I would prefer something downloadable, even if it is in the 30 MB range.

Ok, I’ve picked myself up now. Watch, them again, show them to space geek girlfriend (yeah, I’m a lucky guy to have a space geek girlfriend!). Look at them again, post a link to my Astronomy club website….look at them again…now figure out a way to look at them one more time on my Linux computer at work.

Stunning, amazing, cooler than cool, awesome…..

Tom

Download the program VLC for the mac:

videolan.org/vlc/

It is an amazing program for playing videos of nearly every format available. I am sure that you will be able to play these videos using it.

Frustrated.

Jean-Denis

I wonder what that bright white object was that appeared to be in space (about 1 a.u.) as the booster rotated?

The larger particles in the movie could be solid rocket motor (SRM) slag. This is the gooey sticky stuff that is cm in size that sticks to the nozzles and is sloughed off at much lower velocity.

You can see a picture of slag here:
http://www.orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/photogallery/photogallery.html

Slag particles are another population of man-made debris in Earth orbit, especially when satellites are boosted from low earth orbit to geostationary orbit.

The next time I hear someone say crop circles couldn’t have been made by humans, I think I’ll show them this video.

Not that it will convince them or anything but still…

Cool. Thanks Phil for the links.

But then at 2:15 the Shuttle makes a maneuver, and you can see the plume from the rockets, now many miles long, twisting, writhing, stretching all the way back to the launch tower. It’s not hard to imagine it as an umbilicus attaching the Shuttle to the ground. The sight of the plume is unreal, and amazing. What’s also odd is I realized I had been seeing it for quite some time before 2:15, but it was dark and hard to recognize.

I saw the same thing when trying to get oriented on the image background. The long dark stripe up the top of the screen is the shadow of the plume, which becomes visible at about 2:15.

Then, at 3:00, the booster separates, another phenomenal sequence. It tumbles, and you can clearly see the Earth spinning below, the black sky above.

I was also trying to figure out what the bright spot was. I noticed the image brightening and darkening – is that the aperature adjusting for brightness? Where is the Sun in the sky?

Did you see the stuff coming off the SRB just before splashdown? Actual metal things.

dre said:

from the rear-looking camera, watch for the ignition of the orbiter engines: you can see the whole shuttle/tank/booster system flex under the power of the mains.

If you watch from the traditional external view, you can see when the mains kick in, the whole stack rotates away from the pulse, then swings back. They time the tie down bolts to release right as it reaches upright on the backswing. That’s when the SRBs kick in.

also, i was surprised to see that the boosters keep sputtering right up until splashdown (noted by Wayne above). are they finally extinguished by seawater as it fills the combustion chamber?

don’t dismiss the long underwater shot on the forward-looking camera. that was the most affecting video of all for me. a brief ride into space, then waiting, waiting, waiting for somebody to come pick you up… i was really hoping to see some fish, or maybe some dolphins stealing our technology, but alas, only paint flecks tumbling into the deep…