NASA Orion Mission Contrail Shadow

[Mick West]

Impressive contrail shadow around 13:40, visible for some time

That would be around 12:06:29 UTC. Launch was was at 12:05

Four minutes before launch, just after local sunrise (about 7AM local time)

 

[Mick West]

Interesting to note that the Delta IV Heavy is a hydrogen and oxygen fueled rocket (well, three rockets strapped together), and the exhaust is pure water! It seems like in this launch it left no visible trail at all until it got about a certain altitude.

 

[WeedWhacker]

This is just "wow" stuff....I can watch hours and hours of real space video, in real time. Nerdishness level =10.

Early in the vid they pan from the top of the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building)...where of course the Saturn 1B and Saturn 5 "stacks" were "assembled"...and also where the Shuttle "stacks" were prepped. Somewhere I think I heard that the VAB is going to be torn down. It should be preserved as a museum...seriously, it must still have usefulness?

 

[Mackdog]

This is just "wow" stuff....I can watch hours and hours of real space video, in real time. Nerdishness level =10.

Early in the vid they pan from the top of the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building)...where of course the Saturn 1B and Saturn 5 "stacks" were "assembled"...and also where the Shuttle "stacks" were prepped. Somewhere I think I heard that the VAB is going to be torn down. It should be preserved as a museum...seriously, it must still have usefulness?

At Stennis Space Center, they have reused one of the tall booster rocket storage buildings as a NOAA data buoy repair facility. They even shot a movie in there, but I can't remember which one right now.

 

[WeedWhacker]

I also wished to add....this (at least to me) has that "wow" factor because it is (without seeming to go into extreme hyperbole) much like the very first test of the Apollo-Saturn combination, and we all know how well that worked.

The so-called "race to the Moon", spurred by JFK's challenge? Sure, some corners were cut, but still NASA and the astronauts went "balls to the wall" in achieving that goal. But in today's era, there will be what (to some) seems a snail's pace...in progression. Yet, this program, if continuing funding from Congress is provided, has great potential.

We may very well (one day) mark this date as being "witness" to greatness. (**)

(**)edit...Perhaps I will live long enough, into the mid-2030s, to actually see the end result of this program accomplish a settlement of Humans on Mars. That is one of the stated goals, accompanying this spacecraft design.

(Second edit...and there will likely be CTs then who will say it's all "fake"! )

 

[Trigger Hippie]

I noticed something interesting at the 2:40 mark in this cool HD footage from NASA.



I'm thinking it's the shadow cast from the rocket.

Initiating conspiracy theory primary ignition sequence in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

 

[Mick West]

I'd love to see some photos of the actual contrail. But it seems like it was a cloudy day, so would only be visible from a plane above the clouds.

 

[Mick West]

I'm thinking it's the shadow cast from the rocket.

This animation shows fairly clearly that it's a volumetric "edge" shadow. i.e. it's not being cast on a layer of clouds below, but is being cast through the atmosphere, and is only visible edge on.

The sun had just risen, so the rays would have been at a fairly shallow angle to the ground, which would create a fairly long "slab" of shadow. The camera is at the tip of the trail, ideally placed to view it.

 

[Trigger Hippie]

@Mick West , is it possible that the shadow is cast from the rocket body as opposed to the smoke/contrail trail?

 

[Mick West]

@Mick West , is it possible that the shadow is cast from the rocket body as opposed to the smoke/contrail trail?

No. It's too long and thin. You could only see a long thin trail cast from the rocket if you were many miles away from the rocket.

 

[CeruleanBlu]

Initiating conspiracy theory primary ignition sequence in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

If you think the CT crowd would become interested in this Orion launch due to shadows and contrails then just wait until they get a load of the next planned mission going up with the SpaceX launch in less than two weeks. The CATS or Cloud-Aerosol Transport System, a mission to study the scary sounding atmospheric aerosols. It doesn't help that the NASA website that this is being talked about on has a "terrifying" photo such as this on it:

Photo credit: NASA/Chris Hadfield



Batten down the hatches, because if chemtrail enthusiasts catch wind of the words Aerosol, Transport and System coming from NASA and connected to pictures like the one above then you can be assured that it will soon be included in massive gish gallop lists of "100% PROOF!!1!" that they love to copy and paste all over the internet.

 

[Ross Marsden]

This animation shows fairly clearly that it's a volumetric "edge" shadow. i.e. it's not being cast on a layer of clouds below, but is being cast through the atmosphere, and is only visible edge on.

The sun had just risen, so the rays would have been at a fairly shallow angle to the ground, which would create a fairly long "slab" of shadow. The camera is at the tip of the trail, ideally placed to view it.

The shadow becomes harder and harder to see, vanishing for about 10 seconds 14:20 to 14:30, then re-appearing, until finally vanishing at 15:30.

I think the shadow is volumetric at first, and transitions to a shadow cast on the cloud deck at some point.

 

[CeruleanBlu]

Found another angle of the shadow:

Photo credit: reddit user ev3nthorizon

"Saw the Orion launch this morning from 9000'... I was on a charter to Tampa. We were almost 70nm from the Cape when i snapped this pic..."

 

[cloudspotter]

If you think the CT crowd would become interested in this Orion launch due to shadows and contrails then just wait until they get a load of the next planned mission going up with the SpaceX launch in less than two weeks. The CATS or Cloud-Aerosol Transport System, a mission to study the scary sounding atmospheric aerosols. It doesn't help that the NASA website that this is being talked about on has a "terrifying" photo such as this on it:

Photo credit: NASA/Chris Hadfield



Batten down the hatches, because if chemtrail enthusiasts catch wind of the words Aerosol, Transport and System coming from NASA and connected to pictures like the one above then you can be assured that it will soon be included in massive gish gallop lists of "100% PROOF!!1!" that they love to copy and paste all over the internet.

Had a 'discussion' on Facebook with someone about that already. As usual they hadn't looked into it any further than seeing those keywords

 

[Astro]

I'd love to see some photos of the actual contrail. But it seems like it was a cloudy day, so would only be visible from a plane above the clouds.

Ha! I was standing literally just feet away from those photographers, just further up or down that river bank. I was invited to attend as part of the NASA Social associated with the mission, it was the experience of a lifetime. Unfortunately from my position we lost sight of it in the clouds before the contrail started forming but here's my video of the launch: