If you live in these cities don't miss this

[dtel]

Fort Peck Lake, Montana; Pierre, South Dakota; Sioux City, Iowa; St. Louis, Missouri; Tupelo, Mississippi; Birmingham, Alabama; and Jacksonville, Florida.

You will be able to see the Shuttle fly over during reentry tomorrow morning, trust me it's worth it. I have seen it once and it's unbelievable, sparks flames with a long tail of fire then smoke. It is much closer to earth than you would think, I was expecting it to be really high and look small but it was MUCH closer than expected.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_space_shuttle

[sputnik]

I'm about 250 miles southwest of Fort Peck but I'll be looking. Thanks.

[sputnik]

Stupid Florida weather.

[seti]

Years ago when the shuttle docked with the MIR space station. A girlfriend and I drove out and watched them cruise by overhead. It was coool.

[fini]

So now scheduled for Tuesday. I wonder if it's the same flight path.

[russ69]

I'm not too far from Edwards Air Force Base. The shuttle comes over the house just above mach one. Depending on the weather the double boom can be pretty loud, shakes the house for sure. It's hard to spot sometimes, I usually pick it up after the boom and it's past the house at that point. It's still a thrill to see it. I often see the 747 shuttle transporter both with and without the shuttle on it's back. That one is easy to see, it's big and going slow and often flies directly over the house as it does touch and goes at Palmdale Plant 42 Air Force Base. Really cool.

Thanx, Russ

[jacksonbart]

I saw Voyager 2 pass by Uranus back in 1986.

[blindman]

Are you aware that some of us have "unbelievable" memories of February 1, 2003?

On that date, it was a Saturday, I was standing in my backyard (in the Dallas area) with a pair of binoculars just before 8 AM when the space shuttle Columbia was scheduled to pass directly overhead. This is what I witnessed first hand:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/STS-107_reentry.jpg/220px-STS-107_reentry.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ab/2003_Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster.PNG/250px-2003_Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster.PNG

So clearly I have mixed emotions about your suggestion.

On the one hand, it can be a wonderful experience.

On the other hand, it can be an experience that you NEVER want to have again.

I am just saying...............................

The Commander of the Columbia was from my home town. They renamed the airport in his honor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Husband_Amarillo_International_Airport

[BigStewMan]

i watched the first nighttime shuttle landing at edwards AFB. pretty cool.

[dtel]

Are you aware that some of us have "unbelievable" memories of February 1, 2003?

On that date, it was a Saturday, I was standing in my backyard (in the Dallas area) with a pair of binoculars just before 8 AM when the space shuttle Columbia was scheduled to pass directly overhead. This is what I witnessed first hand:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/STS-107_reentry.jpg/220px-STS-107_reentry.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ab/2003_Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster.PNG/250px-2003_Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster.PNG

So clearly I have mixed emotions about your suggestion.

On the one hand, it can be a wonderful experience.

On the other hand, it can be an experience that you NEVER want to have again.

I am just saying...............................

The Commander of the Columbia was from my home town. They renamed the airport in his honor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Husband_Amarillo_International_Airport

Your right, there are at least a million things that can go wrong, the whole thing is just amazing.

One night we were watching the news and during the broadcast the announced that in about 5 minutes the Shuttle was going to be passing over this area. We went outside and waited about 5 minutes and didn't see anything, about then my wife says that may be it, looking to the west.

It was like a bright star a little above the horizon but growing in size and brightness. The closer it got the brighter and bigger it became, I was very surprised at how low it was. Then it happened it streaked past us at what looked like only a few thousand feet, I would guess it was really higher ? It was low enough to see details of the Shuttle through the fireball and sparks, the flames and sparks went on for a long way past the rear of the Shuttle, turning into a smoke trail.

I just stood there shocked, I had never expected it to be like that, it was amazing. We went back inside and within a couple of minutes it touched down in Florida, live on the news.

It was unbelievable !

[blindman]

Yes. I understand. As a matter of fact, I think I may have been standing in my backyard that same night watching the same thing that you saw ! ! ! That was truely a wonderful sight that I will never forget.

That is why when I was watching Columbia, at first I was confused. I had seen a shuttle fly overhead a few times before. So I knew that it was going to have more than one streak of light accompanying it.

But it seemed odd to see so many streaks. I attributed it to being daytime instead of nightime. After it left my field of view, I went back indoors and listened to the radio report on the landing. Fifteen minutes later, they reported that the shuttle was "late" and that all communication had been lost. It was only then that I was able to process what I had witnessed.

I monitor www.nasa.gov/ntv during every shuttle mission. I watched every space walk on the current mission, and even got to run outside when the shuttle-and-space station flew directly overhead on April 11th at high noon. NASA TV showed the view of the earth looking down at the exact same time that I was looking up at them ! ! ! ! !

My favorite mission in recent time was the mission to repair the Hubble. You were able to watch every space walk "live' as it happened. That is the ultimate in cool! You get to see and hear every comment, including every snafu and "in the moment" problem solving.

The next time that you find yourself in Houston, I highly recommend the "LEVEL 9" tour of mission control. You have to make reservations in advance, and only 12 people are allowed to take this tour each day, but it is absolutely a fantastic "behind-the-scenes" VIP tour that you will never forget ! ! !! ! !

http://www.spacecenter.org/Level9Tour.html

Unfortunately, oftentimes, I feel like I am probably only one out of one hundred people in the entire world who is logged on at any given time at www.nasa.gov/ntv. So it goes . . .

[dtel]

It's easy to understand why you feel like you do after witnessing the breakup of that Shuttle, I didn't see that one, and glad I didn't, the news was bad enough.

The last time we were in Houston and went to the space center was probably 20 years ago. That sounds like a great thing to witness is you are lucky enough to get in on the level 9 tour.

We live about 20 miles from Stennis Space center and about 50 miles from Michoud Assembly center. When they test the engines at Stennis we can hear and feel the vibrations where we live. About 15 years ago we lived in Slidell LA, it was 18 acres and the back of the property was swamp on two sides, on the other side of that swamp was Stennis, I don't know how far it was but when they fired the engines the whole house vibrated and the windows rattled ! What was strange was whenever the weather was unusual like very cold or foggy or rain for a week, just anything different was when they would have more test, I guess to test under different conditions ?

We had signed up a few years ago to go to a test firring of one of the engines and got the tickets, about 2 days before, they announced it was canceled. I kept checking back and never found any more public admissions to a engine test, actually we don't hear them anymore, it's been a while, maby budget cuts ?

There is a sign on the interstate not far from here that says they are now giving tours of the plant, we really need to take the grandkids and go see what's going on.

[neo33]

Dtel, where did you learn how to spell "citys"?

[jtkinney]

Don't know how visible it was elsewhere, but I watched it come out of the high clouds and pass over us just moments before it landed. It is an awsome sight indeed, and it's amazing how much noise it makes for a glider.

I will find out how much my wife saw, she was at the landing strip, and got to go out on the runway after the safety guys cleared the area.

[dtel]

Dtel, where did you learn how to spell "citys"?

Publick skool []

[fini]

Publick skool

Sounds like a place for sex ed...if pronounced correctly.[:$]