Bob, N4HY wrote:
The simplest kind of approximation says they are attempting to enter a certain orbit which has a certain well known orbital period. In order to achieve this, the motors would have to be going long past the time the shuttle would come above the horizon here. We know from experience how long the motors burn.
An interesting observation made by several of us who were able to view the Shuttle from the NJ/NY region was that the Shuttle's main engines were still plainly visible AFTER the Shuttle had confirmed MECO.
Since I was listening to shuttle audio via our local ATV repeater, and the NASA-TV feed into the repeater is via an MPEG-2 satellite feed (the encode/decode process of which introduces some noticeable delay), I would have expected to see MECO occur BEFORE the delayed announcement was received. In fact, just the opposite occurred.
Perhaps what we casual observers on the ground might define as main engine cutoff (the extinction of visible flame) isn't the true STS/NASA definition.
I also observed the engines "sputter" for a while after MECO was announced. In past launches, I attributed that effect to the Shuttle possibly moving behind some clouds.
But the skies on Saturday night were absolutely pristine.
Interesting...
73, de John, KD2BD
Visit John on the Web at:
http://kd2bd.ham.org/ . . . .
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