As a result, the two spacecraft will appear exceptionally close, separated by only about 7 arc minutes - roughly equal to only about one-quarter the apparent width of the moon.īinoculars will certainly aid in visually separating the two. EDT, only about 10 minutes after Endeavour has begun maneuvering away from the space station. On Monday, Endeavour and the space station will be traveling across North America on southwest-to-northeast trajectories and should appear as a pair of very "bright stars." The space station should appear as the noticeably brighter object and will be trailing Endeavour as they move across the sky.Īcross much of the eastern half of the United States, the two spaceships will fly overhead at around 4:46 a.m. This usually means shortly after dusk or before dawn. Satellites become visible only when they are in sunlight and the observer is in deep twilight or darkness. On any clear night within a couple of hours of local sunset or sunrise and with no optical aid, you can usually spot several orbiting Earth satellites creeping across the sky like moving stars. The appearance of either the space shuttle or the space station moving across the sky is not in itself unusual. Endeavour and its six-astronaut crew are due to return to Earth June 1. The shuttle launched into space from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 16. Considering that after this shuttle mission there will be only be one left before the program ends (tentatively set for July 8), the view of a shuttle and the space station flying together will soon be a sight that will pass into history.Įndeavour is in the homestretch of its last mission, a 16-day trip to upgrade and resupply the space station. The sight should easily be visible to anyone, even from brightly lit cities.
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