Space station, shuttle in Sunday morning pass
No guarantees here, but this may be an event worth crawling out of bed for on Sunday morning.
The space shuttle Endeavour is wrapping up its business at the International Space Station today, having assisted in the installation of the station's new observation dome (NASA photo). Now the shuttle crew is preparing for undocking this evening and a landing in Florida Sunday night, weather permitting. Between now and then, the shuttle and the ISS will be flying in rather close formation, 
affording us a chance to see them both cross our skies, one after the other.
It's an opportunity that will soon become a bit of space history. The shuttle fleet is scheduled to be retired by fall, with just four flights left on the manifest. The sight of a shuttle and the ISS crossing the sky together will be a memory worth pursuing. You can read more about it here.
So, here's the deal: Our best chance to see the two spacecraft from Maryland will come at 5:43 a.m. on Sunday. The ISS will rise above the north northwest horizonas it crosses above the northern Great Lakes. It will look like a bright, moving star. It will climb less than halfway between the north northeast horizon and the zenith (straight up), rising to just 37 degrees at 5:45 a.m. as it flies over the northern Hudson River Valley.
From there, the space station will glide off toward the east southeast, disappearing at 5:47 a.m.
The flyby is not one I would normally alert readers to, because of the hour, the cold and its relatively low arc across the sky. But skies are forecast to be only partly cloudy, and because of the diminishing opportunities to see the two craft together, I figured it would be worth the shot.
If you do go out to watch, allow several minutes on either end of the listed times. I'm not sure at this moment whether the shuttle will be flying ahead of the ISS or behind. (You can tell them apart because the ISS is much brighter.) But they should pass over in fairly quick succession. There has also been talk of raising the station's orbit, which also could affect the timing a bit.
Good luck. And as always, if you spot them, please drop back here and leave a comment describing the scene. I'll post them as soon as I can.
Comments
Is this likely to be bright enough to be visible from the city?
FR: If skies are reasonably clear, they will be easily seen, even in urban lighting.
Posted by: MarkT | February 19, 2010 7:49 PM
Watched Endeavour and ISS fly over from a pier on the Eastern Shore, surrounded by rafts of murmuring geese, and a sky full of stars. The shuttle passed by first, about 100 seconds ahead of the much brighter ISS. They both disappeared into the gathering dawn. About 15 minutes later, the first gulls were in the air, followed in turn by crows and a bazillion starlings, headed north. The geese were still lazing around on the creek, or stretching their wings on the edge of the ice at sunrise when I headed inside for breakfast.
Posted by: Frank Roylance | February 21, 2010 7:18 AM
My husband woke me up at 5:40, asking if I still wanted to see the ISS. I jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes and went out in the backyard. First, we saw the shuttle and, just as my husband asked if the ISS was supposed to be with it, here comes the space station! I couldn't believe no one else in the neighborhood was outside to see this. Maybe I'm weird, but I find it exciting to watch the ISS go by. And seeing the shuttle with it made it even more exciting.
Posted by: Judy M. | February 21, 2010 11:21 AM
I watched the ISS pass overhead this morning from Mt. Vernon in the city. I forgot to set my alarm but our dog must have heard me talking to my wife about it last night because he was more than happy to wake me up at 5:30 exactly, wanting to go out to the bathroom. I scrambled out of bed and got him geared up and we walked around the block so he could do his business. I kept looking for either the shuttle or the station and was worried that the light pollution from the city would block them out. I didn't see anything until we were coming back inside and I took one last look upwards to see what I think was the ISS (it was pretty bright and nothing else came along after it) flying overhead. It looked like a big bright star but it was moving faster than an airplane moving across the sky. We watched it fly over and then went back inside back to our warm respective beds. Pretty neat to see something in space from Earth though.
Posted by: kungpow12 | February 21, 2010 1:28 PM
Dear Frank,
Thanks so much for the encouragement to get up early. But it was Krauthammer's column in the Post on the end on USA's manned space flight that made it mandatory. Somehow I missed the Endeavour but it was impossible to miss the ISS. Awesome, bright so fast so silent. We will all be missing Americans in space soon.
Posted by: John 55 | February 21, 2010 9:18 PM
Hi again, Frank. Appreciate the blog - it's full of awesome info, like this story.
Watched Endeavour and ISS transit the predawn sky over Baltimore from the Inner Harbor, on the bridge wing of Taney down on Pier 5, where I was getting ready to wake up some overnight campers at 0600, so the timing was perfect.
Kept my head on a swivel, just to increase the odds, and shortly after 0543 (according to my cell phone) I saw a fainter "star" arcing from the area of sky above the BPD helipad near Marketplace, travelled above the Constellation building, over UMBI, then down towards Little Italy before disappearing from view. Not more that a few minutes of arc behind that smaller dot - which was Endeavour - came a veritable searchlight in comparison - ISS. It followed the same arc through the sky, but seemed to take a little longer on it's trip, as - I'm guessing here - Endeavour opened the distance between them. I was able to see both in the sky at the same time, but Endeavour was clearly gaining a bigger lead by the second.
What a fantastic way to start a morning. Thanks for the (pardon the pun) "heads-up."
Posted by: Earl | February 22, 2010 10:59 AM