Nasa played some launch footage from the latest shuttle – sent to repair Hubble – on Nasa TV today while the crew have a day off before they return to Earth. Call me a geek, but watching the footage taken from the solid rocket boosters is quite fun.
Another blurry UFO picture? No, the other solid rocket booster.
The sounds are rather strange, too:
The tank separating from the shuttle (.ogg, 176.8 KB)
The tank wailing as it falls back to Earth (.ogg, 327.2 KB)
The tank’s parachutes opening and splashdown (.ogg, 302.6 KB)
I love the second clip, which makes the SRB sound almost alive. If you’re sad enough, you might want to listen to the full recording (.ogg, 3.0 MB).
Bonus track! If you’re read this far, you deserve it. Another recording I made a day after the above tracks, where an astronaut was asked to to perform a “cycle of the WCS control handle” to fix an intermittent valve problem. This is the first time I’ve heard laughter in the mission control room during a mission. The handle used when operating the commode? (.ogg, 588.7 KB)
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