing perhaps 8
degrees behind and on a track slightly more to the SE than Mir's track.
Can anyone confirm, without a doubt, that it was Progress M-37?
Also, what was the 2nd object I saw (probably about the same magnitude
as the object trailing Mir)? I saw Endeavor culminating az. 135 elev. 75-85
at about 02:32:20 UTC, then the 2nd object also travelling SW-NE but
culminating lower, as I remember, maybe az. 135 elev. 65-75 and my guess
is that it reached culmination at about 02:33:40 UTC. It was around
culmination when I spotted it after Endeavor had faded into shadow in the
NE. Could this have been Soyuz TM-27? I would think that Soyuz would
have been behind Mir not in front. Mir came a few min. later culminating
02:35-37? UTC) followed closely (8 degrees?) by the 4th object which
apparently was Progress.
None of posters who believe that Progress was the object closely
following Mir, seem to have seen Soyuz. So where was Soyuz?
Joe Dellinger (Tulsa, Oklahoma) in his "two pairs" post to SeeSat reported
a dimmer "mystery" object in front of the Shuttle but his sighting was for
the orbit previous to my sighting. Could it be that we saw the same object
(my 2nd object) but by the time it had made another orbit (my sighting), it
was then between the STS-89 Shuttle Endeavour and Mir? Can anyone
determine what this, my 2nd object, was?
Jake Rees
Burbank, California
(34.164 N., 118.341 W)