What the Shuttle Boosters Saw

[Brightonfan1983]

We were in Orlando staying in a Disney hotel. Walking back one night we spoke with some locals who were walking in the opposite direction, they told us what was happening and we followed them to this high bridge. We wasn't sure what we would see because we were 50 odd miles inland but the natives were convinced we would see everything. To cut a long one short, the sky just went orange and a few seconds later the shuttle went up, got a few photos, not brilliant but it was certainly a sight to behold. Your absolutely correct though, you can't get that close and the Cape Canaveral locals use it as an excuse for a piss up so it's not that pretty apparently!

Still sounds like something special. Sometimes, man-made things on this earth can easily make you marvel.

 

[nomoremithras4me]

Sounds very good nevertheless in real life - sounds and all!

Yeah it was, I was double excited, the kids were moaning about going to bed though because it was midnight

 

[Seagull on the wing]

Still sounds like something special. Sometimes, man-made things on this earth can easily make you marvel.

The Amex being one of them!!

 

[Barry Izbak]

Wow! I couldn't help but think about those poor bastards on Challenger which exploded after 73 seconds of its flight in 1986.

Watch the film again and keep an eye on the clock - until 73




Space Shuttle Challenger disaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Amazing video. What an incredible insight to how the system works. Surely it must all be pre-planned exactly where they seperate so that they can predict where the boosters will land?

The seperation will undoubtedly be planned down to the second, but with so many other factors to take into account from so high up, I would think it must be v.difficult to predict.

 

[Deleted member 22389]

I have seen similar footage but not as much detail as this video. That was excellent.

If anyone is interested SpaceX
This is private company who is taking over the roll of the shuttle. To start with they are just taking freight to the ISS, but eventually will carry astronauts.

[video]http://spacex.com/multimedia/videos.php?id=0[/video]

 

[element]

I read somewhere that the nearest viewing platform is four miles away, and when it takes off, the ground actually shakes. Prob not surprising when you think it takes in excess of a million horsepower to get the thing from standstill to hundreds of miles an hour vertically in a minute or so