-> ok... the shuttle pulls up to the ISS, makes its "gainer"
backflip for photo 
-> shots of the belly, and then comes up in front of the station to dock... in 
-> effect, the shuttle rises into the station since it is belly forward to the 
-> direction of travel... 
 
-> now, when one is watching NASA TV, the photos of the group's passage over th 
-> earth show the ground travel to be away from the belly of the shuttle instea 
-> of toward it as it was when the shuttle docked with the station... 
 
-> so... the question(s), how does this happen? do they pancake spin the statio 
-> after the shuttle has docked so the station is "pulling" it
instead of 
-> "pushing" it? if so, why? surely the belly of the shuttle
is much more 
-> protected than the open cargo bay? 
 
-> )\/(ark 
  
Surely the ISS doesn't rotate once every orbital revolution. If it did 
so, a lot of the "microgravity" experiments would get messed up. So the 
station's orientation is fixed in space, and as it goes around the 
earth, as seen from the station, the earth appears to go around it, 
sometimes moving "forward" and sometimes "backward". 
  
Protection has nothing to do with it. 
  
                         dow 
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