Spotting ISS and Discovery at the Gulf of Mexico

I'm going on a 4 day cruise on Carnival Sensation from August 4-8. I also
hear that Discovery is scheduled to land early Sunday morning on August 7.
Now that NASA is making the shuttles cross over the Gulf of Mexico instead
of over much of the Southwestern US for landing at KSC, I think it may be
possible to see the shuttle zip by and see the plasma fire trail on the
cruise!

I'm also interested in spotting the shuttle docked at ISS and theses are
only closest cities relative to where I am cruising in the Gulf of Mexico.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata...gi?Merida.html
and
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata...w_Orleans.html

I hear that Astronomy is offered on cruises and hopefully they can provide
info on spotting ths ISS and the Space Shuttle.


--
Andy P. Jung
Metairie, Louisiana U.S.A.
(Home of Senator David Vitter)
http://www.JungWorld.com/

To reply via e-mail, please visit my web site.

Yes, Andy, you could be in a good spot --
where would the ship be before dawn on Sunday,
Aug 7?

Please contact me via email directly -- and bring a video camera
on the cruise.

Jim Oberg




"Andy P. Jung" wrote in message
news:ChCFe.82581$%Z2.44206@lakeread08...
I'm going on a 4 day cruise on Carnival Sensation from August 4-8. I also
hear that Discovery is scheduled to land early Sunday morning on August 7.
Now that NASA is making the shuttles cross over the Gulf of Mexico instead
of over much of the Southwestern US for landing at KSC, I think it may be
possible to see the shuttle zip by and see the plasma fire trail on the
cruise!

I'm also interested in spotting the shuttle docked at ISS and theses are
only closest cities relative to where I am cruising in the Gulf of Mexico.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata...ting.cgi?Merid
a.html
and

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata...ting.cgi?New_O
rleans.html

I hear that Astronomy is offered on cruises and hopefully they can provide
info on spotting ths ISS and the Space Shuttle.


--
Andy P. Jung
Metairie, Louisiana U.S.A.
(Home of Senator David Vitter)
http://www.JungWorld.com/

To reply via e-mail, please visit my web site.

"Jim Oberg" wrote in message
...
Yes, Andy, you could be in a good spot --
where would the ship be before dawn on Sunday,
Aug 7?

Please contact me via email directly -- and bring a video camera
on the cruise.

Jim Oberg

Sensation leaves Cozumel on Saturday, August 6 around after 5:00 PM and
arrives at the mouth of The Mississippi River on Sunday, August 7 around
8:00 PM from what I can recall from an exact cruise itinerary from 2 years
ago on Carnival Holiday.

Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to land at 4:46 AM CT on Sunday, August
7 so we would be somewhere in the middle of The Gulf of Mexico. I just have
to make sure to stay awake until then.
http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/c..._timeline.html


--
Andy P. Jung
Metairie, Louisiana U.S.A.
(Home of Senator David Vitter)
http://www.JungWorld.com/

To reply via e-mail, please visit my web site.

"Andy P. Jung" wrote in
news:ChCFe.82581$%Z2.44206@lakeread08:

I'm going on a 4 day cruise on Carnival Sensation from August 4-8. I
also hear that Discovery is scheduled to land early Sunday morning on
August 7. Now that NASA is making the shuttles cross over the Gulf of
Mexico instead of over much of the Southwestern US for landing at KSC, I
think it may be possible to see the shuttle zip by and see the plasma
fire trail on the cruise!

I'm also interested in spotting the shuttle docked at ISS and theses are
only closest cities relative to where I am cruising in the Gulf of
Mexico.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata...ighting.cgi?Me
rida.html and
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata...ighting.cgi?Ne
w_Orleans.html

I hear that Astronomy is offered on cruises and hopefully they can
provide info on spotting ths ISS and the Space Shuttle.

If they have an Internet connection:

http://gmaps.tommangan.us/spacecraft_tracking.html

"Andy P. Jung" wrote in message
news:ChCFe.82581$%Z2.44206@lakeread08...
I'm going on a 4 day cruise on Carnival Sensation from August 4-8. I also
hear that Discovery is scheduled to land early Sunday morning on August 7.
Now that NASA is making the shuttles cross over the Gulf of Mexico instead
of over much of the Southwestern US for landing at KSC, I think it may be
possible to see the shuttle zip by and see the plasma fire trail on the
cruise!

I'm also interested in spotting the shuttle docked at ISS and theses are
only closest cities relative to where I am cruising in the Gulf of Mexico.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata...gi?Merida.html
and
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata...w_Orleans.html

I hear that Astronomy is offered on cruises and hopefully they can provide
info on spotting ths ISS and the Space Shuttle.

Darn, I may have to scratch that idea since NASA is considering extending
the mission an extra day. Oh, frigging well. Maybe people going on Carnival
Conquest out of New Orleans on August 7 should keep their eyes fixed to the
southern skies and camcorders ready in the early morning hours of August 8.
Discovery may be visible in the southern horizon directly ahead.
http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/c..._timeline.html

Does anyone think it would do any good for me to e-mail NASA and convince
them to not extend STS-114 mission by an extra day so maybe I and some other
people in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on a cruise ship may want to
witness and record the flyover towards landing at KSC?


--
Andy P. Jung
Metairie, Louisiana U.S.A.
(Home of Senator David Vitter)
http://www.JungWorld.com/

To reply via e-mail, please visit my web site.

Andy P. Jung wrote:


Does anyone think it would do any good for me to e-mail NASA and convince
them to not extend STS-114 mission by an extra day so maybe I and some other
people in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on a cruise ship may want to
witness and record the flyover towards landing at KSC?


The problem with that is there will still be cruise ships in the gulf
even if they do extend it by a day. Of course that wouldn't be your
ship, but maybe people on other ships will get lucky by the extension.

In article ChCFe.82581$%Z2.44206@lakeread08, "Andy P. Jung" writes:
I'm going on a 4 day cruise on Carnival Sensation from August 4-8. I also
hear that Discovery is scheduled to land early Sunday morning on August 7.
Now that NASA is making the shuttles cross over the Gulf of Mexico instead
of over much of the Southwestern US for landing at KSC, I think it may be
possible to see the shuttle zip by and see the plasma fire trail on the
cruise!

A bit late for your trip, but the best web site I've found for seeing
satellites of any kind, including ISS and the shuttle, is
www.heavens-above.com. Their huge database lists big and small cities around
the world, or you can input GPS coordinates and get predictions for wherever
you might be.

I've set it up through AvantGo to download 5 days worth of AM and PM
predictions every time I hot sync my PDA.

And if you can still get TLE data (#!^@ US Government), your PDA can do the
calculations with
http://www.bigfattail.com/software/p...lus/index.html

--
Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L To reply, there's no internet on Mars (yet)!
Kaplow Klips & Baffle: http://nira-rocketry.org/Document/MayJun00.pdf
www.encompasserve.org/~kaplow_r/ www.nira-rocketry.org www.nar.org

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of
liberty. -- Thomas Jefferson