Hand-held camera footage of space shuttle Endeavour's external tank captured by the orbiter's STS-134 crew as the ET falls away from the orbiter at main engine cut off (MECO) about 8-and-a-half minutes after launch.
Think about that mathematical coordination.., not only making sure it land in its respective spot over the ocean.., but informing any current enroute aircraft as to its arrival... I've seen a tank fall at cruise altitude from the cockpit of an airliner and it blows my mind I didn't even get much more than a slight traffic call, they got it that well figured out! Awesome guys!
+codzomz Believe me, the calculations it takes to put a probe into the orbit of another planet are infinitely more complicated that figuring out which way the wind will push the parachutes lol. I know it's not that simple, but the point is valid. If they can do that, I'm sure they can handle the stuff here on Earth.
Reflex Point That, or it results in millions of dollars worth of equipment either getting grav pulled and slingshotted into space or smashing into the surface of the destined object. Either way, not a pretty mistake to make.
+codzomz Either that, or mission control is just not concerned for any lowly aircraft that may be in the area. Considering them a pesky nuisance in the race for space.
From what I've read this thing, the external tank, disintegrates during reentry or falls into the India or Pacific Oceans. These are not recovered or reused like the SRBs(solid rocket boosters). after each launch. Although there have been proposals for alternative uses of the E.T.s in space they're not worth enough money to recover. It cost less to build new ones for each launch rather than overbuild them to survive reentry or recover. They're comparable to giant steel propane tanks actually.
The object to the right of the tank (not on it) at 4:56 is probably a small piece of insulation or paint that fell from the Shuttle, and only looks big because it's much closer to the camera.
Good question, I'd would like to know too. My guess is that both the shuttle and the tank are in a suborbital trajectory at this moment, but the shuttle is waiting for the right time to restart its engine (the moment it reaches apogee, for example) to add the remaining velocity needed for a nice stable orbit.
+PrognatusSeptem I just looked it up an those are parachutes. Though I was wrong and there not part of the external tank. Apparently the solid rocket boosters were jettisoned off the external tank and deployed white chutes however the external tank didn't.
The stuff you see floating is foam debris from the main fuel tank which is coming off as it tumbles and falls. The "larger" pieces are just closer to the camera.
You can calculate it if you know the height it fell from and it's initial velocity, although drag wouldn't be negligible in this case so the equations would get a bit complicated.
4:56 - big thing to the right of the tank 3:34 - big thing flying by right of tank 1:43 little things flying around 2:02 little white thing flying in front of tank What are all of those things???? Especially the two big ones?
+carpetrug01 Ice and insulation which broke off of the orbiter and tank at main engine cutoff, it's a 3G jolt. The maneuvering system also is covered foil up until orbit, so there's pieces of that flying around as well. Rocket launches are messy, cryogenic rocket launches are even messier.
+noneof your business There is nothing that falls off the orbiter once it is in orbit. This video shows ice off the tank. Insulation may fall off the tank as well. There is no foil on the thrusters during launch or at all. The throats of the thrusters are covered by rain covers at the pad because its out there for a month prior to launch. The covers have pockets sewn into them that inflate within seconds of launch and are pulled away from the orbiter. The ice from the tank mostly comes from a tumble valve the releases residual oxygen that helps the tank tumble in order for it to break up.
jrockett73 Uhhh no, the maneuvering system seals are broken at launch, but pieces of foil surrounding it break off during the launch and at the end of orbital insertion, and are free to float away from the vehicle, you can watch any video showing the aft OMS during launch and only a small portion of the foil is actually broken through, some pieces are still stuck to the shuttle even after landing. Additionally, again--no, the entire tank is coated in ice, and pieces which are stuck between the corrugated sections of foam on the tank don't fall off until they feel the jolt of engine cutoff, or they start sublimating in the near space environment, it's always a complete mess when the shuttle reaches orbit because of this. You can even see pieces of ice still stuck to the tank, the fuel ducts have little or nothing to do with it.
