Starship Asterisk*

by **BMAONE23** » Mon Aug 08, 2011 9:43 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

I had seen a similar scene back on Feb 1, 2003 directly over my house as I was leaving for work a little before 6am that fateful saturday. It wasn't until I arrived at work that I heard the news; it was the Columbia breaking up on reentry.

by **Chris Peterson** » Mon Aug 08, 2011 8:38 pm

Flynjay wrote:This is a launch photo not re-entry. Caption fail.

It is not a launch photo. Your assessment is failing, not the caption.

(Unless you are a conspiracy nut, you can simply look at the image's EXIF header to determine when it was made. And there are other images taken in the same sequence that clearly show this is a reentry.)

by **Flynjay** » Mon Aug 08, 2011 8:29 pm

This is a launch photo not re-entry. This photo would be a couple of seconds after SRB seperation. That is why the plume seems to come directly veritcle and then start to match the curvature. Notice the little hook at the end of the plume. That is the SRB's starting to tumble.

The bright spot directly to the left of the plume is the orbiter on the three main engines.

Caption fail.

by **BPCooper** » Wed Aug 03, 2011 4:11 am

nebosite wrote:Assuming that is California in the picture,

This is not California, or the US. For ascending node re-entries from the ISS, they come up from the South Pacific, across Central America, the Yucatan/gulf and into Florida.

by **Beyond** » Wed Aug 03, 2011 2:24 am

Before the shuttle, the capsules would splash-down in the ocean for recovery. The shuttle set a new precedent -- landing on wheels.

by **alter-ego** » Wed Aug 03, 2011 1:30 am

yellowbag wrote:i'm sorry, please enlighten me. why is it considered to be unprecedented to land like an airplane on the runway?

APOD Robot wrote: ... Within the next hour, however, the sophisticated space machine dropped its landing gear and did what used to be unprecedented -- landed like an airplane on a runway.

It's not, anymore. I think that was your point

by **yellowbag** » Wed Aug 03, 2011 12:21 am

i'm sorry, please enlighten me. why is it considered to be unprecedented to land like an airplane on the runway?

by **alter-ego** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 5:04 am

ZenGrouch wrote:What are the background lights on Earth, city lights or lightning strikes?

If they're city lights, any idea of which cities they are?

They are city lights. The re-entry location was definitely over Central America, and though the clouds make it more difficult, I believe I have identified the major cities. Note, the shuttle trajectory is heading towards Cancun (just at or over the horizon) where the re-entry was captured on video.

Gosh, I just discovered this was available on Google as a live feed(!?!). Google just keeps surprising me.
http://this-space-available.blogspot.co ... nding.html

: Click to view full size image

by **bystander** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 2:29 am

It's reentry >> http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=24652#p154060

by **Chris Peterson** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 2:24 am

PaulB wrote:I think they got the caption wrong on this one... I think this is a launch image. The shuttle has just finished its ballistic climb (hence the smoke trail) and is still on main engine burn.

I don't see how this couple possibly be a re-entry image. This is not a long exposure as we see no star streaks or blur.

Great show, but not of re-entry!

The caption is not wrong- we are seeing the shuttle reentering, still high in the atmosphere in a very shallow descent. The exposure is one second, which is why there is only a small amount of motion blur of the stars. The bright spot at the end of the trail is the hot shuttle, the trail is glowing plasma. There is no smoke trail.

by **PaulB** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 2:06 am

I think they got the caption wrong on this one... I think this is a launch image. The shuttle has just finished its ballistic climb (hence the smoke trail) and is still on main engine burn.

I don't see how this couple possibly be a re-entry image. This is not a long exposure as we see no star streaks or blur.

Great show, but not of re-entry!

Paul

by **Chris Peterson** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:55 am

NoelC wrote:No one has asked the obvious question... Why is there a smoke trail? Is a coating on the tiles burning off? I thought by the fact that these spacecraft are (er, were) reusable that they didn't burn anything off.

Or is it just ionized atmosphere?

Exactly. It's a plasma trail, not a smoke trail.

by **NoelC** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:42 am

No one has asked the obvious question... Why is there a smoke trail? Is a coating on the tiles burning off? I thought by the fact that these spacecraft are (er, were) reusable that they didn't burn anything off.

Or is it just ionized atmosphere?

By the way, for those asking why the shuttle is ahead of the ISS, this is because that after dropping to a lower orbit, it doesn't have nearly as far to go to circle the Earth and so it gets ahead, even though it's going a little slower. It seems counterintuitive, yes. Think of it as a Nascar driver passing on the inside lane.

