[jr2]

Launch pad + F-15

[Gortef]

Wow, that really is nice. Thanks for sharing.

[Ashrak]

cgi

[Unknown Target]

It's not, I've seen it before on official sites.

[BloodEagle]

First of all: I'm amazed that there isn't any blur in that picture.

Second of all: Is it just me, or does that launching pad resemble a star destroyer?

[Flipside]

I thought I saw some blur, then realised it was the vapour trail from the other aircraft....

[lenard27]

First of all: I'm amazed that there isn't any blur in that picture.

Second of all: Is it just me, or does that launching pad resemble a star destroyer?

Yeah, it does resemble a star destroyer, but one of the early ones

[Sarafan]

Nice photo, does anyone remember a certain Ace Combat 4 mission?

[Admiral_Stones]

First of all: I'm amazed that there isn't any blur in that picture.

Second of all: Is it just me, or does that launching pad resemble a star destroyer?

Wow! A RL Acclamator!

[spartan_0214]

First of all: I'm amazed that there isn't any blur in that picture.

Second of all: Is it just me, or does that launching pad resemble a star destroyer?

More of a Republic Assault Ship, but yeah, I was thinkin' it...

Launch pad + F-15 = this


EDIT: darn, beat me to it:

First of all: I'm amazed that there isn't any blur in that picture.

Second of all: Is it just me, or does that launching pad resemble a star destroyer?

Wow! A RL Acclamator!

[WMCoolmon]

Makes me realize what an impressive bit of engineering that whole launch pad is.

Also, I'd imagine that the reason there's no blur is because the thing taking the picture is most likely another F-15 flying alongside, and/or the exposure being turned way down 'cause it's a bright day.

[spartan_0214]

The Air Force always flies in pairs. I'd bet money that the noise in that picture is from the camera looking through the canopy. Usually, the photographer gets some glare from the canopy, this is a pretty good pic. Or a good photoshop job...

[Mobius]

Nice photo, does anyone remember a certain Ace Combat 4 mission?

Shattered Skies, my favourite one. I always fly near the shuttle during the launch...I usually stay glued to it until it reaches 40,000 feets

[jr2]

Realistically speaking, it's impossible... IIRC, the Shuttle breaks the sound barrier before clearing the launch tower.

[WMCoolmon]

Realistically speaking, it's impossible... IIRC, the Shuttle breaks the sound barrier before clearing the launch tower.

Er, what do you mean by 'clearing'? If you mean 'over ten times the height of the space shuttle' (600m), the astronauts would still be subjected to over 10 Gs' worth of acceleration.

Based on this picture, it looks like the launch tower is less than twice the shuttle's height. Given that, the astronauts would be subjected to over 50 Gs of average acceleration. A 200-lb human would (briefly) experience the sensation of weighing 10,000 lbs, about as much as an elephant, shortly before they became a permanent part of the shuttle's interior decoration.

EDIT: If the space shuttle maintained that acceleration, though, it could reach the speed of light in about a week.

EDIT 3: My mistake, the shuttle would only exert as much force on the launch pad as half of one of the WTC towers. And once it had reached about 80km, still assuming a constant acceleration, it would have released about as much energy as the first nuclear bomb: (2029203 kg*(((343 m/s)^2)/(2*120 m)) *80000 m)/(19*4.184*10^12 J)

Boy would those crowds be sunburned.

EDIT ???: 'course, they probably wouldn't notice, since the shuttle would get there in about 18 seconds: (2*80000 m/(((343 m/s)^2)/(2*120 m))))^(1/2)

[WMCoolmon]

So basically, all we need to do is to make a material capable of withstanding a concentrated nuclear detonation, and invent inertial dampeners, and we could launch pretty much whatever we pleased into orbit in about a minute, and solve our nuclear proliferation problems at the same time.

[Koth]

The sad thing is that were was a project exactly like this called ''Project Orion''. A lot of famous scientists ike good ol' Freeman Dyson worked on the that in the fifties until the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty after which it was canceled. Sniff, a sad sad day for Space Exploration.

[karajorma]

Good day for anyone living near the proposed launch site though.

[Koth]

But one could have put that somewhere where no one lives like that Nuclear Testing Range in Nevada.
 

[Admiral_Stones]

Realistically speaking, it's impossible... IIRC, the Shuttle breaks the sound barrier before clearing the launch tower.

Er, what do you mean by 'clearing'? If you mean 'over ten times the height of the space shuttle' (600m), the astronauts would still be subjected to over 10 Gs' worth of acceleration.

Based on this picture, it looks like the launch tower is less than twice the shuttle's height. Given that, the astronauts would be subjected to over 50 Gs of average acceleration. A 200-lb human would (briefly) experience the sensation of weighing 10,000 lbs, about as much as an elephant, shortly before they became a permanent part of the shuttle's interior decoration.

EDIT: If the space shuttle maintained that acceleration, though, it could reach the speed of light in about a week.


EDIT 3: My mistake, the shuttle would only exert as much force on the launch pad as half of one of the WTC towers. And once it had reached about 80km, still assuming a constant acceleration, it would have released about as much energy as the first nuclear bomb: (2029203 kg*(((343 m/s)^2)/(2*120 m)) *80000 m)/(19*4.184*10^12 J)

Boy would those crowds be sunburned.

EDIT ???: 'course, they probably wouldn't notice, since the shuttle would get there in about 18 seconds: (2*80000 m/(((343 m/s)^2)/(2*120 m))))^(1/2)

Sorry dood. U need infinite power to reach light speed.