What is Digg?125 Comments
- Bluth, on 10/12/2007, -3/+185Good thing it got off this time. Each scrubbed attempt costs around $500,000.
Just goes to show, there's no such thing as a free launch. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+146This is probably more realistically what Saturday's LUNCH looked like:
http://www.chemicals-technology.com/projects/eval/images/space3.jpg - wstrucke, on 10/12/2007, -4/+142lunch, haha
but yes - very nice photo - distrbnce, on 10/12/2007, -1/+70dude, pass that *****.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+70How awesome would it be if I had actually submitted a breathtaking photo of the crew's lunch. Haha.
- eastbeast314, on 10/12/2007, -2/+60If only the lunch came in hi-res flavors.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+55Ammonium perchlorate, aluminum, iron oxide, a polymer, an epoxy curing agent, liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen, dinitrogen tetroxide and monomethylhydrazine.
Apparently. - jackhole, on 10/12/2007, -1/+41Its because typos this stunning are few and far between.
- Xorp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+38If anyone can find a higher res shot, please post it. It would make a wonder desktop background.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+31The very reason I come to Digg
- justinjacobs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+29@achmein
So... twinkies? - distrbnce, on 10/12/2007, -4/+29yyan, wtf are you talking about? How it's reflecting on the clouds?
I think you need a new monitor.
Over-exposed? It's a night shot. I think it's pretty damn nicely exposed. - tutivlahos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22why not post the video instead?
- StephenCIreland, on 10/12/2007, -4/+25you made a meal of that title
- magicmarc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21Shaken or stirred?
- Moosebern, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22I'm hungry.
- JCDenton513, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20Space shuttles don't use petroleum based fuel. The main engines burn a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen from the external tank. The Solid Rocket Boosters burn powdered aluminum and ammonium perchlorate. And both the Orbital Maneuvering System and Reaction Control System use hydrazine with oxygen.
- cdgrocott, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21Exactly! Makes a nice change to all the Apple/Wii/PS3 stories.
- Ramtech, on 10/12/2007, -4/+23It looks like someone cut open the sky and theres the other world.. :)
- noahhoward, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19Apparently the answer is when you're that retarded you should be impressed by just about everything.
- rense, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19Countdown to lunch-time!
- TonyCubed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Overexposed? :S lol! Try sitting under the launch pad when it takes off then complain about overexposure :P
- deanau, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Me want high res!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17exactly, and this typo has made this headline one of the funniest on digg!
- benijuana, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14they should do every launch at night from now on
- Sumyunguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12The above link is spam!
- Heggy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Here's a different perspective:
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/164374main_06pd2733.jpeg - Satertek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Not quite desktop sized but here's an older launch that looks just as good.
http://www1.airliners.net/open.file/0421834/M/ - randysouth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I said lunch, not launch!!!
http://www.bobdenver.com/Bob_s_Other_Series/Far_Out_Space_Nuts/SpaceNuts.jpg - distrbnce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9And you must've been hangin' out with Ramtech ^
- ThirstyFerret, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Absoultely astounding photo.
Gorgeous! - noahhoward, on 10/12/2007, -1/+909/12/06 != 27/06/06
- fatlip, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9^ i think you're missing the point
- LaueOfficer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8@ magicmarc
stirred actually, as in "stir the tanks" - gerrylazlo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7very cool. From the picture, it looks like this is where it was taken from:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&z=19&ll=29.229836,-81.023341&spn=0.001517,0.002511&t=k&om=1 - slatez, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8here's the wallpaper sizes of that photo:
http://www.news-journalonline.com/photo/wallpaper/
night launch =) - spliffy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7potato chips + ant farm
- ChileanGoD, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9To infinity, and beyond!
- DarkRappey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8@yyan
I am not an expert in photos at all but you got me thinking, and I thought of a reason:
The shuttle is increasing in speed over time (ovcourse) so the closer it is to Earth the longer it has been at that spot. Especially the launch pad because I imagine it can't get off the ground for at least a few seconds after ignition.
If the shot was exposed during the scene, the area near the launch pad would have been exposed to a lot more light. I could be totally wrong ;p
Oh and, amzaing picture! It reminds of scifi/anime launches I use to love to watch, like Outlaw Star I think was the name of one - Throlkim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6You're quite correct, to get the trail like that he probably used the bulb setting, exposing it for a custom amount of time. He did quite well considering it was a one-off event, so I bet he's pleased with how it came out.
And yeah, this shot really reminds me of Outlaw Star too :D - fdantas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6id love to have this photo in higher res.
at least whats the photographers name? - Makubex, on 10/12/2007, -6/+12In response to yann:
Yes, they are extra rockets taking off, extra rockets that will stay in orbit around the Earth until the president decides that it is time to have another 9/11. Coordinates are then sent to an orbiting rocket which in turn transforms into a plane or missile and crashes into said point on the Earth's surface. We don't actually go into space, we just set up for future cases where we may need a war. - jbeardsl, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7The first is the initial launch obviously, the second is the reflection off the cloud deck as it passes through.
- Historian, on 10/12/2007, -8/+14What does the space shuttle eat?
- CrimsonBlur, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Why bother to put a photo this spectacular on the Internet and not include a high-resolution version? I see it's from the NYT and I never understood why they only use such low-res photos. I would not mind at all if they just stuck a little copyright text in the corner and provided larger images. Is it because they have to pay more for higher-resolution images and don't want to fork up the cash for every story?
It just makes me sad to see an image so amazing but you can't use it as a desktop image or anything because it's so tiny! - AceTracer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I'm still bummed that 25 years living in Florida I never saw a shuttle launch :(
I moved to Oregon last July, and before I left I actually planned to see a launch but they get scrubbed so often you'd have to make the 2.5 hour drive every day or camp out to make sure you saw it. - Manhigh, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6You launch when the space station is nearly flying overhead of the launch site on a northernly azimuth. Since the orbit slowly precesses, that time comes a bit earlier each day. (Which is why the launch on the 7th was scheduled for ~9:30, and this one went off on the 9th at 8:47)
Therefore, launching only at night has a problem: there will be weeks at a time when you cannot launch because the ISS overflight occurs during daylight. - Jugalator, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The photo is from Daytona Beach, Florida, and photographed by Nigel Cook for the Associated Press (often known as simply "AP"). So there's likely some original of it in some ridiculous 3000x2000 resolution out there, being a press photo. :-(
- joshman5k, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8jwyles did submit the photo
- digginestdog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Initially, yes, it does go straight up. But anytime you're launching something into orbit, the main thing you need to do is give it lots of "horizontal" speed parallel to the ground, so if there weren't inconvenient things like people and buildings, etc. on the ground, the most efficient way to go would be to point the launch pad horizontally, not vertically. So, to answer your question, the arc in the picture isn't directly caused by the earth's rotation or gravity, but because of the combined roll-pitch maneuver to point it horizontally - within 20 seconds of liftoff, it will have reached a pitch angle of almost 80 degrees.
Here's a pretty good description of the entire launch process: http://www.cdli.ca/CITE/sts_ascent.htm -
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