The space shuttle Endeavour will be visible tonight from much of the United States, as the shuttle prepares for landing Tuesday afternoon at the Kennedy Space Center. This is a somewhat rare opportunity, in part because the shuttle spends most of its time in orbit docked to the Space Station, and in part because the orbital alignment needs to be right for bringing the shuttle overhead shortly after sunset or before sunrise. But these conditions are met tonight - the two are presently undocked, so they can be seen separately as bright stars moving across the night sky; and the orbital alignment is bringing these objects over the United States shortly after sunset.
To get the exact time (and place in the sky) for your location, try orbital predictions at Heavens Above. Choose your geographic location, then click on 10-day predictions for ISS (space station), and look for a pass on the evening of the 20th (tonight). Shuttle and station will follow the same track across the sky, probably within 1 minute of each other. Both objects will be similar in brightness to Jupiter or Venus - meaning they’ll be easily visible to the unaided eye, even from the middle of a big city. The visiblity will be short, however, usually about two minutes total duration. I don’t know for sure which is which - I’ve seen conflicting reports about which object is leading at the moment.
For some locations of likely reader interest: From South Bend, IN they will rise in the NW, be directly overhead at 9:30, set in the SE. From Nashville, TN they will rise in the NW, max elevation 33 degrees high in the NE sky above Cassiopeia at 8:30 pm, and go into the shadow in the east. Note these are really at the same time - these locations are in different time zones, but the shuttle is visible over much of the country as it goes over tonight.
August 20th, 2007 at 12:44:00 pm
This is pretty awesome. Thanks for the info!
Too bad it’s rainy and cloudy here in Philadelphia and I won’t be able to see it.
August 20th, 2007 at 12:52:39 pm
[…] Loy reports that the Shuttle Endeavour will be visible, for a brief period, in much of the United States tonight: The space shuttle Endeavour will be visible tonight from much of the United States, as the shuttle […]
August 20th, 2007 at 2:16:49 pm
I saw this a couple months back (not sure which shuttle it was). It was a really neat treat. Unfortunately, it’s all rain here in Chicago as well, so I won’t get a repeat performance.
August 20th, 2007 at 3:37:00 pm
Thanks Brendan,It’s Sunny and hot so if the Mts. don’t get in the way I’ll get to see it (I’m 60Mi. East of L.A. we have real Mts. here)
Bob
August 20th, 2007 at 9:42:54 pm
Just saw them fly overhead - they were separated by about the length of my hand at arm’s length from my eye when they were directly above me. Very very cool! Anyone know which one was in the lead? I imagine it was the ISS, because it was a bit brighter.
On a side note, seeing things like this restores a bit of my faith in the competence of mankind :-)
August 20th, 2007 at 9:58:04 pm
A report on the Seesat satellite visual observation forum reports ISS leading, Shuttle trailing last night. I went to the tracking website listed, and it seems to show the same sequence tonight.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:12:11 pm
Yes - it had to be the ISS in the lead, as it was considerably brighter.
Thanks for the head’s up, Sean - that was awesome!!
August 20th, 2007 at 11:13:51 pm
Just saw the ISS and shuttle as it flew towards Denver fantastic!!!
August 27th, 2007 at 3:46:50 pm
Brendan,
Thanks for your link about the Endeavor and the ISS. We saw it clearly from our house in Kingsport, TN on Aug 20. We checked the Heavens Above website and are looking forward to seeing the ISS again during several opportunities in October. Thanks to you, we have sparked an interest for watching the ISS with our sons, neighbors and in-laws.