APOD: Night Launch of the Space Shuttle... (2010 Feb 09)

[APOD Robot]

Night Launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour

Explanation: Sometimes, the space shuttle launches at night. Pictured above, the space shuttle Endeavour lifted off in yesterday's early morning hours from Launch Pad 39A in Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA, bound for the International Space Station (ISS). A night launch, useful for reaching the space station easily during some times of the year, frequently creates vivid launch imagery. The shuttle, as pictured above, is framed by an enormous but typical exhaust plume ejected as the shuttle's powerful rockets began lifting the two million kilogram space bus into Earth orbit. Endeavour's mission, labeled STS-130, includes the delivery of the Tranquility module to the space station. Tranquility will provide extra room for space station astronauts and includes a large circular set of windows designed to bestow vastly improved views of the Earth, the night sky, and the space station itself.

<< Previous APOD

Discuss Any APOD

Next APOD >>

[petsie]

Hi all,

isn't (very, very) most of these impressive clouds made out of steam (H2O) used do cool down the rockets before take off?

Thanks in advance,
Peter

[neufer]

isn't (very, very) most of these impressive clouds made out of steam (H2O) used do cool down the rockets before take off?

Water is used for sound suppression (and I imagine as a coolant for the launch pad).

<<Water is released onto the mobile launcher platform on Launch Pad 39A at the start of a rare sound suppression system test in 2004. During launch, 300,000 US gallons (1,100 m³) are poured onto the pad in only 41 seconds.

When the three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) start, the water from the
sound suppression system flashes into a large volume of steam that shoots southward.>>

[emc]

Night Launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour

blasting billowing bursting… boldly breeching banking… bouncing bumping being… beautiful benign buoyant… building booming breathtaking… braking burning bouncing… bountiful beyond belief

[neufer]

blasting billowing bursting… boldly breeching banking… bouncing bumping being… beautiful benign buoyant… building booming breathtaking… braking burning bouncing… bountiful beyond belief

Billions of billious barbecued blue blistering barnacles!

Capt. Haddock calling his flying whiskey bubble back into his glass.

Captain Haddock's Curses

Baboons! Baby-snatchers! Bagpipers! Bald-headed budgerigar! Bandits! Bashi-bazouks! Bath-tub Admiral! Beast! Belemnite! Big-head! Black beetles! Black Marketers! Blackamoor! Blackbird! Blackguards! Blistering Barnacles! Blistereing blundering birdbrain! Bloodsuckers! Blue blistering barnacles! Blue Blistering Bell-Bottomed Balderdash! Blunderbuss! Bodysnatcher! Bootlegger! Borgia! Bougainvillea! Brat! Breathalyser! Brigands! Brutes! Bucaneers! Bully! Butcher!

[bystander]

The Moody Blues
To Our Children's Children's Children

Higher and Higher
Graeme Edge

Blasting, billowing, bursting forth
With the power of ten billion butterfly sneezes
Man with his flaming pyre
Has conquered the wayward breezes

Climbing to tranquility
Far above the cloud
Conceiving the heavens
Clear of misty shroud

Higher and higher
Now we've learned to play with fire
We go higher and higher and higher

[William Roeder]

isn't (very, very) most of these impressive clouds made out of steam (H2O) used do cool down the rockets before take off?

If you look at the moment of launch you'll see two clouds, one white, one dirty white in the opposite direction. The white one is the steam, the other is from the solid rocket boosters.

[neufer]

<<On April 14, 2009, astronaut Suni Williams appeared on The Colbert Report, and announced the name of the node would be Tranquility. The name was chosen in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the first lunar landing of Apollo 11 on the Sea of Tranquility. However, the treadmill the astronauts use for exercise will be named "C.O.L.B.E.R.T." for "Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill" and will be located in Tranquility. Colbert was thrilled and happily accepted this offer. The treadmill traveled to space aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-128 on August 28, 2009, for eventual installation in the Tranquility node during STS-130.>>

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colber ... ce-odyssey

<<During the two week mission, [STS-130] astronauts will deliver and install the Tranquillity node and its cupola, a dome-shaped extension with seven windows for keeping an eye on robotic operations outside the station. The node will house the station's environmental control equipment which removes carbon dioxide from the air and converts urine to drinkable water. There's even room for the treadmill which has been taking up needed space elsewhere on the station.>>

[emc]

Be it sight, sound, smell, or touch,
There’s something inside that we need so much.
The sight of a touch or the scent of a sound,
Or the strength of an oak with roots deep in the ground.
The wonder of flowers to be covered and then
To burst up through tarmac to the sun again.
Or to fly to the sun without burning a wing -
To lie in a meadow and hear the grass sing.
To have all these things in our memories hall
And to use them to help us to find… Ha ha ha!

Ride! Ride my see-saw!...

Moody Blues, "Ride My See-saw"

(Edited to correct my post...)

[bystander]

Actually, the first part of that is Departure by Graeme Edge, the introduction to In Search of the Lost Chord. Graeme Edge wrote most of the opening and/or closing poems to the Moody Blues' early albums, although I think Ray Thomas might have done a couple.

[emc]

“Departure” is the lead in to “Ride My See-saw” and thanks for posting the poem’s title. The Moody’s speak to my spirit.

[geckzilla]

The Departure is also the title of my favorite song.

[bystander]

I like classical or neo-classical music, but I pretty much have to be in the mood to listen to it. I even occasionally go to see our local orchestra perform classical pieces (but not opera, and even though people look at me strange be because I'm not formally dressed). We have a wonderful Music Hall with great seating and acoustics and the orchestra seems quite good to me (don't have any thing to compare it to). But I have to say, I like this Departure better. (I'm an avid Moody Blues fan).

[geckzilla]

Hehe, yeah, Nyman is pretty much minimalist classical. It's a relatively new genre and many of the pieces tend to be love-it-or-hate-it. The reason I love it is because I'm an escapist and when I draw or work I need either good ambient music or something low-key and ambient music usually lacks emotion so I have tons of movie soundtracks. If there's any lyrics in a language I understand it's ridiculously distracting to me.

[emc]

departure – I like the thought especially at times… the poem relates well to shuttle space treks… and so does see-saw… up and down… up down… etc… except for the “free” part (mentioned in the song)

which reminds me... a "departure-see-saw" can be purchased for a $20k down payment…



http://www.virgingalactic.com/

personally, I'm waiting for a more distant trek... but if I don't win the big lottery... well...

[emc]

Hehe, yeah, Nyman is pretty much minimalist classical. It's a relatively new genre and many of the pieces tend to be love-it-or-hate-it. The reason I love it is because I'm an escapist and when I draw or work I need either good ambient music or something low-key and ambient music usually lacks emotion so I have tons of movie soundtracks. If there's any lyrics in a language I understand it's ridiculously distracting to me.

I find it relaxing to create with no sound and no light with my eyes shut. Works well at night... sometimes all too well

Below is a rendering that I like of a starfield with license to remove objects that clutter the beauty of empty space.



speaking of empty space... Pink speaks to mine

[neufer]

isn't (very, very) most of these impressive clouds made out of steam (H2O) used do cool down the rockets before take off?

Water is used for sound suppression (and I imagine as a coolant for the launch pad).