What the Space Shuttle booster saw

[BobSch]

This is a very interesting video with sound. After the Columbia disaster, which was caused by a chunk of External Tank (sprayed-on) insulation coming off during launch and penetrating the wings leading edge, NASA made aggressive plans to install cameras on the two Solid Rocket Boosters. What you will see here is video taken from these cameras, all the way from just before launch, till splash down in the Atlantic.

Take note: upon ignition of the Space Shuttle Main Engines, 6.6 seconds before liftoff, the asymmetrical thrust causes a phenomenon called the "twang". The tip of the External Tank actually displaces 23 inches (away from the thrust) as the entire Shuttle stack bends. If you look carefully, you can see the entire stack bend when the SSME's are lit off. Also pay particular attention to the debris coming off the stack forward of the orbiter's wings. There is an appreciable amount of it.

Turn your sound up. This is very impressive video.

http://kottke.org/12/03/what-the-spa...le-booster-saw

[big tim]

WOW ! Very interesting
Thanks for posting

Tim

[Knottscott]

Cool stuff!

[toolguy1000]

so, anybody know why the boosters didn't burn up on reentry like the shuttle did years ago?

[Tom Slick]

so, anybody know why the boosters didn't burn up on reentry like the shuttle did years ago?

They aren't going as fast as the shuttle and not passing through the same altitudes/atmospheres as the shuttle.

Those boosters reached a speed just above 2,000 mph, the shuttle is going 9x that fast (Mach 25) when it starts reentry.

[toolguy1000]

They aren't going as fast as the shuttle and not passing through the same altitudes/atmospheres as the shuttle.

Those boosters reached a speed just above 2,000 mph, the shuttle is going 9x that fast (Mach 25) when it starts reentry.

yet i thought i saw a pop up message during the video that the boosters separated about 28 miles up. did the shuttle get much higher than that? and if the force of gravity is the same for all objects, and the shuttle "fell", rather than undertook a powered return to earth flight, wouldn't it fall at the same rate as the boosters?

[Tom Slick]

The shuttle comes out of orbit at 18,000 miles per hour then slows down as it passes though Earth's atmosphere. It orbits at an altitude of 200-400 miles. Everything the shuttle does it 10x more than those boosters. That's why so much heat is built up during reentry.

Fun Factoid: The main engines' (SSMEs') fuel pumps (just the pumps) are powered by their own separate engines that are over 70,000 hp each

[toolguy1000]

thanks. i didn't know those figures regarding the shuttle.

[jackellis]

Not to diminish Burt Rutan's aeronautical genius, but launching Space Ship One and recovering it is a relatively simple task because the top speed is only about 3200 MPH. The shuttle's orbital velocity is more than 5 times higher. In both cases, kinetic energy needs to be dissipated somehow (heat from friction in the case of the shuttle, aerodynamic drag in the case of Space Ship One) as the vehicles slow from their top speed to something on the order of 200-250 MPH in order to land. Since the amount of kinetic energy a body possesses is proportional to the square of its velocity, even if both vehicles weighed the same, the shuttle has to dissipate about 30 times more energy than Space Ship One (it also requires about 30 times more energy to put a shuttle of similar weight into orbit).

[dbhost]

The shuttle operates differently from Space Ship One, and is intended for distinctly different tasks... Space Ship One operates more along the lines in concept to the Rocket plane the Nazi's were working on intended to bomb New York and DC from orbit. Thankfully Goering's engineering crews couldn't figure out the challenges that Rutans did... Get it moving fast in the air, fire off the rocket to push into orbit, and let it just skip off the stratosphere until you want to descend...

Love to see those Shuttle videos though. Probably the last of the Shuttle we'll be able to view in Houston. (insert long string of expletives here...)

[Rolly]

Another tidbit on the boosters, when they separate from the external tank they don't start their tumble to earth until they travel upward another 80,000 feet. Just old physics at work.

[gerti]

I thought the effects of breaking the sound barrier (from about the 1:13 to the 1:23 mark) were pretty cool. I was surprised how long that went on and how sudden that stops.

Did you know that the entire running NASA budget since it's inception to today was less than the money invested into the bank bailout?

[atgcpaul]

Very cool. 0-60mph in 4.5s. They've got to work on that. Loved watching that MPH meter tick higher and higher. I wonder how much those cameras cost.

I don't know why I just realized now that the red external tank is just a tank and not a booster. I was surprised to not see jet nozzles on it, but then it wouldn't be just a tank, would it? Silly me.

Thanks for sharing,

Paul