Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org (Parker, David X)]

As demonstrated by a great little gadget at the Museum of Life and Science,
which I've never been able to master, getting the shuttle to meet up with
the space station isn't as easy as just pulling up to a parking space.
They're both orbiting the earth at different altitudes and (not sure about
this) different speeds. When they want to send the shuttle to the space
station they have to time the launch just right, or the two will miss each
other by thousands of miles.

From another AA (Armchair Astronaut),

- Dave P.

> ----------
> From:         Greg Cox
> Reply To:     internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Sent:         Monday, February 3, 2003 1:46 PM
> To:   Internetworkers List
> Subject:      Re: [internetworkers] Re: No conspiracy, just a
> Columbia/NASA re-entry decision question
> 
> > I believe the Columbia was never equipped to dock with the ISS.  This
> > was mentioned along with the Columbia being the heaviest of the
> > shuttles, since it was the first fully-operational unit, and the
> > following ones were made lighter.
> > 
> > Is the ISS in a higher-orbit than the Shuttles normal reach?  Perhaps
> > the Columbia was not able to reach it at all...
> 
> http://ltp.arc.nasa.gov/space/ask/parts/Shuttle_Modifications_for_IIS_Flig
> hts.txt
> 
> would answer this, but it's not responding.  The cached version:
> 
> http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cache:vvWPpzC_xV0C:ltp.arc.nasa.gov/space/a
> sk/parts/Shuttle_Modifications_for_IIS_Flights.txt+columbia+iss+docking+or
> bit+%2Bheavier&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
> 
>  or
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/5a16
> 
> 
> Also, just a guess: I'll bet it could reach it for rendezvous, if they
> jettisoned payload and expended deorbit-burn fuel to get there.  But,
> that'd be committing them to a stay, with no re-entry capabilities.
> Armchair astronauting.
> 
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