AroundFortWayne

Space Shuttle/Station flyover tonight and Thursday

A sky chart showing Tuesday's path of shuttle and station across the Fort Wayne sky. Image courtesy of heavens-above.com

From John McGauley’s Facebook page:

If the weather cooperates, a rare and interesting sight will appear in the skies over Fort Wayne on Tuesday evening.

The Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to leave the International Space Station, where it is currently docked on Mission STS-128, at about 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Just four hours later, when the shuttle and station will be only a few miles apart, both spacecraft will fly over Fort Wayne.

Look for two VERY bright slow moving objects that appear in the southwest sky at around 9:14 p.m. They will fly northwest, hitting a point 68 degrees above the horizon at 9:17 p.m. The orbiting pair will head northeast before disappearing at 9:19 p.m.

We see the station over Fort Wayne all the time, but an appearance by the shuttle and station flying in tandem like this is a rarity. It is possible that undocking will be delayed a day, but the flyover will still be VERY bright and easy to spot if that occurs.

There will be another flyover on Thursday night (Sept. 10) that might be worth catching if the skies are clear.

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