Comments on: What goes up

What goes up

mattoxic — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:53 -0800

Blast into Space, Spectacular Fall to Earth {SYTL}

By: America

America — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:02:47 -0800

I think there is something in my eye...

By: philip-random

philip-random — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:12:06 -0800

NASA has the best special effects.

By: Solon and Thanks

Solon and Thanks — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:12:55 -0800

I feel kind of bad for the rocket boosters (in the illogical way one feels bad for inanimate objects.) They get so close to space.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:24:59 -0800

Spectacular. It is rocket science.

By: dirtynumbangelboy

dirtynumbangelboy — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:38:20 -0800

"Oh no, not again."

By: tawny

tawny — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:20:56 -0800

That was absolutely amazing. Especially the bit when the booster gets attacked by a giant jellyfish at the end.

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:24:51 -0800

Double?

By: bystander

bystander — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:43:29 -0800

nice.

By: armage

armage — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:54:00 -0800

Double? That was from STS-124, this one is from STS-125, so technically, not a double. Cool post at any rate. Stuff like this reminds me that no matter what, space travel is never routine and always interesting.

By: Senator

Senator — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:49:57 -0800

It was even better when I put 'Drifting' by Jimi Hendrix on in the background.

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:00:43 -0800

That was from STS-124, this one is from STS-125, so technically, not a double. So nyeeeer I kid, I kid because I don't really care

By: Uppity Pigeon #2

Uppity Pigeon #2 — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:52:48 -0800

Eh. Kind of lame. I did the same thing yesterday. Actually, wait. My bad. Just put my glasses on. Turns out it was a video of a rocket made out of fire and human ingenuity blasting through the Earth's invisible carapace, instead of a video of some dick watching a horror movie about flying piranhas and drinking cheap vodka. In my defense, that's pretty close to NASA's accomplishments. Right?

By: The Monkey

The Monkey — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:11:55 -0800

Delightful. Good work America, thank you for making the world such nice things as this.

By: twine42

twine42 — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:14:49 -0800

I getting old... I used to think "Space Rockets! COOL!" Now I just make irrelevant comparisons to the particulate limits they've put on my car emissions...

By: punkfloyd

punkfloyd — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:35:52 -0800

And whitey's on the moon.

By: jjj606

jjj606 — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:56:37 -0800

The Dayvan Cowboy video.

By: Mastercheddaar

Mastercheddaar — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:14:15 -0800

I feel ripped off. After reading the description I was half expecting a bunch of NASA nerds to be running away with their hands and arms over their heads in a field somewhere. With one of them quoted saying " SHIT! Run it's coming right for us!"

By: steef

steef — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:15:08 -0800

This is a neat story: they accidentally got a knob wedged against the cockpit window on STS-125, which threatened to scrap the whole orbiter. They finally got it unstuck, but they're still evaluating the damage, if any. Apparently, you can't just call the auto-glass place to drive out and pop in a new windshield for these things.

By: marginaliana

marginaliana — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:20:57 -0800

I just never get tired of watching things like this. It's just so utterly fucking beautiful. Especially at the breakaway at 2:51. I get shivers.

By: hillabeans

hillabeans — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:22:40 -0800

from the perspective of space bat!

By: anthill

anthill — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:35:26 -0800

2:33 and 2:56 are breathtaking.

By: lazaruslong

lazaruslong — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:55:10 -0800

So incredibly gorgeous. I have always wondered: Why does the shuttle rotate and accelerate "upside down"?

By: cellphone

cellphone — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:55:38 -0800

Meh.

By: bitmage

bitmage — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:07:04 -0800

Why does the shuttle rotate and accelerate "upside down"? See here. And if all this gives you is a 'Meh', then I pity you.

By: bitmage

bitmage — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:09:44 -0800

Or, if you prefer it straight from NASA: "During the vertical rise phase, the launch pad attitude is commanded until an I-loaded V(rel) sufficient to assure launch tower clearance is achieved. Then, the tilt maneuver (roll program) orients the vehicle to a heads down attitude required to generate a negative q-alpha, which in turn alleviates structural loading. Other advantages with this attitude are performance gain, decreased abort maneuver complexity, improved S-band look angles, and crew view of the horizon. The tilt maneuver is also required to start gaining downrange velocity to achieve the main engine cutoff (MECO) target in second stage."

By: Lipstick Thespian

Lipstick Thespian — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:13:44 -0800

"During the vertical rise phase, the launch pad attitude is commanded until an I-loaded V(rel) sufficient to assure launch tower clearance is achieved. Then, the tilt maneuver (roll program) orients the vehicle to a heads down attitude required to generate a negative q-alpha, which in turn alleviates structural loading. Other advantages with this attitude are performance gain, decreased abort maneuver complexity, improved S-band look angles, and crew view of the horizon. The tilt maneuver is also required to start gaining downrange velocity to achieve the main engine cutoff (MECO) target in second stage." This is also how I described my first date ever.

