Anybody catch the live shuttle launch of Discovery tonight? All I can say is WOW, what a show. I don't even have HD, but the coverage on Fox was the best I have seen of any launch.

They have cameras mounted on the vehicle and on the boost rockets. Fox had a status bar with vehicle speed and altitude in real time. From the distance they film, you really don't get an idea of how fast the thing accelerates. It was doing 1,700 fps almost immediately, well in a few seconds anyway, which is approximately the speed of a .357 magnum. And of course went up from there. The coverage continued until it was around 25,000 fps and 250,000 feet elevation. The cameras onboard the booster showed the boost rockets falling away and the shuttle moving away under its own power.

Quite an impressive show!

 

nope missed it......didnt know NASA was still sending them up....

 

For the record, it was Endeavor, and not Discovery as I said above.

37 million horse power!!!

I found the video, maybe, I hope the link works. They don't make it very easy to share.
Breaking News | Latest News | Current News - FOXNews.com

 

25,000 fps is aprox. 17,000 MPH right?!!! man thats fast! i went shooting this weekend and thought the 2000 FPS of the M1 Carbine was quick!...i wonder what the 1/4 mile and 0-60 on that is...anyone want to do the math on that? im not into trig problems

 

well the 0 -60 might be a bit slow...doesnt the shuttle take a bit after it starts (a few seconds) to get going?

 

Just division will give it to you.


17,000mph / 60 minutes = 283.333 miles per minute / 60 seconds = 4.722 miles per second

 

Did you watch the vid? It's going faster than the speed of sound in less than 10 seconds.

 

it wouldnt load.....i am just saying that it would take some distance to get to that speed, and 60 feet isnt a lot of it. but it is really fast.

 

1320' (1/4mi)/ 25,000fps = .0528et

 

The Price is right!

(been waiting a while to use that one)

 

well steves speed is the speed if it hits the starting line going 25,000 FPS, you have to adjust for acceleration from 0, which means you have to know how fast it is accelerating, which im not sure of but if in 10 seconds it is going faster than sound im sure its quarter mile is pretty freakin quick!!! so if it was going full speed already and hit the starting line it would take.05 seconds, thats like a quarter of a second right, half of a half i think. to get to the end of the 1/4 mile course...man thats mind blowing

 

no it is 1/20 of a second is what .05 is. heres the math .05 is five onehundredths 5/100 reduced down to 1/20, and if you dont know for sure that i am right: http://www.webmath.com/cgi-bin/fract...dec2fract.html

 

OK, Archimedes.

I'll be looking for fractions next time I go to the drag strip.

 

hey i was just trying to help brian out a little.

 

Thus far, we don't have enough data points to solve a 0-60 equation. Not even with fractions. If you studied the video close enough, you might be able to determine the ignition point, but I doubt it, and that's just one missing data point.