+noneof your business Yes, the OMS engine thruster covers break at ignition. You say their made of foil. I recall them being made of freezer paper that was glued on. Thats why you saw pieces still after landing. When did they change to foil? I was talking about RCS thruster covers. Sorry about the mix up. About the tank. I agree there is ice on the tank. But not all over it. Thats what the insulation is for. Just look the the crew filming the tank. Not a lot of ice. Don't understand your fuel duct comment. However, the tumble valve does cause ice.
Separation debris, shielding that protects the ablation plates during separation of the fuel tank from the spacecraft. You will see lots of little bits if you watch the video again.
I understand the rudiments of how orbits work (from playing my share of space simulators), I just wasn't aware quite how low the altitude was. I suppose it's logical to put all satellites within the thermo/exosphere and occasionally do an altitude maintenance burn for A) Good signal strength and B) Less space debris when these things are obsolete.
Ice can form from engine gasses freezing but can also form when the shuttle is on the ground due to condensation freezing on the outside of the liquid fuel tanks and then break off during separation.
The moon has even less space debris. The reason the moon is so cratered is because it has no atmosphere to slow down meteoroids. If the earth had no atmosphere, it would be impacted even more often due to its higher gravity. It is true that at any moment the astronauts could have been killed or unable to return due to a tiny meteor impact. However, this was a very slim possibility. Mechanical failures posed a much greater risk.
It's also noteworthy that most of the space debris today is artificial and has only been there since the 60s at the earliest. Virtually all of this debris exists at or below geosynchronous orbit.
@okyat The external tank provides liquid oxigen and liquid hidrogen for Shuttle's three main engines until is reaches the desired orbit. After that, the external tank is detached from Shuttle and takes hours or days until reenter the atmosphere and completely burn-up.
What is that silvery object at beginning at frame 3:34? It is entering the frame from the top above the tank, and then exits by frame 3:37. The crew member videotaping hovers over the unknown object before returning to the tank.
ajims sali Its obvious you dont understand space travel. The tank is a big thermus bottle. Ice forms on some parts of the tank and at the connections with the orbiter. When they separate it knocks it loose. Also there is a tumble valve on the tank that releases excess liquid oxygen which helps the tank break up on re-entry. It freezes instantly in a vacuum. There is your ice factory.
lets be nice - yes it's ice, i think the water comes from the atmosphere, the tank is full of liquid oxygen and hydrogen. the water vapor condenses on the very cold tank
@chaacm Nope, It's not an Unidentified Flying Object, it's a piece of space debris, there are so many pieces up there, it is almost impossible to miss some on your way to orbit.
It's not that the shuttle is out of visible range, it's just that the SRBs and external fuel tank aren't controlled during fall, so the camera just points in whichever direction they're oriented, which usually isn't pointing directly at the shuttle. Don't forget, also, that the shuttle and fuel tank are travelling at the same speed when it detaches. It'd be directly below them for quite some time.
@dumontmc As the tank revolves (small reaction jet causes this effect) unspent fuel is expelled from the tank. This fuel in space freezes and therefore becomes little or big chunks of ice.
@VollAssiHier It's ice that forms on the tank, and the jolt of ET seperation shakes it loose and it stays in the vicinity of the shuttle as they have the same energy in the same direction because the shuttle has yet to adjust it's trajectory.
lol,, how people get distracted by the white depris at 4:56 and a second later you see the reason why he turns the camera so quickly at 4:59. It is a much smaller disc shaped object which seems to follow the tank but the video ends :-( Maybe another piece of debris aswell but why did he turn the camera there so quickly :D Sorry for spraying conspiracy!
at 3:33 and some seconds later is something aitherical and is not ice.... so thats the camera man before that is distructed and then his capturate it.... in many cases we see some thing like that fly smoothly around spaseships or spacejunks....
Then what would it be? Appearently you don't know how vast the universe is. To say anything just above our planet is alien or ufo is totally ignoring the fact that the universe is larger than moste people think. And most people don't think about the universe at all...
i m a psysicist here .. i know alot and olso i know what i dont know... those things are from somewere alse, maybe the extradimensional who some ppl call them ufo demon shifters.... who knows realy, but the nasa excuses dont convice me.... ;)
Endeavour was flying at about 17.000 miles per hours when the tank got separated. Without tanking into account the gravity acceleration, the tank was falling at about 7500 meters/second.
