Fly-over Tables Explained

About 30 groups in the CEDAR community have expressed an interest in coordinating ground-based observations with GLO shuttle-based measurements. Overflights of the following 23 sites have been calculated based on planned shuttle orbits. These first calculations include overflights which permit the GLO experiment to observe the tangent point directly above the sites at an altitude of at least 100 km. The time periods covered are the main airglow observation periods, when the astronauts are asleep and the shuttle is in a single attitude for a long period of time. Other fly-overs are possible, for instance while pointing with steerable antannas, and there may be other times when an observation could be made. For accurate predictions, these calculations will be updated once the shuttle launches, and possibly once more as launch approaches.

The time system normally used during the flight is Mission Elapsed Time (MET), which is time after lift-off. MET is usually written d/hh:mm:ss, where d = days, hh = hours, mm = minutes, and ss = seconds. In the fly-over calculations, rise and set times are given in MET hours. The reference (lift-off) time given is in GMT.

The shuttle will be at an altitude of about 300 km from lift-off to MET 3/08:34, when it will go up to about 400 km for the rendezvous with MIR. It will remain at this altitude for the duration of the flight.

In general, the orbiter is in Earth shadow from South of the equator while it is heading North until after the northern-most excursion at 52 deg. N. STS-63 ground tracks for the 8 airglow observation periods are plotted elsewhere on the LPL-West Spaceflight Programs Page. Periods when the orbiter is in Earth shadow are shown on those plots.

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Last Updated: 09 January 1995

This page is maintained by:
Jesus A. Ramirez (ramirez@argus.lpl.arizona.edu)