Hi Everybody
I have found this video on the NASA site.
It's the Reentry of the Enternal Tank ET-36 over Indian Ocean on STS-29 mission viewed by a US Navy Aircraft. It was a Space Shuttle Discovery mission and the goal was to put in orbit a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS). This mission launched on March 13, 1989.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/multimedia/photogallery/photos/photogallery/shuttle/shuttle.html
Sorry if this video is in a other place in this forum...
A French Shuttle Fan
Fox Fox
Thanks for the link. This is probably worth posting in the Q&A thread, as there have been questions about this before, and this video is available via NASA.
The last clip is interesting, you can see the spinning of the ET and increased heating when the tank is showing its long side forward.
I guess the explosion is the remaining fuel boiling and eventually rupturing the (now weakened) tank?
I thought the remaining fuel was vented after ET sep?
Could this be an implosion instead? due to increasing atmospheric pressure + weakened tank?
Aside from the "coolness" factor, would there be any legitimate reason to film an ET re-entry using more modern long range cameras used at high altitude?
Aside from the "coolness" factor, would there be any legitimate reason to film an ET re-entry using more modern long range cameras used at high altitude?
Sadly no. It would involve crewing a ship and taking it out to sea with long range trackers near where the tank will re-enter. That's a lot of man and machine power (not to mention $$) for some video footage that will yield almost but "Ooo"s and "Aaah"s. If there's no data to be gained from it, it's considered a useless endeavor. Don't get me wrong - I'd love to see that as much as the next shuttle-head, but NASA won't do it. But by all means, if someone has long-range tracking cameras and is willing to pony up the dough, they have my full support
