Damon Hill wrote:
Very impressive!

Let's start a Pat Corkery fan club.

Wonder what all those cables between the service arms and
the vehicle were about? Separation lanyards?


I was wondering about all of those too...do they stabilize the booster
from winds when it's unfueled?
They do appear to come off only one side of the booster at launch though.
Seems a little strange to link the booster to the tower with around
10-20 individual cables, when you'd expect 2-4 major umbilicals,
especially since most of them shown in the photos are so thin that they
couldn't carry fuel.
Anyway, the launch photos are majestic - especially seeing the LOX/LH2
engines going full tilt on page 2 of the photos... although I've always
been a big fan of the LH2-rich translucent scarlet flames of the engines
during a daytime launch.

Pat