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Some extra special reading for you guys!!



Hello,

For some reading this you may consider it on a boredom level of 9.6
On the other hand others might agree this is most amazing and the odds
of being successful are off the charts.  Either way what you are
about to read is true and I have witnesses.

As most will know that today 5/30/2020 was the launch of a SpaceX
rocket from Pad 39A with two astronauts on board.  Doug Hurley and
Bob Behnken were on board the capsule on top of the Falcon 9 rocket.
The launch was at 3:22pm and it was a perfect launch to send them to
the International Space Station.  I watched the launch on the Discovery
Channel and heard that the final docking won't take place until at
approx. 10:29am on Sunday.  The capsule will basically be chasing the
International Space Station in order to catch up.  The ISS is moving at
17,500mph at a altitude of 240-260 miles.  The time from the launch to
docking is about 19 hours.

This got me to thinking.  Hmmmmm   What are the possibilities that the
ISS is visible tonight in a fly over.  I checked my ISS Spotter App.
Sure enough the ISS will be visible tonight at 9:39:50pm until 9:55:36pm
at a angle of 37 degrees above the horizon traveling from NW to SE.
Then looking at the weather satellite it appeared that the clouds will
be diminishing so it would be visible.  So that make this other
possibility even more possible.

What if I could actually see the Endeavour Capsule chasing the ISS??

There was only ONE way to find out.

My wife and I got in the car at 9:15pm and drove up to Breezy View Park
north of Columbia, Pa.  Got there about 9:35pm.  Did some navigational
adjustments to determine the direction of the where the ISS would come
into view.  It was about then that a local cop shows up asking what was
going on.  So I explained what was about to happen. He got very
interested and got out of the cruiser so to join the fun.

His name was Gus an was rather impressed with what I was explaining
to him about the ISS and the possibility of Endeavour Capsule following.
The difficulty here is how far behind the ISS is the Capsule.  I had no
clue.  It would just be a matter of dumb luck to first be able to see
such a small object being lit up by the sun passing some unknown
distance behind the ISS.

Well just as the time was 9:39:50pm the ISS appeared overhead.  Gus was
impressed since it was his first time ever seeing it.  As it moved
across the sky my focus was behind the ISS.  But, how far, and would it
even be visible??  As the ISS started to get closer to the earths shadow
I started to give up.  It was at that time that Gus pointed and said
what is that??  That there it was, a very small spec of light tracking
behind the ISS.  As for a distance behind the ISS after getting home, I
did a little mathematical calculation in my CAD software and my best
guess is 508.775 miles +/- a couple of inches.  :-)

I feel very fortunate that the three(3) of us are part of a very small
number of the population (I am sure there are others) of the earth that
actually can say that they saw the SpaceX Endeavour Capsule carrying
two(2) astronauts (Doug & Bob) in the very first Commercial rocket
launch from Cape Canaveral launch pad 39A in 9 years as it was trailing
after the ISS to be docked approximately 12 hours later.

How cool is that!!

So, if you hear it on the news that somebody somewhere saw it as well,
you can say that you actually know somebody (a NUT) that did the same
thing!!   Or maybe you don't want to say that at all.  It's your call!!!

Thanks for reading this whole thing (that is if you got past the first
paragraph) and I hope you enjoyed the story and decide to share with
others if you dare!!

Have a good rest of your day.

Les


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