# shuttle launch as seen from space?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shuttle-launch-as-seen-from-space/78138>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 26, 2001, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shuttle-launch-as-seen-from-space/78138 "2001-08-26T01:13:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![fecal\_nugget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b38774/32.png) [@fecal\_nugget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fecal_nugget)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2001, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shuttle-launch-as-seen-from-space/78138/1 "2001-08-26T01:13:05Z")

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I was thinking earlier about how cool a shuttle (or any other spacecraft) launch would look from orbit, does anyone know if there is any footage of, say, the suttle coming up through the atmosphere to meet Alpha or MIR? Are launches ever done when there is another (manned) sat in orbit overhead where the launch might be visable? How close would one have to be to see it from space?

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**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2001, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shuttle-launch-as-seen-from-space/78138/2 "2001-08-26T02:30:26Z")

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I don’t think you are going to find the kind of images you are looking for. It’s not that it can’t be done, but a lens with a angle of view narrow enough to see a shuttle from more than a few dozen miles will be extremely difficult to keep on target. I’m sure all the parties have better things to spend their resources on.

FWIW the closest example I can think of is the television sensor unit in an F-14. Not sure about the current unit but the one used in the early eighties made it possible to read side numbers at ten miles. Well and good for the final part of the approach but watching the shuttle launch is more like hundreds of miles.

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**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2001, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shuttle-launch-as-seen-from-space/78138/3 "2001-08-26T02:49:38Z")

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[This page](http://www.actgate.com/act/actpage.htm) contains a picture of a “Rocket launch image as seen from space by the LACE/UVPI satellite”, taken in the ultraviolet. It’s probably not what you’re thinking of, though: it’s basically just a multi-colored, computer-processed blob.

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**Author:** ![fecal\_nugget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b38774/32.png) [@fecal\_nugget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fecal_nugget)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2001, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shuttle-launch-as-seen-from-space/78138/4 "2001-08-26T03:13:26Z")

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Padeye: all the launches that i’ve seen are acompanied by a large (2x the width of the shuttle, than widening to about 4x) column of smoke that i would tink would be visable from orbit even with a wide-angle (90° or so) lens, as the column can be seen from the ground right up when the SRBs are ejected. It seems to be pretty easy to find a spacecraft at the end of a huge line of smoke.  
the satellite that MEBuckner linked to obviously was able to get a launch in it’s viewfinder, so isn’t impossible. I’m willing to bet there is someone at NASA who wanted pictures of this (they take pictures of _everything_), so they’re probably floating around (space-pun unintended) out there somewhere. maybe i’ll dig around some more at NASA’s website.