Speaking of cool Shuttle video, Nancy Atkinson at Universe Today posted a YouTube video taken from one of the Shuttle’s Solid Rocket Boosters. It’s been put to music, and it’s pretty cool.
Pay particular attention a little after 2:20 into it, then watch to the end, and boggle that we humans can do such things.
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The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.
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 | Bad Astronomy was chosen as one of Time.com's Best Blogs of 2009. |
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March 22nd, 2008 at 2:56 pm
That was slick. I liked the radio conversation when the the shuttle commander was speaking. You can really tell that is one heck of a rough and bumpy ride as he sounded like he was in the middle of getting mugged.
That ending was awesome. I’m still amazed that they get those SRB’s back, and I’m really stunned that they can actually mount a camera on those things.
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:56 pm
That’s so cool!
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:59 pm
That galaxy at the end: is it supposed to be ours? It doesn’t appear to be a barred one!
(Thanks to you, BA, I can now better recognize my own galaxy should I see it from far away)
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Abso-frakking-lutely amazing! What a wonderful video! My daughter (17) just rolled her eyes and proclaimed that I just had a nerdgasm. i can’t really argue with that.
Thanks for posting this, Phil.
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Wow… Very cool. I like all the sparks that fly by when they fall down.
I think I remember a video of one falling back down during the day. Was pretty sweet
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Videos like this reboot my sense of wonder. Thanks for posting this. Great music, too!
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Oooooh! Pretty fireworks!
Expensive fireworks too!
D
Yay, yoomans! We rool! ;o)
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Very nice. Jethro Tull is a favorite. In 2005, several friends and I launched a 14 foot long rocket to 12,000 feet. We got nowhere near the two minute burn of the SRB (only 7 seconds) but we had/have dreams of building something in that class. Video is up on a site (I think) if Phil says it’s ok to post the url.
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Nice! The music is a heavily orchestrated version of “Fly By Night” from Ian Anderson’s 1st solo album.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Beautiful. Last launch my colleague and I were watching NASA TV online and they had a live video from the disposable fuel tank. It cut loose, the shuttle drifted away, and the tank slowly tilted back towards Earth — you could see the curvature and the oceans — and then they cut it off! Dang!
It was fantastic. I have got to go see a launch one of these days, now I’m close by. Hell, I shoulda gone outside the other morning and looked north.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:05 pm
It suggested this one to me, showing everything from launch through watering of the SRB:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK4j7Ypod4s
didn’t know they use parachutes.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Great video, but I also like the one that goes through splashdown and then waits, floating, wondering if anyone will ever come for recovery… that’s the spookiest one.
I hate to cause a stir, but that music is chee-zee. Sorry.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I always wait for the SRB camera videos after a launch. I especially like watching the Shuttle fly off, and watching the Earth and Sun spin around while the SRBs stay in the same relative orientation. (Yes, I am a big nerd, in case you were wondering!)
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I prefer them without the music and with the natural sound:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iurxEhL4UM
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Okay, this is some thing I don’t usually do, but watching the video made me think of the opening line; and from there I could not resist but to finish off the rest of the poem below.
Oh, and all critics are welcome to comment but please remember I am a Systems Administrator and not a poet. I am used to creating masterworks with cables, servers and code, not words
==============================
They say that I shall never see,
Anything as lovely as a tree.
However I humbly disagree,
There is much beauty in the SRB.
The tree does sit, and does not stir,
Whilst the SRB does growl and purr.
During its life much does occur,
But spaceward bound it must not err.
While it seems it has one task,
It does of it what we ask.
But it did its job with such grace,
That it put many a dancer to disgrace.
The sights it shows are beyond compare,
As it soars majestically through the air.
The things that I would never see,
If it wasn’t for the SRB.
The design, the build, the launch, the return,
The lessons it teaches and what we learn.
There is beauty in each of the above,
It is things like this that I do love.
So enjoy your trees if you must,
And look at me with utter disgust.
It worries me not, for in my eyes,
There is much more beauty in the skies.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Phil, you’re missing a meta-message here: “NASA rocks!” This is indeed a fact(?) that the Agency has been trying to communicate with a vengeance recently: e.g. a news conference on January 24th dealing with Earth observation satellites began – in the presence of Mike Griffin – with a lengthy promo video cut to pretty hard rock music. (I liked it a lock but tried in vain to track it down on the web.) This all seems to be part of a new effort to reach out to ‘generation Y’ that NASA feels its losing bigtime …
Now for us old-generation nerds, a ‘cleaner’ version of the STS-123 SRB videos has thankfully been put on YouTube as well, as I had announced two days ago, together with a list of the best moments.
March 22nd, 2008 at 6:07 pm
The Tull accompaniment was inspired.
There’s a beautiful song Phil and others might like called “Orion” on the Stormwatch album. Yes, it’s actually about the constellation!
