Maybe OT, shuttle launch ...

[dmr]

I'm glad to see the US back in the race, so to speak.

These attachments are not my best photos, I know, they were in essence slop shots on the spur of the moment, and scanned from prints, but they did capture what turned out to be one of the most memorable events in my life ...

To make a long story long ...

In July of 1999 I was sent on business to Jacksonville. A couple I know from Long Island was getting married the weekend before and they were spending their honeymoon in Orlando, so I made up some lame excuse to extend a day and drove down there to spend the evening. We really didn't have any plans, we had a nice dinner and of course the big news was that the shuttle might take off that night, since it had been scrubbed the night before, so we decided on the spur of the moment to drive out to the Cape and see if we could see it take off.

So anyway, we drove out to Cape Canaveral and joined the other 10,000,000 or so already out there. 🙂 They had a public viewing stand, which cost something like $12 per person and if it didn't take off, you didn't get your $$$ back, so we joined the other 9,999,990 or so in a nearby parking lot.

It was almost like a party atmosphere there. All ages, all types, just marking time until zero. Mass groan during a "hold" 20 or so minutes away. Cheers when the hold was lifted. 🙂 Closer and closer, more and more radios tuned to the same station, t-minus one minute less than it was a minute ago. And then it started to happen. At maybe 30 seconds or so everybody in unison counting down, and then it really happened! At about 7 about 1/4 of the horizon lit up bright orange -- almost blinding considering everybody's eyes were accustomed to the dark. Shortly after zero it began to rise from the horizon, very majestic, very slowly at first, picking up speed ever so gradually.

I had just turned to a guy standing beside me and asked "aren't we supposed to hear something" when all of a sudden the sound hit -- LOUD! Tremendous roar, mini earthquake, causing countless car alarms to go off all at once.

As it rose and turned, the orange flame faded and turned bright bluish white.

These photos don't really do justice to the spectacle. If you ever get the chance to witness one of these, do it --- particularly if it's at night.

Of course I was shocked and saddened in 2003 when Columbia broke up, but something hit a bit closer to home, and I checked to see which of the shuttles I had witnessed. It was Columbia. 🙁

 

[titrisol]

YIPEEE!!!
i'm amazaed that a little accident could stop the shuttle from flying almost 2 years!
2 accients in 113 missions sounds pretty good to me for an outdated technology that should have been replaced 10 years ago

 

[Penguin_101]

YIPEEE!!!
i'm amazaed that a little accident could stop the shuttle from flying almost 2 years!
2 accients in 113 missions sounds pretty good to me for an outdated technology that should have been replaced 10 years ago

I agree. I was sad like the rest of the nation, but much more people die per day in car accidents. They were American heros and they gave all that they could to their country.

The race is on! (But with who?) 😀

 

[mac_wt]

China.

Wim

Penguin wrote:

"The race is on! (But with who?)"

 

[Sonnar Brian]

The X-15 was safer. 1 fatal accident in 199 flights. Michael Adams was on an astronaut wings flight when his X-15 broke up on re-entry. That was equipment failure and it left him "flying blind". The two shuttle accidents were avoidable, as was the Apollo 1 accident. I hope the top-level at NASA listens a little more carefully to the Engineers that know how to run a space flight.

 

[kiev4a]

The X-15 was safer. 1 fatal accident in 199 flights. Michael Adams was on an astronaut wings flight when his X-15 broke up on re-entry. That was equipment failure and it left him "flying blind". The two shuttle accidents were avoidable, as was the Apollo 1 accident. I hope the top-level at NASA listens a little more carefully to the Engineers that know how to run a space flight.

The X-15 was a much less sopisticated vehicle and couldn't go into orbit -- so it didn't have to deal with re-entry.

That civilian test vehicle that won the prize a few months ago appears to have the best solution to re-entry.

I still find it amazing that in 1969, with what was by today's standards, stone age computers, we were able to land on the moon and come back several times and the only human loses came in practice on the launch pad. Goes to show what man can accomplish when motivated.

BTW, anybody remember the Nikon ads during Apollo that showed a motor drive F that melted under the heat of the booster engines on the launch pad--but the film survived?

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Seven pilots got their astronaut wings in the X-15, at 100km+ altitude it dealt with re-entry much the same way that the sub-orbital Mercury flights did. It was pretty amazing for a 1950's design, each was flown over 60 times.

I truly hope the best for the Shuttle astronauts. In the early 80's, Nina and I both worked on satellites that were shuttle launched. The day after the Challenger exploded, one of the Physicist that I worked with told me "I bet it was the O-Rings, did you see how cold it was when they launched?" Just like the Columbia, someone had voiced a warning that went unheeded. It seems to me that the Mercury and Gemini shots that I watched as a kid went through multiple day countdowns and were postponed at the slightest little problem. I suspect that is why all of them got back home in craft that were no more sophisticated than the X15.

 

[Penguin_101]

China.

Wim

Penguin wrote:

"The race is on! (But with who?)"

Maybe some day. 😀