Dale As an example of what Brent just wrote, if you go to Patrick's web site http://planet.state.ut.us and scroll down to International Space Station Data and the select Salt Lake City you will see that the Space Station like the Shuttle comes over Utah on different orbits. SATELLITELOCALDURATIONMAX ELEVAPPROACHDEPARTUREDATE/TIME(MIN)(DEG)(DEG-DIR)(DEG-DIR)ISSThr Feb 06/07:44 PM< 11310 above NNW13 above NNWISSFri Feb 07/06:46 PM31310 above NNW11 above NEISSSat Feb 08/07:23 PM22211 above NNW22 above NISSSun Feb 09/06:25 PM41610 above NNW10 above ENEISSMon Feb 10/07:03 PM43610 above NW30 above ENEISSTue Feb 11/07:45 PM< 15139 above W51 above SWISSWed Feb 12/06:49 PM57423 above NW13 above ESEISSThr Feb 13/07:32 PM22323 above SW10 above SISSFri Feb 14/06:37 PM34949 above SW11 above SE Which, by the way, the space station will be visible tonight for 5 minutes. Jim Brent Watson <brentjwatson@yahoo.com> wrote:I don't think the re-entry path was atypical. The shuttle has passed over s. Utah several times for landing at Kennedy. This was the second time I have seen it, and I believe Patrick has seen it three times now. (Patrick?) The path is whatever it is depending on where in the earth/orbit relation the orbiter is when it de-orbits. I have looked at many re-entry tracks, and they are not the same. Brent --- Dale Hooper wrote:
There is something that I have been really curious about that I haven't seen mentioned (please forgive me if I somehow just missed it). We know that the shuttle was following an atypical reentry track - because we were able to observe it over southern Utah. I'm wondering if this reentry profile presents times when there are greater stresses on the orbiter than a typical reentry profile? I.e., more severe banking that might overly stress an already somewhat damaged wing; which wouldn't have caused a failure in a more typical reentry profile.
Certainly, this wouldn't be a root cause - but might be a contributing factor. Obviously, I've entered into second tier speculation.
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