Really nice Shuttle launch

The video from the ET camera was really impressive, showing the exhaust
from the SSME's forming a halo around the back of the vehicle shortly
before cutoff, and the RCS system forming that greenish "northern
lights" display around the orbiter as it separated from the ET again,
like on the last night launch.
The exhaust trail from the ascent should be interesting to see, as the
stack had risen high enough to be in sunlight by the time of SRB separation.

Pat

Pat Flannery wrote in
dakotatelephone:

The video from the ET camera was really impressive,

I wish they had a Keyhole telescope on the ground, so we could watch it
closely all the way to orbit.

showing the
exhaust from the SSME's forming a halo around the back of the vehicle
shortly before cutoff, and the RCS system forming that greenish
"northern lights" display around the orbiter as it separated from the
ET again, like on the last night launch.

From a Sci-Am article several years ago. I seem to recall that the glow
is called "shuttle plasma," although the plasma in the Sci-Am photos was
orange.

The exhaust trail from the ascent should be interesting to see, as the
stack had risen high enough to be in sunlight by the time of SRB
separation.

I was interested to see them shut off the main engines, to separate from
the main tank, and then restart them after separation, all within about
forty seconds.

Bluuuue Rajah wrote:

I was interested to see them shut off the main engines, to separate from
the main tank, and then restart them after separation, all within about
forty seconds.

Incorrect. There was no main engine restart. What you saw after sep was
a +X RCS burn (and the ground had explicitly given the crew "go for +X"
prior to MECO).

Bluuuue Rajah wrote:
I was interested to see them shut off the main engines, to separate from
the main tank, and then restart them after separation, all within about
forty seconds.


Which would be impossible, as without the ET, the main engines would
have no fuel.

Pat

I put a couple of pitiful (hand-held, shaky) pics on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/old_dav...7615374317610/

And from 180ish miles away, the launch of STS-119 was glorious.

David Higgins wrote:
I put a couple of pitiful (hand-held, shaky) pics on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/old_dav...7615374317610/

And from 180ish miles away, the launch of STS-119 was glorious.

I see you did get some shots of the exhaust trail being lit up by the
sun:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/old_dav...7615374317610/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/old_dav...7615374317610/
Nice shots!

Pat

"OM" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 15 Mar 2009 19:12:31 -0600, Pat Flannery
wrote:

The exhaust trail from the ascent should be interesting to see, as the
stack had risen high enough to be in sunlight by the time of SRB
separation.

...This was one of the most beautiful launches in the program, with
the only glitch being that the plume was sufficiently lighted by the
Sun to the point that it sort of obscured the SRB sep a bit more than
we've previously seen. SpaceVidCast should have the replay feeds
online in a day or so, which should include the complete Ascent-to-ET
Sep feed from the SRB cams.

OM



I think my kids and I were actually able to see the shuttle from the Albany
NY area.

I was about to give up when I saw a bright white dot moving towards the
east, very quickly.

Very nice.


--
Greg Moore
Ask me about lily, an RPI based CMC.