His chute just barely deployed before splashdown it looked like...YOW!

In my humble opinion, mans greatest achievement to date. (it's ludicrous when you realise that it was just 66 years after the wright brothers first flight) Actually, years ago, I was privileged to meet one of the engine designers at a party. He said that they had so many worries that no-one was able to show real emotion until the splashdown, but, even then, many were unable to show any other emotion than exhausted relief. His words; "Truth is, we couldn't actually believe that we had pulled it off."

I was hoping the splashdown would have enough force for the camera to go underwater. Maybe deep enough to see a seamonster or something.

That would be cool.

Not knowing the g forces involved with splashdown, who thinks NASA could sell tickets after strapping seats on those things?

Darnit, I wanted to see splashdown! Probably the angels vetoed any closer shots. Security reasons. :>

Tags for this video have been changed from 'amazing' to 'amazing, SRB, space shuttle, rocket, splashdown, space, live mic' - edited by Ornthoron

>> ^lucky760:
Lots more great commentary on this dupe.


Yup, the comments there are recommended. You can see how the SRBs are retrieved here:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Shuttle-Solid-Rocket-Booster-Retrieval-Ships

Lots more great commentary on this dupe.

>> ^Pooterius:
Does anyone know at what point in the video the shuttle goes trans-sonic? There seem to be a few audio discontinuities, but it might be supersonic at the beginning of the video.



By 20 seconds into the flight, the shuttle has completed it roll and is accelerating through the atmosphere at about a 78 degree angle. Stress on the shuttle caused by its speed through the atmosphere is further relieved by powering back the main engines. By 45 seconds into the flight, the shuttle breaks the sound barrier. A minute into the flight, the pressure on the orbiter decreases and so the shuttle engines are returned to full power. At this point, the shuttle is traveling at an incredible 1,609 kilometers per hour (1,000 mph) or about Mach 1.5. By the end of the next minute, it will triple this speed!

>> ^grahamslam:
And I thought there was no sound in space? Is it because they are still in somewhat of the atmosphere?

The SRBs never exit the atmosphere. The highest point they reach is around 67 km (220 000 feet), which is about the same altitude where meteors burn up, and well below the altitude of the Northern Lights.

>> ^grahamslam:
And I thought there was no sound in space? Is it because they are still in somewhat of the atmosphere?


The atmosphere is pretty thin up where the movie starts, but it doesn't need air for us to hear the sound. If the mic is attached to the SRB, any noises that it picks up are actually tranmitted through the SRB itself. Rather than using air as a medium to transmit the sound, the actual material of the SRB is conducting the sound waves. (This is the same way you can hear sounds underwater. It's not the same as what you would hear when the sound is transmitted via air, but you can still receive the sound waves.)

If they somehow sent a camera man up to film the SRB, and he was freefalling next to the SRB, there wouldn't be any sound until we heard him screaming as he burned up in the atmosphere.

>> ^Payback:
Never before, in the history of security/web cam video, has something so awesome screamed so loud for an Enya overdub...


Happy not to provide it. The great thing about this video is that you can add your own soundtrack, but I think it works best without any music.

>> ^spoco2:
Holy moly that was superb.
Just mesmerizing. The video on its own would have been great, but with the SOUND... that was amazing. Such bizarre sounds. For a large portion of the start once it had separated it sounded like it was breathing.
Just amazing stuff. How this went back into your personal queue is beyond me.


I agree. I especially like the water sounds at the end. And the groaning of the metal, of course.

The video never was in my personal queue, the promote only makes the siftbot say that stock phrase.

Thanks for the promote!

In reply to this comment by kulpims:
*promote
also worth seeing: http://www.videosift.com/video/SRB-booster-video-of-space-shuttle-Discovery-launch
http://www.videosift.com/video/Space-Shuttle-view-from-SRB-Launch-to-Splashdown

*promote
also worth seeing: http://www.videosift.com/video/SRB-booster-video-of-space-shuttle-Discovery-launch
http://www.videosift.com/video/Space-Shuttle-view-from-SRB-Launch-to-Splashdown