Space | 03. March 2011

Captured from ground: ATV Johannes Kepler and Space Shuttle Discovery docked with the ISS

On Tuesday, 1 March 2011, Dirk Ewers, one of our readers, caught the International Space Station (ISS) on camera, as it was passing overhead in the evening sky near Kassel in central Germany. Ewers has sent in the fantastic images that show ATV-2 Johannes Kepler and Space Shuttle Discovery docked with the ISS. Using almost 2000 of these individual images, he has put together a video sequence of the docked spacecraft passing almost directly overhead.

Kudos to Dirk for these amazing images!

Scroll down for an annotated image showing the locations of ATV 2 and the Shuttle.

 

 ISS with ATV and Space Shuttle Discovery

Images and video courtesy of: Dirk Ewers

A few days ago, NASA featured a similar image by Rob Bullen as their Image of the Day. Last year, Thilo Kranz, a staff member at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) took an outstanding image of the ISS transiting the Sun.

About the images:

Two Line Elements (TLE):

1 25544U 98067A 11059.94480917 .00003150 00000-0 27606-4 0 9183

2 25544 51.6462 356.0474 0005 066 22.5301 93.7337 15.72510241703869

Elevation: 85° north (maximum)

Distance: 358 kilometres (minimum)

Overall length of truss structure (S6/S5/S4/S3/S1/S0/P1/P3/P4/P5/P6): 100.4 metres = 57.85 arcseconds (theoretical maximum)

Speed: 27,710 kilometres per hour

Time: 19:25 CET, 1 March 2011

Location: Hombressen near Kassel, Germany

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