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A Japanese science fan who had wanted to see the orbits of satellite developed an online satellite tracker, which took him to see a space shuttle launching with his own eyes.

The online satellite tracker, GoogleSatTrack shows the orbits and the current locations of the satellites on a world map. It was developed by Isana Kashiwai, an editor and writer.

Not only did Isana share the great online application, he also shared a dream-come-true story that moves the readers on his website.

After it was opened online, he got an email from a person who is a prominent figure in the space news.

The email read “I cover space flight for CBS News, and this is a great help.”

The sender was a producer of CBN space news, and he told Isana that he was checking the tracker with Bill Harwood from Space Place, and they liked it. According to Isao, Bill Harwood is super famous among space and NASA fans.

To comply with their requests, he spent all his free time on improving the GoogleSatTrack for the next two weeks. As soon as he opened the new version, the visitors to his website increased explosively because GoogleSatTrack was linked by many space stations in the world.

What is more, he’s got a letter from NASA!!!!!! 😯

Opened the letter with shaky hands, Isana saw it went “National Aeronautics and Space Administration cordially invited you…” He cried but he didn’t know why tears flow down.

In his website, he wrote “I didn’t do anything special. I just made it (the tracker) because I wanted it. But there are people that like it in all the world. Many people call it cool or great… To top it all, I got invitation from the place where I had dreamed of since I was a child.”

In May 2008, Isana went to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to see a space shuttle launching. During the countdown, he thought back how it started and the chain of coincidence that brought him there.

“I always wanted to come here, but I never imagined that the dream would come true like this.”

You never know what’s going to happen. Isana’s story told us that passion and effort take us closer to our dreams.

GoogleSatTrack is on the right header in the CBS News Space (http://www.cbsnews.com/network/news/space/home/index.html).

Source: Isana Kashiwai’s Website (Japanese)

This is JAPAN Style!