By: lazaruslong

lazaruslong — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:20:08 -0800

By: bitmage

bitmage — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:29:12 -0800

Hey thanks! Mind if I pick your brain a little about this? Alas, you won't find much - but if you click on the NASA link in my post, you'll find translation from someone much better qualified. (Although I do know that S-band is a frequency range...)

By: Xoebe

Xoebe — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:35:14 -0800

So cool! I have been wanting to see video of this since they started launching the Shuttle.

By: vibrotronica

vibrotronica — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:41:31 -0800

I have always wondered: Why does the shuttle rotate and accelerate "upside down"? The initial climb to orbit is upside-down because the external tank would interfere with radio communication otherwise. The astronauts are pressed into their seats with 3gs of acceleration, so it doesn't make any difference to them.

By: vibrotronica

vibrotronica — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:42:44 -0800

And also the other stuff.

By: rlk

rlk — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:54:38 -0800

I thought this was going to be a repackaging of the STS-124 video (which MrMoonPie was kind enough to find for me), but having watched it, I feel it pales in comparison to the earlier video. It's all about the sound. The onset and retreat of the wind as they tumble... just as their angle of attack correctly aligns with their velocity, the rarefied atmosphere plays them like organ pipes. The slow increase in intensity with each turn lets you feel the stress and strain pile up as the air thickens. What builds to a deafening, constant roar, finally subsides to a relative breeze as we decelerate to terminal velocity. No music or sound design can accompany that visual the same way. (Not to mention the beautiful moment at 4:38 when the camera captures a view not only of the twin SRB contrails, but also of the pillar of smoke leading back to KSC.)

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:55:30 -0800

Delta II Rocket explosion. Mind where you park.

By: Bookhouse

Bookhouse — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:00:29 -0800

I also came in the thread to post the "Dayvan Cowboy" video, featuring footage from a 100,000 skydive, which is what I watch when I want to be reminded that life is pretty neato. But this video is a close second. Thanks for the post.

By: echo target

echo target — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:13:18 -0800

My favorite part is that the Youtube commenters seem to think there was a real live cameraman just hanging out on the side of the booster for that whole sequence.

By: elfgirl

elfgirl — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:19:41 -0800

It's all about the sound. Agreed. When I first saw one of these videos (for STS-114, I think?), the thing that struck me most was the overwhelming sound of the launch that slowly faded to an almost eerie silence after the boosters fell away. Then the noise slowly builds up again as they hit atmosphere and you get the awesome resonances. Very, very cool.

By: orme

orme — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:19:42 -0800

i'm glad that cameraman is okay! he's really brave!

By: WolfDaddy

WolfDaddy — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:24:10 -0800

Delta II Rocket explosion. Mind where you park. When I lived in Santa Barbara I was witness to a rocket that was destroyed on purpose (something had gone wrong with the guidance systems or something) not very long after its launch. I've never seen anything like it before or since. It started as a tiny white 4-pointed star that just got bigger and brighter and bigger and brighter until it hurt to look at it, expanding outward and assuming a cloudy circular shape that took up a very large portion of my view of the sky. It really freaked me out at first, but then the pot kicked back in and I thought cool, that looks just like one of those space-time anomalies the Enterprise always goes into/comes out of on Star Trek!

By: misha

misha — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:43:31 -0800

One of the best parts of living in Florida, being able to walk out your front door and watch the shuttle take off from your lawn. Night launches are even more spectacular.

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:48:44 -0800

I find it truly spectacular and, honestly, a bit scary that we all live less than a 3 minute flight away from the vast emptyness of space. It makes the world seem like a much smaller place and humanity a bigger mover and shaker than I normally give us credit for.

By: bitmage

bitmage — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:30:27 -0800

Hmm. I see it more that we are a very fragile organism, able to live only in a narrow band atop a fortunately wet ball of rock that is orbiting its star at just the right distance. And we still can surpass all those limitations and exist in the void of space, when we put our minds to it. Unfortunately we're usually putting our minds to squabbling over pieces of dirt or pieces of paper, instead of the voyaging and exploration that is our birthright.

By: CynicalKnight

CynicalKnight — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:59:20 -0800

I feel kind of bad for the rocket boosters. They get so close Maybe that's as close as they want to get. They miss the earth so much, they miss their ~~wife~~ fuel tank? It's lonely out in space.

By: gottabefunky

gottabefunky — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:34:42 -0800

What are those smaller splashes before touchdown at 3:57 and 4:04?

By: dhartung

dhartung — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:00:01 -0800

I was half expecting a bunch of NASA nerds to be running away with their hands and arms over their heads in a field somewhere. With one of them quoted saying " SHIT! Run it's coming right for us!" Not NASA, but here's what you came in for.^

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:11:22 -0800

"i'm glad that cameraman is okay! he's really brave!" hee!