Cool Video Link - Shuttle's engines firing in slo-mo

Trawling through youtube for something different, but then my mind wandered, and I came across this. No sound, so don't worry if you're at work.



Slow motion of the firing of the Shuttles main engines at launch (slow motion as in a scale of about 1:4 seconds)

That's actually pretty impressive.

I didn't realise the sparks had nothing to do with actually igniting the main engines... interesting

I didn't realise the sparks had nothing to do with actually igniting the main engines... interesting

Yeah, when you read the descriptive text accompanying the video, it's pretty neat.

(the sparks actually ignite any airborne hydrogen around the engines to eliminate the threat of a hydrogen explosion, prior to the engines themselves firing.)

It's only fairly recently that I found this out too - I had previously thought that's how they're lit - after all, the SSMEs (and the SRBs) only fire once, it's OCS engine that do all the manouevering and retro functions.

Great vid, thanks for posting the link.

Yes really impressive and interesting.
The most impressive part is following ignition of the engines you can see the exhaust gases heating up to the point where the hottest part of the jet moves away from the diffuser nozzle and downstream of it.

When I was very young we used to play astronauts. The countdown always went -2-1-0-BLASTOFF. Now I see why it really goes -2-1-0-IGNITION.

Obviously they have to wait for all three engines to achieve full thrust before releasing the vechile for its vertical rise.

I remember hearing about some disasters when they were testing solid fuel rockets and one in particular which was released prior to achieving an even burn. It flipped over horizontally and then accelerated across the test range heading towards the control bunker- the last cries heard from the bunker were 'Alle is Kaput!'

... the last cries heard from the bunker were 'Alle is Kaput!'

This is FUNNY! :lol: