Space Shuttle Launch (Discovery)

[pallidin]

 

[+and-then]

I had the opportunity to drive down there and watch Columbia lift off at night!  It was STS-93, the first mission with a female commander and it was the mission that took the Chandra X Ray observatory into space.  One of the most awesome experiences I ever had.  We were about 6 miles away on the banks of the Banana River at an observation point.  It was mostly dark, about midnight, and when the engines lit-off it was bright enough around us to read newspaper print.  A honey gold tint of light.  It's hard to believe that was 20 years ago.

[toast]

Hell, I like that and I`m still fascinated by the shuttles and the technology. And I often think about that it took only a handful of generations from the first motor flight to the first Shuttle launch. We humans can do nice, brilliant and wonderful things. And we make these thinks out of stuff we scratch out of the soil.

I will add a related vid here which contain super-slow-motion recordings from a Shuttle lift off and with direct view to the SSMEs and SRBs, Its a 45 minutes vid but is has a lot of interesting stuff, well explained.

 

[Waspie_Dwarf]

21 hours ago, and then said:

I had the opportunity to drive down there and watch Columbia lift off at night!  It was STS-93, the first mission with a female commander and it was the mission that took the Chandra X Ray observatory into space.

That one could have ended badly. There was a leak in one of the engines. Fortunately Columbia made it to orbit and carried out her mission successfully.