61 Amazing Photographs

[jonny round boy]

The history of the Space Shuttle

I can't accurately describe how truly amazing some of those images are.

As Jeremy Clarkson said when he stepped off the last ever Concorde flight, "that's one small step for a man, one huge leap backwards for mankind".

 

[RJNeal]

Thank you for sharing. They are truly amazing.
Rick

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Outer space is so beautiful, mysterious and fascinating. If I wasn't your friendly online FOG admin, I'd probably choose a career in the space field. Thanks for the pics, JRB.

 

[justinmcf]

thanks for link jrb.

great photos.

justin.

 

[Theshipstore]

JRB    These were simply amazing, Thanks
Sal

 

[Sean7a]

Wow, thanks so much for posting.  Gorgeous and awe inspiring. 

 

[Michael Kellough]

The first photo of lift-off shows some of the billowing clouds of steam created by dumping massive amounts of water on the launch pad following ignition. My father was one of the designers of the earlier Gemini launch pads so I thought I knew a lot about this stuff but I only recently learned the purpose of the water is not fire suppression but noise attenuation. The steam effectively reduces the the sound vibrations which if un-buffered would shake the launch pad to pieces.

 

[Sean7a]

The first photo of lift-off shows some of the billowing clouds of steam created by dumping massive amounts of water on the launch pad following ignition. My father was one of the designers of the earlier Gemini launch pads so I thought I knew a lot about this stuff but I only recently learned the purpose of the water is not fire suppression but noise attenuation. The steam effectively reduces the the sound vibrations which if un-buffered would shake the launch pad to pieces.

Wow, very interesting.  It's amazing, if you keep your mind and eyes open, how simple a solution to a seemingly insurmountable problem can be.

 

[GPowers]

very cool photos. The end of a 30 year program  [big grin]

 

[d8b]

The first photo of lift-off shows some of the billowing clouds of steam created by dumping massive amounts of water on the launch pad following ignition. My father was one of the designers of the earlier Gemini launch pads so I thought I knew a lot about this stuff but I only recently learned the purpose of the water is not fire suppression but noise attenuation. The steam effectively reduces the the sound vibrations which if un-buffered would shake the launch pad to pieces.

Here you can see a picture where they are testing this system

sound suppression

I got the link via a post on a pro sound forum (I earn my festool budget as a sound tech). You can read the post here:
pushing loudness to a whole different level

greetz,

Philippe

 

[Michael Kellough]

Thanks for the link Philippe. Very interesting to learn more about it.

 

[tbellemare]

I knew a guy from Titusville that said in the early days of the Apollo program, they were blowing chunks of the launch pad great distances. I never knew if it was true.

Tom

 

[Michael Kellough]

I knew a guy from Titusville that said in the early days of the Apollo program, they were blowing chunks of the launch pad great distances. I never knew if it was true.

Tom

I lived on Merritt Island and hadn't heard that but it could be true. Although the pads are on Merritt Island they're a lot closer to Titusville than the civilian half of MI.

When I was younger we lived in Huntsville where the Saturn V booster was designed and tested. The test pad was built into a massive vein of granite, just to be sure it didn't go anywhere, and they burned the things for the full 90 seconds. In an actual launch the thing is out of the atmosphere at 90 seconds but in Huntsville it was still there RUMBLING away. Our fathers would pass the word around what time a test would occur and we'd go out in the yard and gaze in the general direction. Then someone would see an orange flame reaching up beyond the distant tree line and we'd watch for several seconds before the ground started shaking and watch for several more seconds before we began to hear the crackling roar. 90 seconds is a long time to stare at an orange flame a dozen or more miles away. It was kind of hypnotic and then all of a sudden the flame would disappear, then the ground would settle down, and finally the noise faded away.

That vein of granite had a downside, those that lived on the same vein often suffered broken windows. They (NASA) just added repair reimbursement to the budget.