I did some more research on the upcoming flight of Endeavour. It appears that there will not be any visible passes of the ISS between the Shuttle’s launch and its docking.
The launch window runs from 11Mar08 through 23Mar08. But because DoD is going to launch a satellite on Mar08 and the requirement for 48 hours space between launches there is a blackout of the launch window from 13Mar08 through 16Mar08.
There are two types of windows that alternate days. The short, 10-minute window results in a docking on the third mission day while if they launch in the normal 10-minute window on the next day they dock on mission day 3 while if they go into the 10-minute extension of that window they have to dock on mission day 4.
| Launch Window | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opens EDT | In Plane* EDT | Closes EDT | Docks Flight Day | |
| 11Mar08 | 0223 | 0228 | 0233 | 3 |
| 12Mar08 | 0157 | 0202 | 0210 | 3/4 |
| 13Mar08+ | 0134 | 0139 | 0144 | 3 |
| 14Mar08+ | 0109 | 0114 | 0122 | 3/4 |
| 15Mar08+ | 0046 | 0051 | 0056 | 3 |
| 16Mar08+ | 0020 | 0025 | 0034 | 3/4 |
| 17Mar08 | 2358 | 0003 | 0003 | 3 |
| 17Mar08 | 2332 | 2337 | 2342 | 3 |
| 18Mar08 | 2310 | 2315 | 2320 | 3/4 |
| 19Mar08 | 2244 | 2241 | 2254 | 3 |
| 20Mar08 | 2221 | 2221 | 2231 | 3/4 |
| 21Mar08 | 2156 | 2201 | 2206 | 3 |
| 22Mar08 | 2133 | 2138 | 2143 | 4 |
| 23Mar08 | 2107 | 2112 | 2117 | 3 |
| In Plane* - optimal launch time
1#Mar08+ - launch standdown due to DoD launch | ||||
There are five spacewalks scheduled for this mission. That sounds like a record to me but that isn't something I have been tracking.
The mission schedule for this mission is a little screwy because the crew day starts in the middle of the night so mission days do not correspond to calendar days.
