Posted: 12/30/2006 8:49:11 PM EDT
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I hope this isn't a dupe. Is it just me, or is this a completely cool piece of video? Shuttle Booster Camera |
so the nose cone releases the 3 chutes for the SRB, then the nose cone has 1 chute? make sense I guess. |
The Solid Rocket Boosters do not sink. They are made to float in a vertical position, with a good part of it rising above the water. If you hit one of those while it is floating in the water, then you aint paying attention. |
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Holy cow, this is almost cooler! Looks like a Stanley Kubrick production: VIDEO |
The SRBs are recovered and reused, they aren't supposed to sink. The parachutes are to slow the fall so they aren't damaged when they hit the water. Thanks for the link! |
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Extremely cool. I want one of the SRB parachutes. It'd be a neat collectible. Not everybody has one. Something to think about....virtually every rocket booster and booster stage we've ever launched and didn't recover afterwards contains two things on it: Silver oxide batteries containing several HUNDRED ounces of recoverable silver, and explosive self-destruct charges that are unfired. Someone who was very well equipped and very adept at finding these things could make quite a business recovering these items. The explosives would be something you would want to not bring home, but the silver content of the batteries would be a nice payday. Plus the electronic packages on them would sell quite well to the space hardware collector crowds. CJ |
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I love it I love it I love it !!! The sound was unexpected and cool! Especially right after booster sep when you can hear chunks of un-burned propellant striking the booster shell. two quesytions: 1) at what altitude do the boosters seperate? Must be low enough so they do not burn up upon re-entry, of course. 2) how can I save this vid? |
Approx 150,000 ft or 24 nautical miles (28 statute miles) ETA: The above is the approx altitude that the boosters separate, however, they continue after separation to a height of about 220,000 ft or 35 nautical miles (41 statute miles). Approx 75 seconds after separation, the SRB's impact the ocean approx 122 nautical miles (141 statute miles) downrange. |
It's not so much the altitude that affects re-entry frictional heating but the velocity on entry. The SRBs don't impart that much velocity to the shuttle themselves, in the launch profile they basically do the 'heavy lifting' and get the shuttle the altitude, the SSMEs burn for another two minutes or longer (if it's an ISS mission) to give the shuttle orbital velocity . |
I looked at the source to see if there's a way to save the vids. I don't think so (at least not the first one from Glumbert). These are .FLV (Flash video) files that are pulled dynamically into the containing. SWF (Flash) file. No way of knowing the video's file name or path. I was actually looking for them in another savable format when I came across those other two. I didn't spend much time though so some further digging on NASA'a site may yield an mpeg or wmv file that you can save. |