Author Topic: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.  (Read 11119 times)

Offline Jim

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This is another one of those threads.  No facts involved, just opinions, but it brings about good hearted discussion.

Even though I havent worked around them much, RP-1 vehicles intrigue me.  I like the wispy flame from the turbopump exhaust on Saturn I's, MA-2 & MA-5 powered Atlases and solid less Thors.  I like the quick belch of flame from the turbopump exhaust on Deltas before it is obliterated by the start of the SRM's.  Watching the slowmo of the start of Saturn I's on Spacecraft Films, you can see the dirty fuel rich exhaust as dark smoke coming out the corner engines. When the exhaust hits an object such as a mast, it mixes with the air and bursts into flame.  With the Saturn V, dumping of the exhaust into the F-1 nozzle extension causes a another neat effect,  the first 10 feet of flame is masked by the dark exhaust.  The TP exhaust eventually catches fire and it is very bright.  The interface between burning and unburned exhaust is like a person running on a treadmill, never really gaining or losing ground.
« Last Edit: 04/05/2012 12:06 am by Jim »

Offline QuantumG

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #1 on: 04/05/2012 12:13 am »
Mach diamonds.. Delta IV Heavy launches have great ones.. the rare Atlas V launch with no strap-on solid boosters are pretty good too.

XCOR makes 'em like a production line.


Human spaceflight is basically just LARPing now.

Offline Jim

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #2 on: 04/05/2012 12:23 am »
Mach diamonds.. Delta IV Heavy launches have great ones.. the rare Atlas V launch with no strap-on solid boosters are pretty good too.


Good one.
The shuttle had its classic blue triangles.
Titan II/III cores had some good diamonds.

http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/titan2.htm

Offline Lee Jay

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #3 on: 04/05/2012 12:35 am »
Prandtl-Glauert singularity.

Online Chris Bergin

I always loved the roll program for Shuttle. Something very graceful about that, especially considering how much power is involved.

Big fan of staging too, for any vehicle. Saturn V's staging was immense!
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Offline DMeader

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #5 on: 04/05/2012 12:37 am »
I always liked watching the solids peeling off of the Delta II.

Offline kevin-rf

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #6 on: 04/05/2012 12:51 am »
Ya got me thinking, and you know having witnessed two night Centaur blowdowns (fuel dumps), I  would say that about tops it for me. Just nothing like noticing a glowing cloud out of the corner of the eye and watching it evolve into two clouds then slowly disperse and fade as it moves across the night sky. And I mean slow, the last one Strata had his leash in mouth and was trying to drag me home. I wasn't a squirrel and he could careless.

I get really excited when the NRO does non GEO east coast launches.
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Offline Rocket Science

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #7 on: 04/05/2012 12:57 am »
It’s the sound… The shriek at start-up and then continuous rolling thunder.

Crank up the speakers!! ;D



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~Rob: Physics instructor, Aviator

Offline corrodedNut

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #8 on: 04/05/2012 01:17 am »
Glowing, red-hot niobium. Best seen on the dark side.

Offline Jim

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #9 on: 04/05/2012 01:37 am »
It’s the sound… The shriek at start-up and then continuous rolling thunder.

I was also going to say the sound, or sounds, of launch.  Titan 2 engines shrieked at startup, for example.  Rocketdyne Atlas made a low rumble thunder crackle sound that changed pitch as it rose due to Doppler effect. 

I witnessed the first aborted launch attempt of Discovery, back in 1984, when I heard the super-odd burp-whomp-shriek-whomp sound of SSMEs starting and aborting.  Weird!  And, of course, the sound always lags what you see by several seconds, which is also weird.  Adding to the strangeness is the feeling of the ground moving beneath your feet shortly *before* the sound arrives. 

Weird!

 - Ed Kyle

The shutdown of the S-IC had a weird shriek.

Offline The-Hammer

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #10 on: 04/05/2012 01:55 am »
GSLV for two reasons:
1. LRBs around a solid propellant core.
2. Boosters burn for nearly a minute after the core stage burns out.
Grant Imahara: Oxygen deficiency alarm? Is that something I should be worried about?
NASA worker: Only if it goes off.

Offline Art LeBrun

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #11 on: 04/05/2012 06:39 am »
Liquid oxygen loading under the searchlights.
« Last Edit: 04/05/2012 06:47 am by Art LeBrun »
1958 launch vehicle highlights: Vanguard TV-4 and Atlas 12B

Offline Art LeBrun

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #12 on: 04/05/2012 06:44 am »
Turbine exhausts: multiple favorite aspects of a rocket for me.
« Last Edit: 04/05/2012 06:55 am by Art LeBrun »
1958 launch vehicle highlights: Vanguard TV-4 and Atlas 12B

Offline Art LeBrun

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #13 on: 04/05/2012 06:53 am »
Transparent jets with shock diamonds or similar
1958 launch vehicle highlights: Vanguard TV-4 and Atlas 12B

Offline Art LeBrun

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #14 on: 04/05/2012 06:59 am »
Cascading ice shake off and venting pre-ignition vernier engines. Note the telemetry cable going aloft to record the engine data (maybe 4 seconds of data) because of the abrupt ignition and liftoff for Atlas E and F R&D missiles.
« Last Edit: 04/06/2012 03:58 am by Art LeBrun »
1958 launch vehicle highlights: Vanguard TV-4 and Atlas 12B

Offline STS-200

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #15 on: 04/05/2012 08:46 am »
Near-transparent exhaust, "lean burn" HTP/Kerosene

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Offline IanO

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #16 on: 04/05/2012 03:11 pm »
I like the Proton's six-fold symmetry. Why isn't a six or seven bell/booster first stage more popular?
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Offline Jim

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #17 on: 04/05/2012 03:17 pm »
It is not cost effective.

Offline mike robel

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #18 on: 04/05/2012 03:25 pm »
An early morning Posiden launch, when at staging, it made a huge pinwheel in the sky after staging.  After that one, i got up for every morning launch to try to take a picture, but alas, it never repeated and I never found a picture of it

Offline Art LeBrun

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Re: Favorite or Interesting Characteristic of a Rocket.
« Reply #19 on: 04/05/2012 03:41 pm »
Thor based launch vehicles off LC-17: ejected vertical steam cloud and vernier engines.
« Last Edit: 04/05/2012 10:32 pm by Art LeBrun »
1958 launch vehicle highlights: Vanguard TV-4 and Atlas 12B

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