Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!news.cs.indiana.edu!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!kksys!wd0gol!newave!john
From: john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Mir in Mission Control?
Message-ID: <866@newave.UUCP>
Date: 10 Jun 91 01:20:57 GMT
References: <1991Jun07.061832.24261@ariel.unm.edu>
Reply-To: john@newave.mn.org (John A. Weeks III)
Organization: NeWave Communications Ltd, Eden Prairie, MN
Lines: 25

In article <1991Jun07.061832.24261@ariel.unm.edu> ollie@hydra.unm.edu (Ollie Eisman N6LTJ) writes:
> Has anyone else noticed that, on the Mercator projection tracking
> screen in Mission Control, an object that looks a lot like the Soviet
> space station "Mir" is being tracked?

Yes, it is Mir.  The shuttle will pass within eye-shot of Mir a few times.
I think the closest pass is something like 200 miles.  On one pass, the
announcer on NASA Select said that they were going to reorient the shuttle
to make Mir visible from one of the windows.

My personal speculation is that NASA is doing a bit of lobbying...seeing
that the Fred funding is up for vote again this week.  Pointing out Mir
is almost the same as pointing out that the US does not have a space station.

Notice that Mir and its orbit lines are colored red.

I have seen other objects tracked on NASA select, but they have always
been recently released payloads in the past.  An example is Hubble.

-john-

-- 
=============================================================================
John A. Weeks III               (612) 942-6969             john@newave.mn.org
NeWave Communications, Ltd.                        ...uunet!tcnet!newave!john