ISS?

M

minitour

New Member
Okay, so the FO and I were westbound tonight somewhere between ERI and FNT at FL400 (earlier this evening) and something above us was moving QUICK and Eastbound. He thought it might have been a Gee-Whiz, but there was a pretty bright shine coming off of it. I just don't know why a Gulfstream going over the great lakes at what had to be FL510+++ would have landing lights on.

Too slow to be a meteor and too close to be a comet or asteroid or what-not.

My first thought was "shuttle? ISS?". Anyone know where the ISS was tonight? Any other thoughts on what it was?

I asked center, he didn't have anything above us (it went almost directly above us) and the three of us agreed to pretend we never asked.

Help settle a bet!!!!

-mini
 
we saw it too, oddly enough, on the way home at fl400. it was the iss. (geek alert) i have an app on the phone the shows it's current position, and noticed earlier that it would be moving across n america while we were going home.
 
gne in prog said:
we saw it too, oddly enough, on the way home at fl400. it was the iss. (geek alert) i have an app on the phone the shows it's current position, and noticed earlier that it would be moving across n america while we were going home.
Click to expand...
Okay, so I can let the FO know he doesn't have to Bruce Willis (verb) an asteroid to save the planet?

Sweet.

-mini
 
minitour said:
Okay, so the FO and I were westbound tonight somewhere between ERI and FNT at FL400 (earlier this evening) and something above us was moving QUICK and Eastbound. He thought it might have been a Gee-Whiz, but there was a pretty bright shine coming off of it. I just don't know why a Gulfstream going over the great lakes at what had to be FL510+++ would have landing lights on.

Too slow to be a meteor and too close to be a comet or asteroid or what-not.

My first thought was "shuttle? ISS?". Anyone know where the ISS was tonight? Any other thoughts on what it was?

I asked center, he didn't have anything above us (it went almost directly above us) and the three of us agreed to pretend we never asked.

Help settle a bet!!!!

-mini
Click to expand...


We're going to disappear you.
 
Apparently they put red and green position lights on the ISS. I was told that above FL350 or so you can see them.

Dunno how true that is though.
 
BobDDuck said:
Apparently they put red and green position lights on the ISS. I was told that above FL350 or so you can see them.

Dunno how true that is though.
Click to expand...
That's what threw me off and made me think maybe it was a Gee-whiz or something way up there. You can definitely see them.

-mini
 
BobDDuck said:
Apparently they put red and green position lights on the ISS. I was told that above FL350 or so you can see them.

Dunno how true that is though.
Click to expand...

I wonder what the purpose would be? I thought the orientation would be changing all the time as the thing moves to get it's solar panels on the sun. But interesting.
 
matt152 said:
I wonder what the purpose would be? I thought the orientation would be changing all the time as the thing moves to get it's solar panels on the sun. But interesting.
Click to expand...

You don't think rules of the road apply in space? ;)
 
matt152 said:
I wonder what the purpose would be? I thought the orientation would be changing all the time as the thing moves to get it's solar panels on the sun. But interesting.
Click to expand...

Station doesn't move to get sunlight on the panels. They are gimbaled to allow them to point into the sun at all times. Would take way too much fuel to move the station around to keep it pointed at the sun.
 
Saw it on the 5th coming out of STL and saw it tonight at FL390 near Lincoln, NE. It was funny that tonight I mentioned to my co-captain having seen it and this thread talking about it, and five minutes later it went blazing by.
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
Station doesn't move to get sunlight on the panels. They are gimbaled to allow them to point into the sun at all times. Would take way too much fuel to move the station around to keep it pointed at the sun.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. Those engineers are some smart guys. I'll stick to flying airplanes. Was never good at calculus anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top