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The Shuttle's Orbit

During STS-81, the space shuttle will rendezvous and dock with Mir, the Russian space station. The orbit designers for STS-81 have to design the shuttle's orbit so that it intercepts Mir on the third or fourth day of flight. The shuttle and Mir stay joined together, orbiting the Earth for four to five days. The shuttle then undocks from Mir and remains in orbit for two to three days before landing.

Important Fact about Mir's Orbit:

The Mir space station is in a circular orbit around the Earth at an altitude of 250 miles and inclination of 51.6°.

Shuttle's Orbit Before Docking

The shuttle is launched into a 51.6 degree inclination orbit to match Mir's. The shuttle is accelerated to about 17,500 miles per hour into a circular orbit around the Earth. The shuttle is put into an orbit with an altitude of 200 miles, lower than Mir's. To maintain this orbit, no more propulsion is necessary except for occasional minor adjustments.

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Interesting Fact:

The Shuttle is in a low Earth orbit, extremely close to the ground, when you consider that the radius of the Earth is roughly 4000 miles (20 times the shuttle's altitude).

To put low Earth orbits like the shuttle's in perspective: Imagine the Earth is the size of a peach--then a typical shuttle orbit would be just above the fuzz.

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