Discovery Re-entry Path Over WNC Mountains Tomorrow This Morning!

**03-09-2011** If you are looking for coverage of the last landing of the Discovery, click here to see.


**update 6.22am** NASA has waved off the first attempt at KSC due to ground fog at the Florida landing strip. So, there will be no sky show over western North Carolina this morning. You can watch the online coverage by SpaceVidCast instead. I'm so bummed.


**update 4/20/2010 5.32am** NASA has released new ground tracks for the Discovery's re-entry attempts today.


Attempt #1 on orbit 237:


Attempt #2 on orbit 238: (no sighting opportunities for us in western North Carolina)


A piece of bad news is that it will probably be cloudy over western North Carolina at the time of the re-entry. Try your luck anyway. It just might be bright enough (especially if it passes higher than 40 degrees elevation in the sky) to be seen behind the thinner portions of the cloud cover. 


And if you can't see it, you have the opportunity to watch the excellent coverage provided by SpaceVidCast online. 

A very rare treat is in store for people over parts of the USA tomorrow morning, these are the areas that will get to see some of the action:






DISCOVERY’S GEOGRAPHIC FLYOVERS FOR TUESDAY’S LANDING OPPORTUNITIES
KSC Orbit 237:


Over Vancouver Island, Canada
Over southern Alberta province
Over the northern border of Montana and North Dakota
Over Minnesota near Minneapolis-St. Paul
Over Chicago
Over Indianapolis
South of Cincinnati
Over eastern Kentucky and eastern Tennessee
Over western North Carolina near Asheville (this is close to me!!! SQUEE!)
Over western South Carolina near Spartanburg
Over eastern Georgia, crossing the Atlantic coastline east of Brunswick
Out over the Atlantic, east of Jacksonville on into the Kennedy Space Center




What to Expect


The shuttle will be passing over western North Carolina at around 7:20 to 7:20 AM EDT. It will only be visible for a brief couple of minutes, so be ready to catch the action. It won't be completely dark, but will be dark enough to see the shuttle glowing and a plasma gas trail behind it. It you have video cameras, I suggest you get them out and put them on a tripod and you'll have something to remember the event by!!!


Here are a couple of videos taken of previous reentries by shuttles so you'll have some idea of what to expect:


































More Details


So now the next question is, will you be able to see it where you are? And if so, where do you look? 


The Discovery will pass within 77 miles of my house(very low in the sky), and just 36 miles from Asheville, NC (and more than 2/3 of the way up in the sky) if it lands on the 237th orbit. If it lands at a later orbit, we won't get to see it. So, keep your fingers crossed that she comes down on the first try!


I've already checked out the situation for a couple of locations, and this is what I found...


This is the data for my location (Franklin, NC):

NASA SKYWATCH TABLE OUTPUT

Local Time	Azimuth	Elevation	Range	Solar alt	Solar Sep	SRSS
dow/mm/dd/hh:mm:ss	Deg E of N	Deg	Miles	Deg	Deg	Deg
Tue-Apr-20@07:18:05 Tue-Apr-20@07:18:05 Tue-Apr-20@07:18:36 Tue-Apr-20@07:18:51 Tue-Apr-20@07:19:06 Tue-Apr-20@07:19:22 Tue-Apr-20@07:19:37 Tue-Apr-20@07:19:53 Tue-Apr-20@07:20:08 Tue-Apr-20@07:20:23 Tue-Apr-20@07:20:39 Tue-Apr-20@07:20:54 Tue-Apr-20@07:21:09 Tue-Apr-20@07:21:25 Tue-Apr-20@07:21:40 Tue-Apr-20@07:21:55 Tue-Apr-20@07:22:11 Tue-Apr-20@07:22:26 Tue-Apr-20@07:22:41 Tue-Apr-20@07:22:57 Tue-Apr-20@07:23:12 Tue-Apr-20@07:23:28 Tue-Apr-20@07:23:43 Tue-Apr-20@07:23:58 Tue-Apr-20@07:24:14 Tue-Apr-20@07:24:29 Tue-Apr-20@07:24:44 Tue-Apr-20@07:24:60 Tue-Apr-20@07:25:15 Tue-Apr-20@07:25:30 Tue-Apr-20@07:25:46 Tue-Apr-20@07:26:01	334.9 336.6 338.4 340.4 342.7 345.4 348.7 352.6 357.7 004.7 014.7 029.9 052.5 079.8 103.0 118.6 128.9 136.0 141.3 145.4 148.7 151.6 153.9 155.6 156.8 157.6 158.1 158.4 158.4 158.3 158.0 157.7	000.6 001.3 002.1 002.9 003.9 005.0 006.3 007.9 009.9 012.5 016.0 020.3 024.3 024.7 021.2 017.0 013.6 011.1 009.1 007.6 006.4 005.4 004.6 003.9 003.2 002.6 002.1 001.7 001.2 000.9 000.5 000.2	00509 00462 00417 00373 00330 00289 00250 00212 00176 00144 00115 00091 00077 00075 00084 00101 00121 00142 00164 00184 00204 00224 00242 00260 00278 00295 00311 00327 00342 00355 00368 00380	009.4 009.8 010.1 010.4 010.7 011.0 011.2 011.5 011.6 011.8 012.0 012.1 012.2 012.3 012.4 012.4 012.4 012.4 012.4 012.3 012.3 012.2 012.1 012.1 012.0 011.9 011.9 011.9 011.8 011.8 011.8 011.8	143.9 143.6 143.2 142.8 142.5 142.2 141.9 141.6 141.3 141.0 140.7 140.5 140.3 140.0 139.9 139.7 139.5 139.3 139.2 139.1 138.9 138.8 138.7 138.6 138.5 138.4 138.3 138.1 138.0 137.9 137.8 137.6	004.0 004.0 004.1 004.1 004.2 004.2 004.3 004.3 004.4 004.4 004.5 004.5 004.6 004.6 004.7 004.7 004.8 004.8 004.9 004.9 005.0 005.0 005.1 005.1 005.2 005.2 005.3 005.3 005.4 005.4 005.5 005.5

