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View Full Version : Riding Shotgun on a space shuttle Solid Rocket Booster



Mike C.
03-19-2012, 07:41 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2aCOyOvOw5c#!


Probably the coolest view of a shuttle ride I have ever seen!

vwdmc16
03-19-2012, 09:16 PM
Hell yeah, that was awesome.

pezzonovante88
03-19-2012, 09:25 PM
0-60mph in 4 sec. 0-2962mph in 118 sec. Pretty fast off the line, but I think its geared more for top-speed.:giddy:

jackb
03-19-2012, 09:41 PM
0-mach in 40 seconds. That's cool.

dmc6960
03-19-2012, 11:37 PM
Sign me up! Always been a fan of spaceflight! If I ever had the opportunity to fly in space, orbital or suborbital, I would do it in a heartbeat. You can call me crazy, but my wedding date was actually planned around the anticipation of a shuttle launch while honeymooning in Orlando. 10 months after the date was picked and the honeymoon was booked, I was up close and personal for the launch of STS-120 on October 21st, 2007.

Oh yeah!

9119

Mark C
03-20-2012, 01:11 AM
My dad took me to a shuttle launch in '81 in style. His job was flying a small plane around the Southeast servicing aviation ground equipment, so after a job in Orlando, he flew us over and circled the shuttle during a launch. These are the only pictures I could find quickly, but I have more somewhere that were closer before the launch. The funny part is that my brother got in trouble at school for lying when he told his friends about it the next day.

SIMid
03-20-2012, 01:36 AM
Saw this on FB. Awesome stuff! I wonder what the cameras used and how they survived the speed and also the re-entry? Very impressive.

dmc6960
03-20-2012, 01:42 AM
Cameras are in a hardened enclosure. The boosters only fly at a few times the speed of sound so reentry heating is relatively minimal. The rotation imparted on them by the separation helps spread out the thermal loads through the whole booster. They are recovered only hours after launch so only have little time in the open ocean with no support vessel. With the shuttle now retired I'm rooting for SpaceX to launch the next Americans into orbit from our soil. Looking forward to their first space station docking hopefully in early May.

Lenny
03-20-2012, 10:01 AM
It is embarrassing that we have to use the Russians to go into space. When I pay my taxes they go to NASA, National Parks, and Highway maintenance. You guys pay for welfare and crack addicts.:frantic:

At least thats what I tell myself:hihi2:

dvonk
03-21-2012, 01:35 AM
no words, no music... yet so much information gleaned just from watching! definitely one of the coolest videos ive seen in a while. :headbang:


If I ever had the opportunity to fly in space, orbital or suborbital, I would do it in a heartbeat.

+1000. going into space has been on my 'bucket list' before i even knew what The Bucket List (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bucket_List) was. :lol:

the fact that Spaceport America (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceport_America) exists is very exciting!

TTait
04-05-2012, 01:44 AM
Saw this on FB. Awesome stuff! I wonder what the cameras used and how they survived the speed and also the re-entry? Very impressive.

We have been doing that for decades. During the cold war canisters of film were ejected from satellites one at a time and dropped back to earth, where a plane would snag it by its parachute shroud lines in mid air before it even hit the ground.

This imagery is also sent to Nasa live in real time in case the camera does not survive. The fact that they can keep the signal running in real time is no small feat either. Time Warner cable has a hard time keeping signal running through stationary cables and fiber.

I got to walk up to Discovery about a year ago the night before she last rolled out to the pad - the tank was not fueled, but the SRBs were ready to go. At first we thought the guide was mistaken about the shuttle being in the building, as you walk in and don't see it. Turns out the VAB is so massive that the shuttle was tucked off in a "little" bay off to the side where you didn't even notice it at first.

The fact my guide rolled out was along the lines of more explosive power 50 feet from me than the Hiroshima bomb. Cell phones had to be left about 300 years away in the van lest the transmitter somehow trigger something and blow us all to bits. Seemed a little odd, but we left our cell phones behind anyway. Chilling to be in the same (big) room as something that volatile just waiting for a spark...