A shooting star or a satellite?

I realize I'm going to sound very paranoid, but I'd thought I'd get some opinions on this star/satellite I saw last night at a barbecue. Around 11:40 pm, I saw a bright light moving in the north. It was brighter and a bit larger than a star, but it wasn't huge. It was moving about the same speed as an airplane, but it was just this one white/yellow light. I saw it for about five seconds before it faded out and looked like a moving, faded star. It's hard to tell what direction it was going, but it looked like it was coming from my left (west) and was going east and down to the right a little, if that makes sense.

So, what was it? Can satellites fade out? Can shooting stars move slow like an airplane? Or am I just being paranoid?

I bet it was the space station with the shuttle.
It was visable last night but I missed it.

Originally Posted by mews2much

I bet it was the space station with the shuttle.
It was visable last night but I missed it.

Click to expand...

I think the shuttle's flight path is available on nasa.gov.

Originally Posted by mews2much

I bet it was the space station with the shuttle.
It was visable last night but I missed it.

Click to expand...

Yep, that's my guess too. It docked with the space station yesterday.

At the risk of revealing my age, when I was a child in the late 1950s and Sputnik was launched (first satellite by the Russians) my father got me up in the middle of the night to watch it pass overhead. Yes, we saw it, even though it was small, it reflected enough light to be visible to the naked eye.

I'm sure what you saw was not a star. It was either the space station or a satellite.