Posted on 09/07/2006 6:56:16 PM PDT by KevinDavis
Rocket Man?
How far? Can you hear it from there?
Is that an aerospike engine?
Looks like an ion motor.
The West Coast? Wow, didn't realize the thing would be that prominent to the East that far away and over the horizon fromt he West Coast of Florida.
The Mighty J-58
The design of the engine's thermodynamic cycle was begun in 1956, and it was flying by April, 1962. Classified missions began in 1964, and continued into the mid 90s. No SR-71s have ever been lost to enemy fire, because no weapon has ever been able to go high enough and fast enough to actually hit one.
Although the internal turbomachinary design is primitive by modern standards, the design point is certainly unique! In cruise it operates as a ramjet, reaching speeds of Mach 3 to Mach 3.5 (depending on the weather conditions above 80,000 feet).
It burns an extremely low vapor pressure fuel called JP-7, which was formulated specially for the SR-71. You can put a cigerette out in a dish of JP-7. The fuel is designed to be hard to light because the airframe skin in the vicinity of the fuel tank is 500 - 600 degrees F at cruise. Even worse, the fuel is actually used as the hydraulic fluid in the engine actuators! The idea is, a steady supply of "cool" fluid arrives from the fuel tanks and gets used in hydraulic devices around the engine. Hydraulic fluid in a closed system would soon get as hot as the parts through which it ran - - but this special fluid gets used as fuel before it gets too hot! Afterburner ignition is spectacular, when an ultra-hot flash of Tetra-Ethyl Borane ("TEB") is squirted into the flame holders.
I hope I can get to see one before they are retired.
Late August I was with a couple of buds just above North Bay.
We we're fishing at night with the sky wonderfully clear and full of stars
and the lake so calm that the Milky Way reflected in it.
As we looked for shooting stars a brilliant object appeared over the horizon
and made its way majestically across the firmament.
We knew right away it had to be the ISS. What an awesome treat it was to see.
This is problably about 90-100 miles from us, 1:30 - 2:30 minutes after liftoff. These were taken with a 300MM lens.
spaceflightnow.com
1552 GMT (11:52 a.m. EDT)
T+plus 38 minutes, 30 seconds. The maneuvering engines have ignited for the two-minute orbit raising burn.
spaceflightnow.com
1555 GMT (11:55 a.m. EDT)
T+plus 40 minutes, 30 seconds. Atlantis has completed the OMS burn.
Brent Jett is a great name for an astronaut. :)
Anyone notice a black object that appeared to be falling out of the sky near the vehicle just a few seconds after it cleared the tower? I have not heard any mention of this yet so I assume it was a bird. Looked like kind of a big one though.
A quick review of video from the external tank-mounted camera shows a couple of very small pieces of debris shedding from the tank well after solid rocket booster separation. So far, it looks like Atlantis had a clean ascent.
If the launches were not cancelled at the last minute so many times it would be well worth a ride to the Cape to see the event real up close and personal.
I watched the launch on NASA TV; creat sight to behold. Every launch makes me tip my hat to the scores of engineers and aerospace technicians who created that machine. I want to pat the back of every man and woman behind the shuttle and say, "Damn fine work!"
'Tis a pity that that the first one did not launch early enough to save and restore Skylab.
I've seen it too.
What a sight, eh?
How did it go?
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