Bad Astronomy

Ride an SRB video into space

NASA has posted video taken from cameras mounted on the solid rocket boosters of STS 133, the Shuttle mission currently underway. It’s pretty amazing to watch:

Most of the video is silent. However, at the 14:46 mark the video cuts to a camera equipped with sound, and although the Orbiter is well out of the part of Earth’s atmosphere where sound can carry, the metal in the booster itself – as you can hear – is more than enough to transmit sound!

After about a minute in you can see the shadow of the plume on the ocean, and at the 2:25 mark… well, it gets pretty exciting. You’ll see. If there’s some moment in particular you like, leave a comment below and let others know!

Credit: NASA. Tip o’ the nose cone to Barbara at Spasms of Accomodation for helping me find this video.