Ian manages to convey what sounds to me like the sound of starlight at the end. The whole song, music and lyrics, is very imaginative and evocative.
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:24 pm
I am always shocked by launch. The power it takes to get orbit is immense. One day we will miss the shuttles. I think they are overpriced, somewhat clumsy, and never did what was promised in the ’70′s but they do have their own charm. Nasa really has stepped up with some major station production, in an attempt to finish the ISS. I am very happy to see some progress. For all the criticism that many have for the station, it is a great testing ground. The processes and abilities it has developed, such as robotics, working out sufficient backups and temperature and power systems, is doing some good. It will not be long before larger crews can get experience in space and in space operations. I love watching the space walks.
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
I have been coming to this site since the night I heard that slime specimen Bart Sibrel on C2C about two years ago, and was looking for good HB debunking sites. Since then, I have enjoyed the posts and debates on many subjects. I have always enjoyed astronomy (my dad was an astronomer, didn’t stand a chance I guess) and this has been a great source of astronomical facts and tidbits.
In all that time I have never had one of your posts literally and actually take my breath away as this one did. The site of the shuttle moving away from the solid rocket boosters on its own rocket was like a vindication of all the science fiction I had read as a child and gave me that same sense of awe and wonder, only multiplied a hundred times because I was watching reality.
Thanks for the fantastic post and keep up the good work.
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:03 am
BA, I don’t know why, but that literally brought tears to my eyes….
Thanks for that!
March 23rd, 2008 at 7:20 am
No stars? Must be another hoax from NASA.
By the way, dre, congratulations. You may well be the first person in the two million year history of mankind (or 6000 year history if you’re a creationist) to call Jethro Tull “chee-zee.”
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:13 am
I got quite a boost (bad pun intended) by the final logo which said “NASA – 50 years”, which means that NASA and I are the same age this year.
I gotta get a t-shirt with that logo and wear it on my birthday!
March 23rd, 2008 at 11:22 am
The finale is a great July 4 preview.
March 23rd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
This is an uninformed query: how does NASA keep the spent boosters afloat?
Will. M
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I’ve seen a number of ‘rocket-cam’ movies and when I first watched that my first impression was the music was intrusive.
But no – it still astonishes me how quickly the Orbiter leaps away after SRB separation, and how the engineers and scientists achieve this.
It is bloody amazing. And now I do like the music.
And remember this is an old machine – you Americans did this 27 years ago more or less – you should be very proud of that.
Nic
March 24th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Great video (didn’t hear the sound so can’t comment on the music)!
And I agree it’s fantastic what humans can do when they apply science and engineering knowledge.
I still think we are unnecessarily endangering crew members, as the scientific value of what they are personally doing is so insignificant compared to the known risks they face in the spacecraft we have available today.
Virtually every single thing humans are doing in space today could be done far more inexpensively (and certainly with far less risk to human life) by machines that those same clever engineers and scientists could create.
That said, my position does not take away any of my respect and admiration for the Space Shuttle and ISS crews; I will follow their adventures closely. But as a taxpayer of this country, I can’t help but feel partially responsible every time they face a unnecessary risk or are involved in an easily avoidable tragedy. Every time they enter a high-risk phase of a mission, my anxiety builds as I know so well the frighteningly high likelyhood that a catastrophic failure may resuilt.
Let’s work on engineering solutions that have much lower risks of failure, and perhaps even much higher scientific returns, before we ask Astronauts to put their lives on the line for us.
Sorry, I fell back onto my soapbox again.
Have a safe return trip, Endeavor!
March 24th, 2008 at 4:38 am
@ bigfoot: Good thing that people like Columbus, de Gama and Megellan didn’t feel the same the way.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:35 am
I don’t think it’s necessary to ask an Astronaut to put his/her life on the line. Last I checked, the line of people goes around the block to volunteer for this.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Newbie,
You are right. Also I recently read an article saying that a “One Way Trip to Mars” makes the most sense to establish a human beach-head there. Essentially a suicide mission. You can bet that people would line up around the block to volunteer for that as well!
March 24th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
The links in this thread were more amazing. Watching the boosters tumble back down to Earth was remarkable. I actually thought they’d get dragged a long way from one another but you see in the SRB video that the other came down very nearby. The natural sound brought back “2001″ memories. At first I thought the Earth was the sun, and the space/sky was Earth. Until it inverted. What a neat illusion.
How do those parachutes work? There was 3 stages of deployment it looked like. Or was it due to a pressure change?
March 25th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Did anyone else feel a sense of exhileration when the SRBs seperated and the Shuttle with the external tank sped away? (at about 2:26)
This was awesome, thank you for sharing.
March 26th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
That was great! Hey, I have a question.
Why don’t spacecraft need heat shielding on the way up? Aren’t they traveling at a speed similar to what they’re at on the way down?