And this is the data for Asheville, NC for the orbit 237 KSC Landing:

NASA SKYWATCH TABLE OUTPUT

Local Time	Azimuth	Elevation	Range	Solar alt	Solar Sep	SRSS
dow/mm/dd/hh:mm:ss	Deg E of N	Deg	Miles	Deg	Deg	Deg
Tue-Apr-20@07:18:05 Tue-Apr-20@07:18:05 Tue-Apr-20@07:18:36 Tue-Apr-20@07:18:51 Tue-Apr-20@07:19:06 Tue-Apr-20@07:19:22 Tue-Apr-20@07:19:37 Tue-Apr-20@07:19:53 Tue-Apr-20@07:20:08 Tue-Apr-20@07:20:23 Tue-Apr-20@07:20:39 Tue-Apr-20@07:20:54 Tue-Apr-20@07:21:09 Tue-Apr-20@07:21:25 Tue-Apr-20@07:21:40 Tue-Apr-20@07:21:55 Tue-Apr-20@07:22:11 Tue-Apr-20@07:22:26 Tue-Apr-20@07:22:41 Tue-Apr-20@07:22:57 Tue-Apr-20@07:23:12 Tue-Apr-20@07:23:28 Tue-Apr-20@07:23:43 Tue-Apr-20@07:23:58 Tue-Apr-20@07:24:14 Tue-Apr-20@07:24:29 Tue-Apr-20@07:24:44 Tue-Apr-20@07:24:60 Tue-Apr-20@07:25:15 Tue-Apr-20@07:25:30 Tue-Apr-20@07:25:46 Tue-Apr-20@07:26:01	329.2 330.2 331.3 332.4 333.6 334.9 336.4 338.1 340.1 342.7 346.7 355.1 033.8 130.9 148.0 153.8 157.0 159.4 161.2 162.9 164.4 165.7 166.9 167.6 168.1 168.2 168.2 168.0 167.6 167.2 166.7 166.1	000.6 001.4 002.2 003.1 004.1 005.3 006.8 008.8 011.4 015.3 022.0 035.7 063.5 050.1 029.1 019.4 014.3 011.1 008.9 007.3 006.1 005.0 004.2 003.5 002.9 002.3 001.8 001.4 001.0 000.6 000.3 000.0	00505 00457 00411 00365 00321 00278 00236 00196 00157 00120 00086 00055 00036 00041 00063 00090 00116 00142 00166 00190 00212 00233 00254 00273 00291 00309 00326 00341 00356 00369 00382 00393	009.4 009.8 010.1 010.4 010.7 011.0 011.2 011.5 011.6 011.8 012.0 012.1 012.2 012.3 012.4 012.4 012.4 012.4 012.4 012.3 012.3 012.2 012.1 012.1 012.0 011.9 011.9 011.9 011.8 011.8 011.8 011.8	143.5 143.2 142.8 142.4 142.1 141.8 141.4 141.1 140.8 140.6 140.3 140.0 139.8 139.6 139.4 139.2 139.0 138.9 138.7 138.6 138.5 138.4 138.3 138.1 138.0 137.9 137.8 137.7 137.5 137.4 137.3 137.1	004.7 004.7 004.8 004.9 004.9 005.0 005.0 005.1 005.1 005.2 005.2 005.3 005.3 005.4 005.4 005.5 005.5 005.6 005.6 005.7 005.7 005.8 005.8 005.9 005.9 006.0 006.0 006.1 006.1 006.2 006.2 006.3

A big, wet, sloppy kiss goes to Space Weather for the heads up on this very rare opportunity.


If you get an exposure with a still camera, or get dome video of the event and upload it to the Internet, please feel free to drop a link in the comments.