ISS, Tiangong, Satellites Over Puna

[TomK]

For those that haven't seen it, this re-entry of a satellite over the Pacific was captured by a camera on Mauna Kea last Thursday night.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-68264541

PS. For those concerned, the headline is wrong as this re-entry occurred a long way from Hawaii, and certainly didn't "blaze across Hawaii".

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

If the sky stays clear where you are there’s a short bright pass of the ISS tonight. Rising in the NW at 8:09 PM, moving toward the moon and Jupiter.  Only visible for a few minutes.i

[TomK]

Fortunately, the two stranded astronauts are back on Earth. Because the ISS's weight changed in the last few days, they had to do an extra burn to compensate, so I'm not sure if it was precisely where it should have been in those few minutes.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

If the clouds clear away, there’s another pass of the ISS tonight starting at 7:21 PM.  Rising in the NW, it will pass between the Big Dipper & moon-Mars-Jupiter.  Will be even brighter than last night.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

It’s been awhile since I posted about what goes on over Puna, but there’s a particularly bright pass of the ISS tonight, hopefully the sky stays clear:

Start 6:51 PM in the northwest 
Travels directly overhead toward the southeast 
-3.7 magnitude

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

It’s a clear night tonight, so the Chinese space station should be visible:

7:17 PM
Rising in the NW
Moving directly overhead

[TomK]

One of the astronauts on the ISS has a medical condition serious enough that NASA is planning to bring them back to Earth along with other astronauts. It won't be dramatic; they'll just launch a craft from the ISS that'll land back on Earth. I don't know when this will happen, but if it's around the time the ISS is visible from Hawaii, I'll let you know. It's very unlikely, though.

[TomK]

The ISS will be visible from the Big Island on Sunday, but will be very low in the west at around 18:20. The info I have right now is that the evacuation will occur around 14 to 15 January. The ISS will not be visible from Hawaii during those dates.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

The Artemis mission sending four astronauts around the moon in April is accepting names, your name, to include on the mission if you sign up before Jan 21.  Details:

https://www3.nasa.gov/send-your-name-with-artemis/

[TomK]

Nice! Why not have your name on the mission? In the meantime, the ISS medivac started several hours ago with a landing off the CA coast around 3 am +/- an hour or so. (I haven't checked the latest details). The vehicle used to recover the astronauts will cause a lightshow, but I'm pretty sure it'll be below the horizon for anyone on the East Coast of Hawaii.

21:55 HST: De-orbit burn should have started. I think the capsule will have a north-to-south track and will not be visible from Hawaii. It should land on the ocean west just of San Diego.

22:12: They discarded the trunk. Too many souvenirs stored there added weight. Maybe the odd bottle of whiskey as well. Trajectory corrected. The nose cone has also been closed, so assume oil and coolant are good.

22:15: Committed to meeting the in-laws, splash down.

22:20: Comms lost, no talking to the mother-in-law. Too much ionization around the capsule but try getting her to believe that.

22:22: Weather's good, no excuses now.

22:26: A couple of minutes from parachute deployment. Pray.

22:34: Fiery object observed but seems in one piece.

22:35. Communications back, crew OK, tears of joy.

22:38: Drogue parachutes successfully deployed. and all main parachutes deployed a little later.

22:42: A safe splashdown!

Kids - stay in school, the observatories in Hawaii offers routes for you to become part of this.