Re: Mir/Shuttle Sighting

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Bill Bard said:

>Had a great view of the Mir and STS 71 last night.=20

<snip>

>The leading
>object (which I think was Mir) was about 10 deg ahead of the shuttle.

As a general rule when you perform an undocking, and you're on your way home=
 you want to go to a lower orbit.  Typically you'll only need one burn to=
 reduce the apogee.  With an egg-shaped orbit there is no chance for=
 recontact, although it's pretty unusual to see the relative distance=
 between the vehicles decrease at times due to the shape of the orbit,=
 leading some folks to believe that the vehicles are trying to redock!

An object in a lower orbit will move 'faster' (relative to the ground) than=
 a satellite in a higher orbit.  So the leading object is Atlantis - not Mir=
.



Philip Chien, Earth News - space writer and consultant  PCHIEN@IDS.NET
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