Well, THAT was impressive!

ATK-Thiokol had a static test firing of a Shuttle RSRM yesterday. As it
was the first one they've had since I started working here, it was the
first one I attended. I took a number of photos, but nothing is quite
as impressive as the sight and sound of the thing live and in person.
The universe fills up with the sound of the rocket.

Something that I was not able to record on my digital still camera was
the sight of shockwaves pulsing through the exhaust cloud. That was
something I've not seen before, and had not been expecting.

Something else I had not expected was *dozens* of bald eagles
converging on the site after the test. They had either been spooked
away by the test and were returning, or were coming to investigate...
but there were a lot of 'em.

wrote:
ATK-Thiokol had a static test firing of a Shuttle RSRM yesterday. As it
was the first one they've had since I started working here, it was the
first one I attended.

What's the distance from your viewing area to the RSRM?

David Higgins wrote:

What's the distance from your viewing area to the RSRM?

Just checked a map: about 8600 feet. About seven and a half seconds
travel time for the sound, so just time enough for people to wonder why
such an obviously powerful rocket was burning silently...

Took some pictures with my camera jammed into a pair of binoculars...
less than impressive results. However, the other photos turned out
rather good.

It was perhaps not as impressive as a full-up Shuttle launch... but you
get the full two minutes of the burn. Another test is scheduled for
mid-June... anybody who'd care to attend, it's free and damned
impressive.

This is learned behavior. They have come to expect to find
acres and acres of dead, cooked rodents. I'm not making this up.

wrote
Something else I had not expected was *dozens* of bald eagles
converging on the site after the test. They had either been spooked
away by the test and were returning, or were coming to investigate...
but there were a lot of 'em.