Jim Howe Jupiter FL
Shuttle Atlantis Only a Dot Beyond SRB Plume
On TV you don't get this shot. This is what the real life viewer sees, long after the shuttle has dropped her Solid Rocket Boosters. Atlantis appears as just a few bright white pixels, to the left of the SRB plume.
When you are there for the liftoff, for about two minutes, that little white point is all you can see - but it is the shuttle's three mains firing, and the dot stands out for a long time.
That white point appears to drop in the sky if you watch it long enough, as it goes beyond the horizon, several hundred miles downrange, and fifty miles up or more.
Shuttle Atlantis Only a Dot Beyond SRB Plume
On TV you don't get this shot. This is what the real life viewer sees, long after the shuttle has dropped her Solid Rocket Boosters. Atlantis appears as just a few bright white pixels, to the left of the SRB plume.
When you are there for the liftoff, for about two minutes, that little white point is all you can see - but it is the shuttle's three mains firing, and the dot stands out for a long time.
That white point appears to drop in the sky if you watch it long enough, as it goes beyond the horizon, several hundred miles downrange, and fifty miles up or more.