CAIRO: Space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station (ISS) were visible from earth in some cities in the northern hemisphere as Atlantis undocked from the international outpost before its Saturday landing.
Astrophysicists from the Egyptian National Research Institute for Astronomy and Geophysics (NIRAG) confirmed that earth observers in the Middle East, Africa, most of Europe and Asia, were not able to spot the two space vehicles, but said other satellites could still be seen in the night sky from these parts of the world.
Salah M. Mahmoud, Head of the Geodynamics Department at the NRIAG, stressed that observers in Egypt could still spot other satellites and man-made objects in orbit which appear as bright stars moving fast across the sky, with the naked eye in brief sightings that lasted for two to three minutes.
Satellites and spacecraft are visible from earth for up to 22,000 km using advanced optical aids, Mahmoud told The Daily Star Egypt.
Satellites, the space shuttle, and the ISS, the largest man-made object in the space, become momentarily visible to observers without the need for optical aids when their mirror-perfect, Teflon-coated solar panels used to generate the power reflect sunlight Observers in the northwestern US and the Canadian southwest, on the other hand, were able to get glimpses of the ISS-shuttle tandem when it appeared as two bright stars moving across the night sky at approximately 29,000 km per hour nearly 400 km above earth before Atlantis prepared itself for the trek into the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
NASA mission managers said Wednesday that the shuttle-ISS tandem would only be visible to observers in world cities located above latitude 35-degrees north, with even slimmer hopes for cities located between roughly 30 and 35-degrees north latitude, and with no visibility expected below latitude 30-degrees north.
Cairo lies between coordinates 30-degrees north and 31-degrees east.
Shuttle Atlantis s STS-117 flight was the 20th space shuttle trip to the orbital outpost, during which astronauts ventured into space four times to install solar panels, struggled with a major computer crash, and continued with the installation of a truss segment delivered by Atlantis.
Atlantis also delivered a new station crew member that replaced astronaut Suni Williams, the new record-holder for a long-duration single spaceflight for a woman. She arrived at the station in December last year.
Atlantis’ return back to Earth was delayed by one day due to a weather forecast of low clouds and possible thunderstorms, and landed in the Mojave Desert in California instead of its planned destination in Florida.