Looks like a thermal blanket. If you look up the "black knight satellite" that people claim has been hovering above the Earth for 13,000 years or whatever they claim...it actually looks like the shadow of a thermal blanket. Space junk stays in orbit.
When the shuttle and tank reach orbit, they are in an elliptical orbit. The shuttle does another burn to put it in a circular orbit like the ISS is in to maintain its height. The tank at its low point (in an elliptical orbit) has a lot of drag which brings it down to the Indian or Pacific ocean depending on the launch. The shuttle, Soyuz and ISS (itself) boosted the ISS periodically to maintain its orbit. Drag is a lot less in a circular orbit but eventually what goes up will come down.
RunAMuckGirl2 the fuel is extremely cold and has a frozen coating on the rocket from dew that builds up on the rocket. Pulls that fuel tank still has scattered amounts of extremely cold liquid fuel that freezes once it escapes.
ootie extreme The fuel tank is approaching and passing by these white things. I don't see any ice on the fuel tank. www.leveledmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/space-shuttle-endeavour-FLY.jpg Where and when does this ice develop? and How did it get ahead of the fuel tank?
@santisimos As the tank revolves (small reaction jet causes this effect) unspent fuel is expelled from the tank. This fuel in space freezes and therefore becomes little or big chunks of ice.
Interesting observations. Thanks for taking the time to write about it. I wonder what the "Debris" is. Surely its not space junk, because from one launch, there seems so much of it. They'd be hitting it all the time on the way up.
It's frozen liquid from the fuel tank, the crew reported it to the control station and stated that when the tank disconnected it let out some liquid that froze.
I understand that, what I do not understand is why the debris you see falling off of the external tank separates from it so quickly. I would have thought that with the lack of atmosphere they would have separated only very slowly.
Obviously no heat shielding since we want it to burn up. The heating happens much lower when the atmosphere becomes thicker so does the air resistance and friction begins and will almost completely consume the tank. Small bit that remains falls into the ocean.
Its simply ice. A tumble valve on the tank releases residual fuel to help tumble the tank to help it break up. At that altitude it freezes fast. I've seen 50 of these tank videos showing the same thing.
I see, and come to think of it, these shuttles were operating still within the atmosphere, where ice would still be capable of forming pretty easily I imagine.
Well the problem is that there's nothing to transfer the heat to. Heat doesn't just dissipate because the space around it is cold, it has to be transferred to something else. However, after posting my comment I realised that this isn't empty space, this is near earth orbit were there is still enough atmosphere to transfer heat away from the water and allow it to freeze.
@tpopa81 thats easy, hes using the zoom feature on his HD recording camera to film the external tank through a window, that white thing u see at 4:57 is a mark on said window.
This is an handheld digital model used by the crew right after engine cutoff. I cant remember the brand name or model of this one. But its either a Sony or a Nikon which they used the most.
The tank never hits earth, after separation from the shuttle the external fuel tank is high enough that when it falls back to earth it disintegrates in the atmosphere.
Its way higher than that. Endeavour was flying at about 17.000 miles per hours when the tank got separated. Without tanking into account the gravity acceleration, the tank was falling at about 7500 meters/second.
It seems it rotates faster and faster during the filming. In the beginning you have to look hard for local spin, but at the end, it's quite fast . Is atmospheric drag causing this?
Space was different that day.......It had Human contact in it.....What a touching Orbital vid..Just little things y'know...makes me really really jealous of the babies yet to be born.....Watching Space program missions gives me a good reason to grow old.......
Is the discoloration at the top of the ET all because of aerodynamic heating during ascent? (I'm not talking about the burns on the sides of the ET, but rather the discoloration at the very apex of the tank)
It may be ice but it is not coming from the tank. First, can you see any ice on the surface? Second, some of the larger pieces fly in front of the tank and cannot be a part of it. Third, 3:35 looks like foil or some sort of fabric.
Nah, orbital decay through drag will slow it down and it will spiral deeper into the atmosphere, eventually burning up. The exosphere reaches some 10.000 km into space - far beyond the ca. 350 km. the space station is located at.
