Seriously cool HD footage from shuttle launch-

[MerryBlooms]

Drop whatever you're doing and watch this. NASA has released videos shot from onboard the Space Shuttle's Solid Rocket Boosters in the past, but you've never seen one prepared as masterfully as this.

For one thing, the footage was shot in high definition, so the image is exceptionally clear. But what puts this video head and shoulders above most other rocketcams is the sound. The audio has been remastered by the folks over at Skywalker Sound (yes, that Skywalker Sound), and the final product is nothing short of incredible.



http://io9.com/5893615/absolutely-mindblowing-video-shot-from-the-space-shuttle-during-launch

[liberal N proud]

1. COOL STUFF!

I have seen it before but not with the explainations

[MerryBlooms]

3. +1 Truly amazing footage. n/t

[Xipe Totec]

2. At about 750mph you can see the transition from subsonic to supersonic flight

You see the shock wave start to form at around 700mph and disappear at about 800mph.

Wicked cool video.

[MerryBlooms]

4. I caught that, super neato. I am going to watch it a couple of more times because

I know I missed stuff being caught up in the awesome.

[LastDemocratInSC]

7. The shock wave remains - it's the condensation that disappears.

The condensation cloud forms because the building shock wave creates regions of higher and lower air pressure around sections of the shuttle. If the temperature in the areas of lower pressure drops below the dew point the moisture in the atmospher will condense and you'll get the impressive cloud features.

As the shock wave becomes fully formed there are still regions of higher / lower pressure but the pressure differences aren't great enough to allow for formation of a condensation cloud. The shock remains, however, due to the speed of the shuttle.

Condensation waves can be seen on the upper side of aircraft wings even at slow speeds, and at the tips of helicopter rotors in humid air.

Your point about the condensation wave indicating supersonic speed is correct for the shuttle, however, because it's the building shock wave that does the trick with the cloud. My point is that as the shock wave becomes fully formed the cloud disappears.

[Eleanors38]

5. Good one! Do the boosters sustain much damage?

[MerryBlooms]

6. Here's some info I found on wiki- (the official site is still down from the shutdown)

The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) were the pair of large solid rockets used by the United States' NASA Space Shuttle during the first two minutes of powered flight. Together they provided about 83% of liftoff thrust for the Space Shuttle. They were located on each side of the orange-colored external propellant tank. Each SRB produced 80% more liftoff thrust than one F-1 engine, the most powerful single-chamber liquid-fueled rocket engine ever flown — five of which powered the first stage of the Saturn V "moon rocket". The SRBs were the largest solid-fuel rocket motors ever flown, and the first to be used for primary propulsion on human spaceflight missions.[1] The spent SRBs were recovered from the ocean, refurbished, reloaded with propellant, and reused for several missions. The prime contractor for the motor segments of the SRBs and the manufacturer of the vital solid fuel rocket segments was the Thiokol Corporation of Brigham City, Utah. The prime contractor for all the other components of the SRBs, such as the structures, thrust vector controls systems, avionics, pyrotechnics, etc., was USBI, a subsidiary of Pratt & Whitney. USBI was also the prime contractor for the integration of all the components and retrieval of the spent SRBs, This contract was subsequently transitioned to United Space Alliance, a limited liability corporation formed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin corporations.

Over 5000 parts from the SRBs were refurbished after each flight and reused. As a testament to the reusability of the SRB hardware, one of the forward skirt structures flown on STS-1, flew on multiple missions including STS-135, the final mission of the Space Shuttle. SRB casings were recovered and reused many times. In one recent example, an SRB stiffener (lower) segment from STS-1 — which over a 30 year period flew six times plus one ground test — was used in 2009 as part of the Ares I DM-1 test SRB.[2] Collectively, the Ares 1 DM-1 included SRB segments from 48 different Shuttle flights and five ground tests.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Solid_Rocket_Booster