STS-127 solid rocket booster cam - liftoff to ocean splashdown, real time, with audio

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Sample00

ok, here's the stupid question of the day...
how do they make it happen that the rocket boosters fall back into the ocean and not on land somewhere?

Because the shuttle launches from Florida, and heads east.

Keep in mind that when they launch it, the shuttle only goes up about 200-500 km. But they do need to get it moving 20,000 km/h eastward.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by La Flames Fan

Alright then, the hardware used in this form of space travel is antiquated. It's what I meant.

And according to this article Nasa has been getting spare Shuttle parts from eBay:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl....DTL&type=tech

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Gozer

I saw one show, documentary I believe, where the crew of a space ship determined they needed to move the galaxy instead of moving themselves.

That is how the Planet Express ship in Futurama operated!

It also uses a Dark Matter Engine, which, instead of moving the ship, just "moves the universe around the ship.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Express_Ship

[jeremywilhelm]

Originally Posted by Sample00

ok, here's the stupid question of the day...
how do they make it happen that the rocket boosters fall back into the ocean and not on land somewhere?

haha, i just asked my friends the same thing.

[Doctordestiny]

Originally Posted by Sample00

ok, here's the stupid question of the day...
how do they make it happen that the rocket boosters fall back into the ocean and not on land somewhere?

Great question. I always wondered why one of those have never taken out a small town somewhere.

[Sample00]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Because the shuttle launches from Florida, and heads east.

Keep in mind that when they launch it, the shuttle only goes up about 200-500 km. But they do need to get it moving 20,000 km/h eastward.

ok fair enough, however, lets say yer dropping a nickle off the top of the calgary tower and you need to land it on the sidewalk. I mean, thats no small feat.

I would suspect a bunch of variables play into this. I realize it heads east but even in the video those SRB are in space and then they fall back to earth. The earth is spinning....really fast! and yet, they always seem to hit the ocean.

I dunno about you, but thats some serious rocket science!