Riding the Booster

[scannon]

0 to 2,000 mph in 91 seconds, strait up lifting about 5,000,000 lb.

 

Edited March 18, 2012 by scannon

[snookwheel]

Wow!!!!!! That's cool. Tnx.

[Mondo]

amazing

[lancylad]

What a RIDE!!!!!!!

[scannon]

Early in my aerospace career I worked for Thiokol, the rocket factory in Utah that designed and built the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) for the shuttle. During the pre-test phase I had to go in through the nozzle and crawl to the forward end (it was on a test horizontal stand) and take pictures of the grain where the ignighter was located. The empty core is just high enough to crawl on your hands and knees and you are surrounded by about 1,000,000 lb of solid rocket fuel.

 

It was a little creepy being in there taking pictures with an electronic flash. On the long chance that the flash gun exploded we would have been incinerated almost instantly.

 

I got to witness two test firings while there. Pretty amazing show.

[Jim F.]

Both eerie and fascinating.....loved it!