Replies to post #20080 on The Question and Answer Board (IHUB)

[greg s]

bob,

The moon is 384,400 km from earth. The shuttle was just over 200,000 ft altitude when the event occurred.

FWIW

This is very sad.

greg.
Intel board - #board-369
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[excel]

Bob. They were on their way back. Thus the 200,000.

Excel

Release the past; enjoy the present; Embarq the future!

[Rick Faurot]

Catastrophe occurred at 200,000 feet above surface.

[MSC290]

Typical satellite heights from the web.

These types of satellites, designed to get a sneaky or large-scale view of the world, all orbit close enough (about 300 to 600 miles up) to be seen as they reflect sunlight. These spacecraft will often seem to disappear when streaking across the night sky, a phenomenon caused when a satellite's orbit takes it behind Earth's shadow.