NASA STS-122 - ET Tank Venting

The video for the ATS members with an interest... spectacular in NASA's own words.

Watch from about 2 minutes in and what's that at 3:44? Lotta stuff...
Cheers,

Vic

[edit on 7-2-2008 by V Kaminski]

That's pretty neat! I had never seen this ET venting operation before.

That is spectacular! I just got to believe they have other cameras focusing on this now. Multiple tank jetisons have had UFOs associated with them. I think I saw orbs, a worm and a triangle.....

Brave New World > New World Order

reply to post by V Kaminski


Right around 3:44 some space junk floats up slowly into the shot?



It is pretty cool watching the tank vent. That is mostly oxygen?

I have video of half a dozen ET post-separation events. None quite this "interesting". At 3:44, I see what some might describe as a "black triangle" or space junk.

The venting itself is "standard operating procedure" and there are pressure relief valves that can vent hydrogen and oxygen but there is some "wiggle-room" for speculation I'd speculate.

In the 122 event... watch the illumination invovled and consider the possible sources of light... at the same time consider that the 150 foot long tank does have cameras and batteries for local transmission capabilities as evidenced by the ascent video of the orbiter belly on the way "up"... at the same time consider the the ET moving from light into darkness could cool rapidly owing to the lack of solar heating and "maybe" should not vent as spectacularly as seen - or at all at that specific time.

Watch it closely... some areas of the tank do have unusual illumination near the area of the venting. Check External Tank drawings... the area of venting shown in the video isn't from the inter-tank area exactly which is where one would expect venting to emanate from.

NASA does say that venting is used to "tumble" the ET away from the orbiter... why the fascination with this NASA... it's not like they don't get extremely detailed video and stills from the two astros earlier, it's the very first thing done as soon as the astros unbuckle from the trip uphill.

The ETs are not recovered and burn up during re-entry. Let's hypothesis that the USA has a covert space capability outside of the STS... could the ETs be "target practice" for an anti-sat directed energy weapons system coming from a "Blackstar-like" evolution "pop-up"? What effects could a directed energy system produce on a target like the STS External tank? If there was such testing would it be documented for "research" purposes?

So... what's going on? Nothing? OK... if NASA says so and they do say "so" regularly. They're NASA, they're the ones with the data. We just get to watch...

I've talked to several other enthusiasts about the "trip" up, three to one that Atlantis lost fire on her port-side lower SME. They did use the OMS jets to separate and these thrust systems are integrated... some of us think NASA "smoothed over" the loss of an SME just prior to SRB sep... they can tell whatever story they like and very few will question their explanations or even ask about anything "tough" as they don't want to lose their media credentials at NASA.

Buncha other little things this flight...

Cheers,

Vic

[edit on 8-2-2008 by V Kaminski]

That was awesome...

Im sitting here screaming at my monitor..
HOLD THE DAMM CAMERA STILL MORON!

there are definitely some interesting objects I just wish
he could have been a better camera man...

great footage, thumbs up and flagged..

Very nice black triangle there, lets see if we can get some good footage of it seeing as nasa record in HD now.