This is a wild moment inside the cockpit, just 2 minutes after leaving Florida.
At 150,000 feet, the sky has gone from light blue to black, and the ride on the huge, solid rockets has been violent, jamming us up through the air.
Suddenly there's a blast of pyrotechnics. Even though we're going Mach 5, the air is so thin the explosion arches out in front of the windows.
Now being pushed by just the 3 Shuttle engines, the ride goes smooth, with a huge feeling of relief – getting rid of those solids means you're much safer, and halfway to orbit. I've done it twice, Atlantis and Endeavour.
A great start to an amazing adventure.
Credit: NASA / Astronaut Chris Hadfield
Processing: Milky Way
by Busy_Yesterday9455
4 Comments
Hollywood gets this wrong every time (specifically the orientation), and damn that looks violent
Fun fact, the boosters had so much momentum at that point that they continued tumbling higher a further 20 miles in altitude before descending!
Rare? It happened with every Shuttle launch apart from one…
And all of them were filmed.
Rare?