-Noel

by **Chris Peterson** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 1:04 am

jkbonner wrote: I'm all for the robots but, Americans ought to to be in space and we must be willing to accept the cost.

Why?

BTW, Americans are still in space with the retirement of the Shuttles.

by **jkbonner** » Tue Aug 02, 2011 12:28 am

A, "temporary lull" in manned space flight is an understatement. How about surrendered manned space flight. I'm all for the robots but, Americans ought to to be in space and we must be willing to accept the cost. If we're unable to educate our population to appreciate that reality then we don't deserve the history we've inherited.

by **saturn2** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 11:59 pm

Space Shuttle Atlantis in the final mission.
The atmosphere has different colors.
It says goodbye Atlantis.

by **ZenGrouch** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 7:26 pm

What are the background lights on Earth, city lights or lightning strikes?

If they're city lights, any idea of which cities they are?

by **tech-coyote** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 6:37 pm

I mis-wrote: it's moving from right to left. Sorry about that. (Post-lunch blah)

by **tech-coyote** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 6:36 pm

I woke up--unplanned--about an hour before re-entry happened and watched it. I was able to watch it live and it's moving from left to right in the image posted.

But what I don't entirely understand is the secondary arc parallel to but well-separated from where I think the top of the atmosphere is--looks like a dark rainbow. Anyone know what that is?

by **bystander** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 4:59 pm

No problems, I just found it odd that you made the comment you did (and probably took it wrong) immediately after the APOD post listing so many of the space observatories that were named after the contributors to our understanding of the cosmos. I agree that it is a fitting tribute to name these robotic explorers after those who made such an impact on the exploration of the universe.

by **islader2** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 4:28 pm

bystander==Thanks for the lesson on name recognition from Astronomy 101. Your list of names {IMHO} includes first line-contributors. There are and have been many men and women who have toiled mightly in our sphere of interest just for the love of the subject. That, to me, is honorable. bystander==great posts. I have enthused over many of them==anf expect more. Thanx.

by **zbvhs** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:02 pm

In those views, the shuttle was following the Earth's curvature. It was also losing altitude quite rapidly, so the perspective would be somewhat exaggerated. The shuttles also made s-turns from side to side to help kill off energy during re-entry. The Orbiters had substantial maneuverability. From an orbital track over Texas, they had the capability to reach California or Florida. A large re-entry footprint is a nice capability to have in an emergency situation. Soyuz re-entries have been photographed from Space Station but I believe this is the first time a shuttle has been caught during re-entry.

by **pinguwin** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:44 pm

I got the impression that during reentry, it crossed oceans and continents, but this entry looks very vertical. Is this just a trick of perspective? How many horizontal miles are covered?

by **nealmcb** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:34 pm

More images in the sequence are linked to from here by Ben: http://www.slackerastronomy.org/wordpre ... oing-home/

Based on the cloud patterns in view, it seems (and makes sense) that the station is catching up to the shuttle as the latter is slowing down in the atmosphere. Also notice the stars rising, and the beginnings of sunrise at the end, with the station getting a bit brighter.
Here are the low-res images, put into chronological order. The file names seem to have a date component (and I've pulled out the last 3 digits):

177

188

199

200

217

218

221

by **neufer** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:24 pm

APOD Robot wrote: Shuttle Reentry Streak from Orbit

Explanation: What's that strange bright streak? ...

A week and a half ago, after decoupling from the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle Atlantis fired its rockets for the last time, lost its orbital speed, and plummeted back to Earth.

-------------------------------------------------

plummet: plunge, fall, drop, crash, tumble, swoop, stoop, nose-dive, descend rapidly
- "Share prices have plummeted."
  "The car plummeted off a cliff."
-------------------------------------------------
John Milton » On Time

Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race,
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy plummet's pace;
And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more than what is false and vain,
And merely mortal dross;
So little is our loss,
So little is thy gain.
-------------------------------------------------
Charles Dickens » Great Expectations » Chapter 53

Of a sudden, he stopped, took the cork out of his bottle, and tossed it away. Light as it was, I heard it fall like a plummet.
-------------------------------------------------
Edgar Rice Burroughs » The Return of Tarzan » Chapter 25

[Tarzan] told [Jane] then of his life since he had returned to the jungle--of how he had dropped like a plummet from a civilized Parisian to a savage Waziri warrior, and from there back to the brute that he had been raised.

-------------------------------------------------

Starship Asterisk*

APOD: Shuttle Reentry Streak from Orbit (2011 Aug 01)

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