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The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

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Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#191

Post by Gravityloss »

Polizeiposaune wrote: post #169
Gravityloss wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually... Rockets don't use thermos bottle tanks. Having two surfaces with a vacuum in between, like in a thermos bottle, would be way too heavy. That's why you see these chunks of ice falling at liftoff from cryogenic rockets. Centaur has balloon tanks which is just very thin metal. It can't even stand on its own without pressure. But no thermos.

I wrote "thermos" in quotes because that's how Burke referred to the propellant tanks. That said, on the Titan IIIE at launch, there was an second outer surface around the Centaur -- the payload fairing -- which was discarded only after atmospheric pressure was low enough that it was no longer needed to protect the payload and the Centaur upper stage. (It wasn't a true thermos as the space in between wasn't sealed an…

Yes, sorry, my criticism was meant to be directed at Burke, since the thermos comment has always bothered me.

You're correct about payload fairing. Also, Space Shuttle External Tank was spray foamed, causing the Columbia disaster when a piece of foam from the tank with hit the wing leading edge. I was googling for what the final verdict was but couldn't easily find an answer. Nice summary in [1]. Cryogenics are complicated.

1:https://idlewords.com/2003/08/things_i_have_learned_about_fo...

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#192

Post by TheElectronaut »

da_chicken wrote: post #92
51Cards wrote: post #10

I always love this video, and I have been a lifetime dedicated fan of James Burke, but few seem to note that the whole segment didn't have to be timed as there is a cut shortly before the launch. If I recall either James or one of the producers talked about it once. They knew they had to start the last bit 13 seconds before launch and had practiced it repeatedly. At 13 seconds to countdown James nailed it. I'm sure e…

I'm sure they had a second camera running without Burke in the shot so that they could dub over it if they messed up the shot, too.

What makes you sure of that?

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#193

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #133
jleyank wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want a single, unedited shot, Neil’s ladder descent would be a candidate. If you didn’t think Stanley actually did it.

But he blew his line! He intended to say "That's one small step for a man", but he left out the "a".

I always liked a joke about this:

Not a lot of people know that after his famous lines as he descended the ladder, Armstrong quietly muttered "and good luck Mr. Lansky". The few people who have heard the audio asked him about over the years, and he was never willing to explain ... until one day. "Well, you see" said Armstrong at a NASA publicity event, "when I was a kid growing up one of my neighbors were Mr & Mrs Lansky. I was playing on the street one day, maybe 8 or 9 years old, it was a hot summer's day and everyone had their windows open. Mr & Mrs Lansky were having some sort of argument inside their house - I couldn't hear much of what they were saying. But then Mrs Lansky must have moved closer to the window, because I heard her very clearly say "Oral sex? You'll get oral sex from me the day that kid next door walks on the moon!"".

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#194

Post by jh00ker »

Connections is one of the greatest shows in television. The pilot episode is amazing, highlighting the problem with dependence on technology that we don't understand.

"Never have so many people understood so little about so much."

Even more true today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XetplHcM7aQ

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#196

Post by Elonreevemusk »

Gravityloss wrote: post #123
Polizeiposaune wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would appear that this was the Titan IIIE which launched Voyager 2. They would have had another chance to get the shot about two weeks later when Voyager 1 launched. (Due to quirks of interplanetary orbital mechanics, Voyager 1 got to Jupiter several months before Voyager 2 despite launching second). The IIIE did indeed have a Centaur stage with a "thermos" full of liquid hydrogen and another with liquid oxygen, b…

Actually... Rockets don't use thermos bottle tanks. Having two surfaces with a vacuum in between, like in a thermos bottle, would be way too heavy. That's why you see these chunks of ice falling at liftoff from cryogenic rockets. Centaur has balloon tanks which is just very thin metal. It can't even stand on its own without pressure. But no thermos.

[flagged]

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#197

Post by MarkusQ »

OhMeadhbh wrote: post #183
MarkusQ wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really, really obvious. Watch the bit from 43 to 45 seconds in to the video on the article.

The final shot of the sequence runs from about :44 to 1:06. I'm talking about the bit that STARTS at :44, after the cut. I think you're talking about the sequence before the SHOT.

Ah.

I think that's why you aren't seeing what people are talking about then. It's being pitched as "one long shot", folks are seeing the cut at :44 and saying "no it isn't!"

It's also not as hard as it might seem because they could track the countdown and cue him at the appropriate time.

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#198

Post by dtgriscom »

TheElectronaut wrote: post #192
da_chicken wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure they had a second camera running without Burke in the shot so that they could dub over it if they messed up the shot, too.

What makes you sure of that?

Cheap insurance.

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#199

Post by qotgalaxy »

chongli wrote: post #6

I watched this show religiously as a kid (by then in reruns in the early 90s), along with Star Trek: TNG, Jeopardy, and playing Civilization for PC. The most formative years of my life were spent absorbing as much science, technology, and history as my growing brain could muster. I think that's why I'd grown up to be so optimistic about the future. I think there's still a lot of room for optimism, despite all of the…

[dead]

Re: The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)

#200

Post by dtgriscom »

timthorn wrote: post #117
RachelF wrote: post #4

The late 1970's were the golden age of documentaries: Connections, Cosmos, Civilization, The Ascent of Man and Attenborough's Life on Earth. Perhaps it's just me, but modern documentaries are rather dumbed down? As a side note: Quite ironic that he ends up pointing to a rocket propelled mostly by solid fuels.

> Connections, Cosmos, Civilization, The Ascent of Man and Attenborough's Life on Earth Civilization and The Ascent of Man were both commissioned by Attenborough - he had a major impact on the broadcast landscape well beyond natural history.

We watched all of The Ascent of Man in middle school. The only thing I remember is that when the narrator, Jacob Bronowski, gestured with the back of his hand (fingers up), he always tucked his middle finger behind his ring and index finger. I assume this was so that he wouldn't "give the finger" to the audience.

(I've been wasting neurons on this for fifty years...)

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