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Earth observation taken during STS-98 mission
Summary
STS098-716-034 (18 February 2001) --- This east-to-west orbital view of the Inn River Valley of southern Austria was photographed by one the crew members of Atlantis during Space Shuttle Mission STS-98 on February 18, 2001, as the spacecraft orbited Earth at an altitude of 173 nautical miles (320 kilometers). Despite the heavy ground fog in the lower valleys, this 70mm handheld camera's photo provides a strikingly detailed view of the Italian, Swiss and Austrian Alps of central Europe. For example, the famous Brenner Pass, an historic gateway connecting Italy to the rest of Europe, can be seen in the left central foreground. The Austrian city of Innsbruck on the Inn River, scene of the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics, and normally visible in great detail, is completely masked by heavy ground fog. Center coordinates of the pictured area are located at 47.5 degrees north latitude and 12.5 degrees east longitude.
The Space Shuttle program was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, administered by NASA and officially beginning in 1972. The Space Shuttle system—composed of an orbiter launched with two reusable solid rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank— carried up to eight astronauts and up to 50,000 lb (23,000 kg) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the orbiter would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and lands as a glider. Although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s, the program formally commenced in 1972 and was the focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid-1970s. It started with the launch of the first shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981, on STS-1. and finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown by Atlantis, in July 2011.
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