Flight Question How to determine launch window

[SteFF]

Hi all! Excuse me for my bad English.
I have a question that closely connect with Space Shuttle launching.
How can I determine launch window for Shuttle mission to ISS, for example? I understand, that I should catch the moment, when ISS' orbit plane cross my start position (ex. Cape Canaveral). When I make a scenario, I should determine a date when it will happen. But looking at map or at MFD "Allign palnes" and waiting my Bingo! (with time acceleration or in scenario editor) is very boring...
Is there any methods to determine this moment only using calc or something else?
P.S. Using real shuttle launching shedules is not comfortable because my orbital parameters of ISS and real parameters in launch date may be different...

Thanks a lot!

 

[Fabri91]

First, welcome to OF!

You might be interesten in [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2802"]LaunchMFD[/ame], which is also quite useful as a heading guidance during launch in order to achieve a small relative inclination to your target's orbit.

 

[insanity]

Open up your 'Align Planes' MFD, when the ISS is near (say less than 300 seconds) a node (AN or DN), use the equations here to determine the proper heading. Launch MFD is essentially doing the same thing but can provide real-time feedback that can help improve your Rinc thus lowering the dV cost and time of more plane alignments.

 

[Cras]

Launch MFD will certainly help with finding intersections, but if you want to launch the Shuttle to the ISS, you need to pick a correct intersection, one where when you get into orbit, the ISS is still in front of you.

There are intersections where if you launch at, you will be infront of the station, and it will take too long to catch up.

Since the Shuttle approached the station from underneath the station on the R-Bar, the Shuttle needs to be at a lower orbit than the ISS. That is why when you get into orbit, you want the ISS to be infront of you.

To be more specific, NASA launched the Shuttle so the ISS was such a distance in front of the Orbiter that it took little over two days to catch up.

But since the default Shuttle nor Shuttle Fleet has constraints such as oxygen levels (but does have limited fuel for the OMS pods), waiting the extra time is not a game breaker, but its just something to keep in mind.