HEADS UP West. TN.......

[Guest Sgt. Joe]

"On Monday morning, April 19th, space shuttle Discovery will make a rare "descending node" overflight of the continental United States en route to landing in Florida. Many towns and cities in the country's heartland are near the ground track..."

SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids

For those of you under the flight path, and up to 50, 100 miles or more each side, get up early, (5:00 AM in the northwest part of the country...[7:00 for us]) and watch the shuttle come home. Only three or four more launches until it's retired and we're no longer a space faring nation.

Zooming the map it appears it will pass directly over between Memphis and Jackson at about Mach 12......Between 7:30 and 7:38 AM.......

I can not tell from the data exactly when re-entry will occur but when it does there will be double sonic booms as the rear then the front of the ship re-enters our atmosphear.......hearing those again sure would make this ole man happy, but I dont know if we will or not.

But some of us should be able to see it kinda like a shooting star, the more clouds or daylight the less chance.....maybe, just maybe.

[eapking]

Cool. I'll try to catch it.

[Guest cappy]

hmm really so is it suppose to be within eye seeing distance?

[TripleDigitRide]

Shuttle Re-Entry in 1996

These are shots (on film) from a previous "descending node" re-entry of the Space Shuttle, of STS79 Atlantis on the morning of September 26, 1996. The Shuttle was returning with Shannon Lucid from the Mir space Station. Atlantis flew directly over southern Alberta, Canada in the pre-dawn sky, under similar circumstances to Monday's (or possibly Tuesday's, if they wave off for a day) planned re-entry. The Shuttle itself appeared as a brilliant pink star (blurred in photo #1 and #2 into a pink streak). It left behind a greenish plasma trail that lingered for many minutes, recorded in photo #3 and #4. In all, a spectacular sight. And sound! A sonic boom was heard. Descending node entries are very rare, so we hope we'll get to see this one, from STS131.

[Guest jackdm3]

God, I wish we could guarantee we'd be awake for this. Waking up for us just before this is painful for us both. I'd like to hear something more than seeing something.

[Guest db99wj]

Didn't happen, will try again Tuesday.

[Guest jackdm3]

What time Tues.? I actually got up and found completely cloudy skies.

[Guest db99wj]

What time Tues.? I actually got up and found completely cloudy skies.

I went to the links above and I couldn't tell you when or where. Not that smart.

[Guest jackdm3]

Maybe Sgt. will do recon.

[saintsfanbrian]

Looks like we West TN people get shafted again:

DISCOVERY’S GEOGRAPHIC FLYOVERS FOR TUESDAY’S LANDING OPPORTUNITIES

KSC Orbit 237:

Over Vancouver Island, Canada

Over southern Alberta province

Over the northern border of Montana and North Dakota

Over Minnesota near Minneapolis-St. Paul

Over Chicago

Over Indianapolis

South of Cincinnati

Over eastern Kentucky and eastern Tennessee

Over western North Carolina near Asheville

Over western South Carolina near Spartanburg

Over eastern Georgia, crossing the Atlantic coastline east of Brunswick

Out over the Atlantic, east of Jacksonville on into the Kennedy Space Center

[Guest jackdm3]

I get 20 more minutes sleep tomorrow. Yay.

[Guest (BH)]

^^^ So you think we'll be able to see it Knoxville? I hope so. That would be AWESOME!