My family is going to be in South Florida this coming Wednesday, and I'm trying to find the ground track for the scheduled shuttle landing. The NASA site doesn't seem to show it except in the landing coverage on NASA TV sometime after the deorbit burn. Is there any place that shows what the ground track will be next wednesday?

__________________
Rock is dead. Long live Paper and Scissors.

Check 24 to 48 hours before landing: STS-123 news

Shuttle FAQ:
(But that link redirects to the news link above.)

Here's the STS-122 ground tracks. When the times comes, this will be the STS-123 ground tracks (not functional now).

__________________
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0....

Now functional.

__________________
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0....

They still don't like to talk about the approach angles after 9/11.

But the Shuttle comes in so steep that if you want to see it, you still need to be close to the Intercoastal Waterway (across from the VAB and landing strip) in Titusville.

I live 100miles south of the Cape just north of West Palm Beach (across from Lake Okeechobee) and even though the Shuttle is still invisible at 80,000ft there the house rattles from the double sonic booms as it goes over. Anywhere in West Palm, Stuart, Vero Beach, Melbourne and up to Titusville you'll know when it goes over.

It looks like the first landing opportunity will take it directly over Miami, which is where my family will be (I will be on a plane enroute at that point. Based on the previous post, I guess it will not be much of a show, although I wonder if it will be visible as a bright light in the twilight.

Just as an aside, I'm a bit surprised that a sonic boom would be heard from 80,000 feet. I would have thought that the air would be too thin to produce a boom at ground level. What is the maximum altitude that can produce a sonic boom?

__________________
Rock is dead. Long live Paper and Scissors.

Just as an aside, I'm a bit surprised that a sonic boom would be heard from 80,000 feet. I would have thought that the air would be too thin to produce a boom at ground level. What is the maximum altitude that can produce a sonic boom?

I don't know the answer to your question, but I've read many times that the SR-71 (traveling at Mach 3+ and up to 85,000 feet) left sonic booms in its wake. Loud ones.

As for the Shuttle, as its speed decays to the supersonic to sonic ranges, the glide ratio is very steep (as much as 20 degrees nose down). It glides like an anvil. You'd probably have to be pretty close to the Cape to see it.

www.heavens-above.com - Enter your location and it will give you details. Tonight, if it isn't cloudy, I will have a chance to see the ISS and STS-123 with my eyeballs for a short period of time. I saw a previous shuttle chasing the ISS to catch up once before and it was a great experience for me even though they were thirty seconds apart.

__________________
The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.

Arthur C. Clarke

The Brain Science Podcast

And sometimes those sneaky guys flew by at MUCH lower altitudes just to annoy the locals. You'd think the thing would be an easier target, but they're just that fast. By the time you hear the boom, they're just halway down to the horizon heading away and probably already 5 miles downrange.

Some of the best missle systems might catch them, but those systems weren't yet available in the 1960s.

__________________
I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that.

I am human. Fully human.

If you are anywhere under or near the entry and approach track of the shuttle you will hear the double sonic boom; so if you are in east south Florida tomorrow you are likely to hear it if you are paying attention. Altitude is irrelevant; when coming in over the US on past missions, it could be heard even at 40 miles altitude during entry.

__________________
-Ben
My website

Brian Shul in his book 'Sled Driver' recounts episodes where they used the SR-71's sonic booms as a psychological weapon...

During the Vietnam war they targeted Hanoi with THREE planes, each traveling at Mach3 from three different directions and altitudes at the same time so that the sonic booms would overlap and REALLY smack the city around.

....apparently it was QUITE dramatic.....

As a final update to this thread, my family was at Cape Canaveral during the landing. They heard the sonic booms and saw the landing on a big TV screen somewhere. Apparently, the cape is not well suited to see it land. After that, they drove to Miami to pick me up. I got in at 10:15. They got to Miami at 1:00. All the hotels were booked. After many phone calls, I finally found a place with rooms available. As I had suspected, there was a reason that this hotel was not full. Second worst hotel room I ever had the misfortune to stay in (bested only by a run-down shack 150 miles north of Anchorage many years ago).

But I digress.

Being a birdwatcher, and while I was down in that part of the state, I spent a day in the Everglades. Saw my first Purple Gallinule, and some other interesting birds. Also found about 50-60 Alligators and 2 crocodiles. I found out that the Everglades (and extreme South Florida in general) is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles are both found in the wild.

But I digress again.

Went back to Canaveral on Friday. Spent the day there. As we were in the bus heading to the first stop (the launch area viewing tower), the bus had to pull off the road to allow a convoy go by. A couple of flat bed trucks were loaded with what looked like the nose cones of the SRB's. The ISS exhibit was rather underwhelming, but the chance to see the ISS staging room was neat. I forget what the correct term for the building is, but anyway it is interesting. If you haven't already experienced it, I would recommend the Space Shuttle launch simulator. Very interesting. I don't know how they do it, but it sure feels like more than 1 g during the liftoff. After main engine cutoff, it sure feels like less than 1 g. I guess that's one reason why they have instruments to tell you these things, rather than relying on your senses.

__________________
Rock is dead. Long live Paper and Scissors.