[sci.space.shuttle] Mir in Mission Control?

ollie@hydra.unm.edu (Ollie Eisman N6LTJ) (06/07/91)

Has anyone else noticed that, on the Mercator projection tracking
screen in Mission Control, an object that looks a lot like the Soviet
space station "Mir" is being tracked?

I've never seen this before.  

(btw, I noticed this on NASA Select this afternoon)


--
Ollie Eisman (N6LTJ)	ollie@hydra.unm.edu	(505)277-4845
3505 Lafayette Rd. NE #3, Albuquerque, New Mexico  87131, USA

dadams@thebox.rain.com (Dean Adams) (06/09/91)

ollie@hydra.unm.edu (Ollie Eisman N6LTJ) writes:

> 
> Has anyone else noticed that, on the Mercator projection tracking
> screen in Mission Control, an object that looks a lot like the Soviet
> space station "Mir" is being tracked?
> 
> I've never seen this before.  

YES.  It looks that way 'cause it IS Mir...! 

They also did that on the last mission.  On some orbits, mission
control has been advising the crew of potential Mir sighting
opportunities.  The higher inclination orbits of the last couple 
of flights gives them a lot more chances to spot Mir going by.

-{ Dean Adams }-


--
TheBox Public Access Xenix - Gresham OR +1 503-669-7291 +1 503-669-7395

john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III) (06/10/91)

In article <1991Jun07.061832.24261@ariel.unm.edu> ollie@hydra.unm.edu (Ollie Eisman N6LTJ) writes:
> Has anyone else noticed that, on the Mercator projection tracking
> screen in Mission Control, an object that looks a lot like the Soviet
> space station "Mir" is being tracked?

Yes, it is Mir.  The shuttle will pass within eye-shot of Mir a few times.
I think the closest pass is something like 200 miles.  On one pass, the
announcer on NASA Select said that they were going to reorient the shuttle
to make Mir visible from one of the windows.

My personal speculation is that NASA is doing a bit of lobbying...seeing
that the Fred funding is up for vote again this week.  Pointing out Mir
is almost the same as pointing out that the US does not have a space station.

Notice that Mir and its orbit lines are colored red.

I have seen other objects tracked on NASA select, but they have always
been recently released payloads in the past.  An example is Hubble.

-john-

-- 
=============================================================================
John A. Weeks III               (612) 942-6969             john@newave.mn.org
NeWave Communications, Ltd.                        ...uunet!tcnet!newave!john

garym@telesoft.com (Gary Morris @wayward) (06/13/91)

In <1991Jun07.061832.24261@ariel.unm.edu> ollie@hydra.unm.edu (Ollie Eisman N6LTJ) writes:

>Has anyone else noticed that, on the Mercator projection tracking
>screen in Mission Control, an object that looks a lot like the Soviet
>space station "Mir" is being tracked?

They added Mir (in red :-) to the display on December for STS-35.  Ron
Parise (WA5SIR) was scheduled to make a contact using amateur radio
equipment from the shuttle to the Musa Manarov (U2MIR) on board Mir. 
Ron and Musa are both amateur radio operators.  The contact didn't occur
because they landed a day early. 

On STS-37 in April, we again had amateur radio operators on board the
shuttle (the entire crew this time) and a successful (although brief)
contact was made between Ken Cameron (KB5AWP) and Musa Manarov (U2MIR). 

I'm kind of surprised they are still tracking Mir on the map display, I
thought they would take if back off after STS-37.  I don't get NASA
Select here (I was in Houston until April) so I didn't know they were
still showing Mir on the map. 
--GaryM
-- 
Gary Morris                       Internet: garym@telesoft.com
KK6YB (was N5QWC)                 UUCP:     ucsd!telesoft!garym
TeleSoft, San Diego, CA, USA      Phone:    +1 619-457-2700