bored at work

da6d2003 · Dec 11, 2006

Stixbaraca said:
Amazing pics...I am a sucker for pics like that!

Me too! Perspective and angles can do very strange things. We get to see evening launches from Vandenburg every once and awhile. Those are really awesome!

http://www.scara.org/assets/photos/sep-rocket4.jpg

Stixbaraca · Dec 11, 2006

crazy pic! I love pics like this!

twon8 · Dec 11, 2006

those appear to be from the space station, which really isn't in space, but just very high in the atmosphere. afaik, nasa hasn't sent astronauts into space since the trips to the moon, if that even happened.... ;-)

msman825 · Dec 11, 2006

cool pic, can i use it as my ad on here. do yaw mine plEASE

Stixbaraca · Dec 11, 2006

I guess it depends on how you define "space"!! If it means completely above all levels of the Earth's Atmosphere...above 10,000km then it isn't in space. But, most might consider it in space...it is at like 350km right now!

I agree that there could be question to the Earth landing also...hollywood set maybe to beat the Russians once and for all?!?!?!

fishes2889 · Dec 11, 2006

I just saw the one that went up about 2 days ago. I was about 5 miles from kennedy air space. It was my first night launch and oh was it beautiful!! :)

Steve :)

surfn · Dec 11, 2006

fishes2889 said:
I just saw the one that went up about 2 days ago. I was about 5 miles from kennedy air space. It was my first night launch and oh was it beautiful!! :)

Steve :)

thats awesome! i've been there and done the tour 2 times, loved it each time.

maybe they have a behind the scenes tour and show you the stage they filmed the moon landing on? LOL :laughing8:

fishes2889 · Dec 11, 2006

LOL, im sure they actually do it but, yeah its reallt cool too see it go up that close. You feel the engines rumbling and it is jus sooooo gorgeous. I want to actually go right on the launch site and see it go up next time.....:)

Steve :)

surfn · Dec 11, 2006

Stixbaraca said:
I guess it depends on how you define "space"!! If it means completely above all levels of the Earth's Atmosphere...above 10,000km then it isn't in space. But, most might consider it in space...it is at like 350km right now!

I agree that there could be question to the Earth landing also...hollywood set maybe to beat the Russians once and for all?!?!?!

for me personally, i consider it to be space when you have zero G's. is it really zero G's in orbit? or just very close to zero G's?

cuz i know the moon has about 2-3G's of gravitational force.

so if i go by that definition i guess i really couldn't say its space until you completely leave the magnetic and gravitational fields of the planet.

i didnt know the space station wasn't "technically" in space. i know i heard somewhere that it was in a very high earth orbit, above most satellites. i know weather and gps satellites are in low earth orbit (i think).

twon8 · Dec 11, 2006

the are still in the atmosphere, and not even in the top layer at that.

the iss is about 350km [190miles] in the sky, not that far on a the scale of the east coast of the us, not to mention the cosmic scale of space, which is why i don't count the shuttle missions as being into space.
[from wikipedia]
At the ISS altitude, the gravity from the Earth is still 88% of that at sea level. The state of weightlessness on the ISS is sometimes explained as a result of the cancellation of the gravitational force by the centrifugal force produced by the ISS orbiting the planet. A more formal explanation is that the state of weightlessness is a result of the fact that the ISS is in constant free fall, which according to the equivalence principle is indiscernable from being in a state where all forces, including gravity, are absent.