Riding Shotgun on a space shuttle Solid Rocket Booster

[Mike C.]

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

[vwdmc16]

Hell yeah, that was awesome.

[pezzonovante88]

0-60mph in 4 sec. 0-2962mph in 118 sec. Pretty fast off the line, but I think its geared more for top-speed.

[jackb]

0-mach in 40 seconds. That's cool.

[dmc6960]

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!

sts120launch.jpg

[Mark C]

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]

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]

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]

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.

At least thats what I tell myself

[dvonk]

no words, no music... yet so much information gleaned just from watching! definitely one of the coolest videos ive seen in a while.

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 was.

the fact that Spaceport America exists is very exciting!