STS-93 Night Launch Observation
Stephmon@aol.com
Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:56:56 EDT
I just watched Columbia's night launch from my backyard in Orlando (I realize
the ambiguity of that statement, but rest assured, the -launch- was from KSC
;)). The orange tail from the solid rocket boosters was clearly visible from
~10 degrees above local horizon to ~25 degrees when the glow gradually
changed to blue/white. At separation, the SRB's appeared as two dim red spots
(much like automobile tail lights) forming a (roughly) isosceles triangle
with the main engines. The SRB glow faded out for a few seconds (tumble?)
before reappearing and finally fading out. The white glow of the main engines
gradually appeared to shrink and descend towards ~20 degrees. Unfortunately,
the humid night caused the diminishing 'star' to fade out ~40 seconds before
Main Engine Cut Off (MECO).
STS-93 was launched 7 minutes later than the nominal 04:24:00 at 04:31:00.
STS-93
1 25866U 99040A 99204.33501948 .00023497 23052-8 46853-4 0 26
2 25866 28.4652 197.6680 0016574 248.1106 309.6587 15.98306009 30
Here's looking forward to observations of STS-93 and Chandra (the largest
object delivered by STS so far).
Godspeed Columbia
__________________
Stephen
http://stephen.fathom.org