Solid Rocket Booster Test
I took my boys to see what could be the last solid rocket booster test at ATK Systems in Promontory, UT yesterday.
I first saw on of these about 20 years ago with my Dad and a friend of his whose father worked at what was then Morton Thiokol. We pulled over on the side of the road and waited. I had no idea what to expect other than it was going to be a big rocket blast like the ones that you see on TV that power the space shuttle. As the sirens wound down and the crowd started to countdown backwards from 10, the rocket lit. It was the biggest flame that I had ever seen and started building smoke all across the mountainside. And then, about 6 seconds after we saw it start ...we heard it ...we felt it. The earth was shaking and the noise was deafening. It was spectacular.
On Tuesday, I got a tweet from KSL that said that ATK was going to do another test this Thursday. I was so excited to finally be able to share this experience with my boys who are now just a bit younger than I was when I first saw a rocket test. I immediately took the day off and made plans to head North.
We got up early enough to get there and scope out a viewing spot. As it turns out, the best place to view is a big parking lot just off Highway 83. We pulled in about 2 hours early and got a front row spot. Over the next hour or so the entire parking lot filled with cars and trucks. The traffic on Highway 83 was backed up as far as I could see. We set up our chairs, tripods, and cameras and waited.
The test controller came over the PA about 45 minutes before ignition and started the checklist of double, triple, quadruple checks that go into lighting one of these things. I thought it was interesting how much effort and manpower it takes to pull this off.
There was lots of cool equipment there as well. More Canons and Nikons than you could count but as we roamed around the parking lot we saw a few remakable setups. One guy right next to us had a high speed camera that needed a generator, 3 batteries, a heater, and 100 yards of film. When we asked him how long that 100 yards of film would last he smirked and said "four seconds". The camera had a 1.5hp motor to move that fast and capture the first 4 seconds of ignition. All of that rig ...for four seconds. Awesome
There was also a guy there positioned at the very back of the parking lot with 2 old school cameras with the black accordion type shields and a wood frame. He had to get under a blanket-hood thing to look through the lens (that was upside down). We talked to the guy for a mintue and he told us that the cameras actually were only about 15 years old, they just looked like antiques. He said that the images these cameras capture on the silver glass "film" would last for 6,000 years whereas a digital copy might last for a few hundred. He was a photo geek. He was cool.
Then the countdown came:
...45 seconds to ignition
...and this is what we saw:
You can click on this video to see it larger or full screen
FSM-17 Solid Rocket Booster Test from Brian Hansen on Vimeo.
It was an awesome experience and I was glad that I could share it with my Dad ...and my boys.
Here's a bunch of other stuff that I captured that day:
Panormaic of the parking lot and the traffic after just one hour
Time lapse looking backwards from our spot over an 1 hour
Here's the old looking cameras
And the guy with the super high-speed camera
This guy was hilarious to talk to. He came prepared with his marshmallow roasting mascot tool
Here is the video that Josh captured with his camera
Here are some links to other people's pictures that were captured that day:
