Nicked from Universe Today

[james_davis_nicoll]

Comments

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Sighs. For all the STS's flaws, it was still an incredible machine.

[affinity8.livejournal.com]

Pretty cool! Thanks.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! That was great!

Wondering what was going on during the fall, though: were those retro-rockets I saw lighting up at various times, or just the remnants of the solid fuel in the boosters flaring up when the air got thicker?

[http://users.livejournal.com/krin_o_o_/]

I wonder how much if any of that sound was post production FXs?

[refugee50s.livejournal.com]

Whenever I see one of these, I have to wonder what the engineers see (and hear) that I don't know enough to notice.

I'd love to sit in on the meeting where they watch one for the first time:

"So that's why..."

"See! I said that's what's going on!"

"What the hell is that?"

"How does that not make it blow up?"

"Dammit, I said the camera needed to be two feet up. We still can't see...."

[mr-mediocre.livejournal.com]

Whoaa. Much more engaging than I expected. I'm really curious about the speed figure just after separation, as the boosters start their fall back. The vertical component would have to drop from Up Really Fast to zero and proceed to Down Really Fast until all that air gets in the way. And even though there didn't appear to be a big horizontal component, the speed readings didn't change much until it dropped into the thicker air.