June 7, 2008: Flying Bricks

[xoxoxoBruce]

You may or may not have seen the news story , about the June 2nd launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, doing "unprecedented damage" to the launch pad.

This picture was supposedly taken by an amateur photographer/tourist, but it looks like it was taken from a position a lot closer than they allow tourists, to me.

Anyway, it clearly shows the debris (pieces of brick and concrete), from the flame trench, raining down on the water.


photo credit ~ Ben Cooper/Spaceflight Now

[Kagen4o4]

thats why people arent allowed near there. isnt that why?

[xoxoxoBruce]

That's not a normal occurrence. People aren't allowed closer in case the sumbitch blows up on the pad.

[Imigo Jones]

. . . they'd be brickbats.
Must be the site's June theme.

[Sundae]

Recipe for cauliflower cheese anyone?

[Stress Puppy]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

This picture was supposedly taken by an amateur photographer/tourist, but it looks like it was taken from a position a lot closer than they allow tourists, to me.

Telephoto lens?

[SPUCK]

Originally Posted by Stress Puppy

Telephoto lens?

Your standard 2,000,000,000,000mm lens.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Stress Puppy

Telephoto lens?

Probably, but not terribly long, there is not so much compression of the image as you'd expect w/ a telephoto.

Boat?

[xoxoxoBruce]

That could be, if the pads are those circles out near the open water.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

That could be, if the pads are those circles out near the open water.

Been there, done that, still awestruck.

It's a long ways away, people. To give you some sense of scale, that little box of a building in the center of the frame is the VAB. It's big. Really big.

Originally Posted by wikipedia

Size

The VAB is 525 feet (160.02 m) tall, 716 feet (218.24 m) long and 518 feet (157.89 m) wide. It covers 8 acres (32,374.85 m²), and encloses 129,428,000 cubic feet (3,664,992.82 cubic metres) of space.[1]

One indicator of the building's scale is that each of the stars on the American flag painted on the building is 6 feet (1.83 m) across, the blue field is the size of a regulation basketball court, and the stripes are as wide as a standard road lane. The flag is 209 feet (63.70 m) high, and 110 feet (33.53 m) wide, and was added in 1976 as part of United States Bicentennial celebrations, along with the star logo of the anniversary, later replaced by the NASA logo in 1998. The interior volume of the building is so vast, NASA employees have reported it has its own weather, "NASA employees report that rain clouds form below the ceiling on very humid days."[3]

The building implements four large air machines (four cylindrical structures west of the building) to keep moisture under control.

[sweetwater]

I wonder if they'll think to finance the repairs by selling the bricks on eBay.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by sweetwater

I wonder if they'll think to finance the repairs by selling the bricks on eBay.

That actually would work. But the government is not really allowed to do that. You people out there would buy them.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Why aren't they allowed to do that? Government surplus auction.

[sweetwater]

I saw an Authentic Piece of the Berlin Wall in a small box at a garage sale recently. Tempted but resisted. For all I know, it was actually one of the concrete kibbles from the NASA photo.

[footfootfoot]

Damn, Bruce gets all the best classified photos!

Alternate caption for the thread pic:
"You deserve a brick today."