The Shuttle mission STS-127 has been delayed several days by bad weather, so what was the mystery object 30 seconds ahead of the International Space Station when it flew over Southern Britain at 23:07 UT(GMT) on 12/07/2009? Quite bright, it is clearly in the same orbit because the trails just appear to touch on this 30 second picture, as they did in the consecutive pictures. Take a look as it passed below Arcturus, viewed from just North of Norwich. Remember the light from the satellite has been spread out across its path and the ISS appeared much brighter than Arcturus.
Wednesday 15 July 2009
What was in front of the Space Station?
The Shuttle mission STS-127 has been delayed several days by bad weather, so what was the mystery object 30 seconds ahead of the International Space Station when it flew over Southern Britain at 23:07 UT(GMT) on 12/07/2009? Quite bright, it is clearly in the same orbit because the trails just appear to touch on this 30 second picture, as they did in the consecutive pictures. Take a look as it passed below Arcturus, viewed from just North of Norwich. Remember the light from the satellite has been spread out across its path and the ISS appeared much brighter than Arcturus.
According to Spaceweather.com it was Progress 33, a Russian supply ship which re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on the 13th July.
ReplyDeleteYes - thanks for that, I found out through a NASA forum and a friend + a bit of searching on the nasa website. I knew it had to be of a substantial size ~ 2m from its apparent brightness.
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