Shuttle launch captured from Space, amazing

[stmoritzer]

astronaut #1: " they launched"
astronaut #2:" yupeee, the new playboy magazines and more beer is on the way !!! "


http://serv2.imagehigh.com/imgss/4496996_shuttlelaunch01.jpg

http://serv2.imagehigh.com/imgss/4496997_shuttlelaunch02.jpg


they are supposed to be taken from the ISS, would be a conicident to fly over Florida at the exact time (or perfect timing :wink:)
or a very high flying airplane and some PS to show the dark,deep space LOL

[RC45]

If you fly at 30,000 feet at day break you also see that dark band of night in the east - so you wouldn't even need photoshop to see that.

Remember there are all sorts of airborne support vehicles monitoring the launch - so it could be real.

Is the ISS in such a low orbit?

[Erez]

8) 8) 8) awesome pictures!

[Zot09]

Wow, that is pretty freaking cool! Thanks for those amazing shots Stmoritzer!

[cooperluke]

Amazing shots! 8)

You took them yourself??? :lol: JK

[TopGearNL]

Those shots are amazing! 8) :D

Thanks!

[stmoritzer]

If you fly at 30,000 feet at day break you also see that dark band of night in the east - so you wouldn't even need photoshop to see that.

Remember there are all sorts of airborne support vehicles monitoring the launch - so it could be real.

Is the ISS in such a low orbit?

the ISS is on a quite low orbit, about 200 miles (330-350km), the height is changing over the time and they have to push teh ISS to a higher orbit.

However, they can make quite some close pictures. One of the best I've seen is that one

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-114/html/iss011e11260.html

the ISS/Shuttle is just above central Switzerland, one can clearly see the lake of Zürich and the runways of Zürich airport :shock:


Having had a second look, I would say it's taken form a plane

[TopGearNL]

one can clearly see the lake of Zürich and the runways of Zürich airport

Thats incredible :shock:

[dutchmasterflex]

Cool stuff.. never seen the launch from that perspective before.

[BADMIHAI]

I'm sorry, but I highly doubt that was taken from a space station. It looks a lot more like the view from a regular airplane flying at 10-12000 m. 300 km is a lot lot higher than that.

[Chaos in 1983!]

Whatever it was taken from...it´s an amazing pic!

[saadie]

beautiful pics thanks stmortizer ... 8)
the pictures are from some sort of airplane.

[spanky]

Great link St Moritzer!!!! :good:

Would be awesome to see those things launch whilst you were up in the air like that!

[RC45]

beautiful pics thanks stmortizer ... 8)
the pictures are from some sort of airplane.

Yes - maybe one of the NASA/Air Force planes that are airborne to observe and document every laucnh that takes place ;)

[TNT]

yeah the angle looks all wrong to be from outerspace. prob. a safety plane, after all the problems they have had.

[TopGearNL]

yeah the angle looks all wrong to be from outerspace. prob. a safety plane, after all the problems they have had.

Yeah that sounds like a obvious reason, just to check how it was going.

[acmarttin]

Even if it's a support plane, it appears to be in the upper atmosphere, so it's a unique angle anyway.

Awesome pics 8)

[RC45]

Spent 5 minutes with Google to confirm who and how they took the images.

The Accent Chase WB-57's based out of Houston took those. That's part of their job description - observe and film launch sequences.

From 60,000ft that's the view from their office ;)

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5581/robanddomsd2.th.jpg (http://img88.imageshack.us/my.php?image=robanddomsd2.jpg)

[Mattk]

Yeah, I initially thought it would have been a chase plane. It's an awesome set of pics, though. 8)

[TNT]

Spent 5 minutes with Google to confirm who and how they took the images.

The Accent Chase WB-57's based out of Houston took those. That's part of their job description - observe and film launch sequences.

From 60,000ft that's the view from their office ;)

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5581/robanddomsd2.th.jpg (http://img88.imageshack.us/my.php?image=robanddomsd2.jpg)


Dani that is what i was more of getting at with safety plane. record what happens so they can see what went wrong :)

[RC45]

^ hehe... I know :wink:

But I still don't see the 'safety' in these planes... :P

Safety? Its for observaiton - thyey have been doing this since the mid 1960's.

Gathering data and recording the events - and they could see things ground observation mised... those are hand held camera pics... this is what the really look at...

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/5958/sts115aij4.th.jpg (http://img86.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sts115aij4.jpg) http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/67/sts115xn4.th.jpg (http://img86.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sts115xn4.jpg)

[Mattk]

The chase planes also observe landings.

[RC45]

The chase planes also observe landings.

Yeah... its a different group that does the Approach Observations.. these are the Accent Observers.

Heres an onborad video of a Shuttle Landing...

Lets see the Top Gear gang do something this well ;) :P

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/docs/Short115Reentry.wmv

[saadie]

i love this aircraft,
it was designed as a bomber back in the 60's i thinik ... look what its doing now 8)
thanks for the info RC :P

edit:: weee didnt know 2nd page existed :lol:

[stmoritzer]

^thanks RC45 for the info :good:

nice office they have :lol:
what kind of plane are they flying?

[jorge]

OMG those shots are amazing :shock:

[RC45]

^thanks RC45 for the info :good:

nice office they have :lol:
what kind of plane are they flying?

They fly high altitude modded B-57 Canberra bombers.

http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/wb57/index.html

[ae86_16v]

^thanks RC45 for the info :good:

nice office they have :lol:
what kind of plane are they flying?

They fly high altitude modded B-57 Canberra bombers.

http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/wb57/index.html

I would've guessed U-2s. . .

[TopGearNL]

^thanks RC45 for the info :good:

nice office they have :lol:
what kind of plane are they flying?

They fly high altitude modded B-57 Canberra bombers.

http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/wb57/index.html

Very interesting :D

[stmoritzer]

^thanks RC45 for the info :good:

nice office they have :lol:
what kind of plane are they flying?

They fly high altitude modded B-57 Canberra bombers.

http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/wb57/index.html

Thanks!

[franck bullitt]

8) 8) 8) awesome pictures!

+1 8)