On board Atlantis' last flight (Video footage from the booster rockets)

Hi guys

I haven't made a thread for short while, but I thought you might all enjoy this video
footage from Atlantis' booster rockets

For thirty years, Atlantis took astronauts into the heavens for a total of 33 flights. The orbiting vehicle carried 191 daring adventurers into the sky over its lifespan, logging an astonishing total of 126,000,000 miles and 307 days in space. The camera that captured the breathtaking footage was mounted on one of the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters.

A few stills to whet the appetite







And now for the main event

Enjoy

If you want to read the full article you can find it HERE



Nuff said

Cody

reply to post by cody599


Now that's what I call a good POV video. Pretty cool stuff right there and due to advances in space flight technology, it's something we probably won't have the opportunity to see again in the future.

Thanks for posting, F&S for the Op.

reply to post by Flatfish


Many thanks

I thought it was pretty cool

Just wanted to share it with ATS

That's one hell of a ride, did you see the acceleration on that bad boy ?

Cody

reply to post by cody599

It's a good video, but why did you post the terrible 240p version of it? It's ridiculously fuzzy and the length of the video is only 2:23 but the caption says "From Earth to orbit and back again in just SIX minutes!" so not only is the quality terrible, but there's 4 minutes missing!

An HD quality, annotated version was already posted that's about 10 times better than the 240p version (seriously! It has about 10 times the number of pixels). The video is 8 minutes long so it shows the full flight. It's the first video in the OP of this thread:

The Launch, Flight and Recovery of a Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB)

So if you liked the fuzzy version, you should love the good version of the video, which we can thank Wrabbit2000 for bringing to ATS.

reply to post by cody599


Nice, I had seen the video before but it's always nice to see it make the rounds again.

On the subject of Atlantis, the Atlantis exhibit recently opened at the Kennedy Space Center visitor center. I highly recommend it to all space aficionados out there. The way they have displayed Atlantis is superb, the whole experience is probably the most incredible display of a spacecraft I have ever seen. It really does look exactly like it did in orbit, and the result makes you feel like you're spacewalking right next to her (they even left the space shuttle "dirty" - they didn't do anything to clean up the plasma scorching from her final re-entry, you can see the mileage she had put on her). If you ever have the chance to visit KSC, the Atlantis exhibit alone is worth the price of admission if you're a space nut.
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It's packed in the second picture because that was the grand opening day. It's not nearly that crowded on a normal day. I did get lots of pictures of various astronauts who were in attendance that day, including the final commander of Atlantis, Chris Ferguson:
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He kindly autographed my picture of his mission docked to ISS
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Pictures really can't do it justice, you've seen the shuttle up close in pictures before, but to see it the way they introduce it and present it... it put a lump in my throat. I wish they had given the beanie cap a more respectful display, but other than I really don't have any complaints.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
reply to post by cody599

 

It's a good video, but why did you post the terrible 240p version of it? It's ridiculously fuzzy and the length of the video is only 2:23 but the caption says "From Earth to orbit and back again in just SIX minutes!" so not only is the quality terrible, but there's 4 minutes missing!

An HD quality, annotated version was already posted that's about 10 times better than the 240p version (seriously! It has about 10 times the number of pixels). The video is 8 minutes long so it shows the full flight. It's the first video in the OP of this thread:

The Launch, Flight and Recovery of a Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB)

So if you liked the fuzzy version, you should love the good version of the video, which we can thank Wrabbit2000 for bringing to ATS.

Saw the good version posted on another forum not too long ago and was blown away.

The sound in it is amazing. From the deafening roar of the boosters at liftoff to the Crystal clarity of silence at the edge of the void the whole thing is breathtaking. The visuals are wonderful too of course. The whole package just brings the launch to life in a way that videos from farther out just can't. Very much recommended to watch and listen with some good audio equipment/headphones.

Here's the one I saw first, sound by Skywalker Sound

www.npr.org...

Originally posted by jokerzwild
Here's the one I saw first, sound by Skywalker Sound

www.npr.org...

You quoted my post, but maybe you didn't check the link I cited. That's the exact same version as in the link I already posted, in Wrabbit2000's thread.

In any case it does show that the good version wasn't any secret with over 3.4 million views and seen on multiple sites, so I don't know why some guy felt compelled to upload a really low resolution version with advertising on it; maybe he's trying to make some money?

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Not sure why but that thread's been 404'd. Just getting a link out there so people can enjoy the good stuff

Originally posted by jokerzwild
reply to post by Arbitrageur

 

Not sure why but that thread's been 404'd.

No, it hasn't. I can still open the thread.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Maybe clear your cache? The link you posted is definitely coming up 404 Page Not Found for me.

Whoa there, it's working now, dunno what that that was about but I for sure got multiple 404s... anyhow, we're on the same page, very nice video

reply to post by jokerzwild


Glad it started working. Maybe a temporary problem with your DNS server?
Here's a hint: When ATS 404's a thread, here's what the 404 screen looks like, which is not the same 404 screen you get from DNS problems:
www.abovetopsecret.com...
So unless you saw that page, I suspect it may have been a DNS problem. I get those on rare occasion.

The video just looks so much better in the HD version, where you can see the tiles on the shuttle's heat shield. They sort of all blur together on the lo-res version.

My bad that was the only one I found at the time



Is that better ?

Cody

reply to post by cody599


Yes, that's better. Thanks Cody.
I didn't write down the exact number of views yesterday, but I did look at it and noted the approximate number. I think it had about 90,000 less views yesterday. If it had 90k views in one day, that seems like a lot, for a video that was posted on March 15th. Maybe recent media attention gave it a viewing spike?

I tried clicking the statistics icon, but it says "stats have been disabled for this video". Wonder why they disabled the stats?