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Titan IV rocket launch may be visible along east coast of N.A.
A Titan IV rocket is scheduled to lift-off from Cape Canaveral on 2005 Apr
30 at 00:50 UTC (Apr 29 at 20:50 EDT). The duration of the launch window has not been announced. This will be the final Titan IV launch from Cape Canaveral, and its trajectory will head north east, along the east coast of North America. The rocket's trajectory is secret, but their is a good chance that it will be readily visible to the unaided eye. I have cooked up some trajectory data to aid in spotting it. Rocket scientists likely would have a good laugh at my estimates, but I hope that they will be sufficient to provide a rough idea of when and where to look. However, if I guessed wrong, it may be far from the predicted path, or not seen at all. The following Excel spreadsheet computes the vehicle's azimuth and elevation during the ascent to orbit: http://satobs.org/seesat_ref/B-30/Ti...ook_angles.xls All you need do is enter the lift-off time, and your latitude and longitude. As downloaded, the file contains the latitude and longitude of Washington, D.C., which you should replace with your latitude and longitude. The spreadsheet computes azimuth and elevation at 10 s time intervals. Azimuth is in degrees, clockwise from due north. Elevation is in degrees above the horizon. Negative values of elevation indicate that the vehicle is below the horizon. The trajectory data begins at T+2:30, about the time that the solid rocket motors burn out. Observers who have seen Shuttle night-time ascents along the east coast, should not expect the Titan IV's exhaust to be as bright. For about 3 min after SRB burnout, the T-IVB's 1st stage will produce about 550,000 pounds of thrust - about one third the total output of a shuttle's main engines. The T-IVB's 2nd stage ignites for nearly 4 min; however, it produces a little over 100,000 pounds of thrust - about 7 percent the total output of a shuttle's main engines. Assuming lift-off occurs near the scheduled time, the vehicle may be illuminated by sunlight for some portion of its ascent, which should make it easy to spot with the unaided eye. It could reach magnitude 1 or brighter. I estimate that it will climb out of Earth's shadow at about T+3:30. How long it remains in sunlight depends on how high it climbs. Since its trajectory and planned orbit are secret, I can only guess. I based the ascent trajectory on one of several possible target orbits, specifically, that of a Lacrosse radar imaging satellite, inclined 57 deg, and 425 X 671 km. An ascent trajectory bound for that orbit, would remain illuminated throughout the powered ascent, after exiting the shadow at about T+3:30. In the event that the target orbit is much lower, then the vehicle may re-enter the shadow before the end of the powered ascent, in which case the vehicle would be illuminated only by its exhaust, which may not be visible with the unaided eye. Happy hunting! Ted Molczan |
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"Ted Molczan" wrote in message ... A Titan IV rocket is scheduled to lift-off from Cape Canaveral on 2005 Apr 30 at 00:50 UTC (Apr 29 at 20:50 EDT). The duration of the launch window has not been announced. I happened to see it by chance, as I was pulling into my neighborhood. For a moment, it looked like an amber streetlight was casting a streak across my windshield. As I faced east, I pulled over and rolled down the window, to get a better look. The flame looked very yellow and seemed to have a lot more "sparkle" than a shuttle launch. I could just make out the smoke column, which appeared to arc right-to-left (northerly). Then, the flame changed to a blue-white and separated into three stacked, intense, white dots. After several seconds, the two lower spots dimmed, turned red and showed signs of tumbling (winking in and out). I watched the third spot, until it faded from view. By coincidence, the radio station I was listening to had received a call earlier in the evening, that got them talking about aliens. They were talking about the scene in Signs, with the birthday party, when people started calling in about the rocket "sighting". -- Stephen Home Page: stephmon.com Satellite Hunting: sathunt.com |
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