Explaining The Amazing Rocket Trail Over LA
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- čas přidán 6. 07. 2024
- Rocket watchers knew the Falcon 9 launch carrying Iridium 4 was going to be spectacular because the launch window was just after sunset. However it caught much of the general public by surprise and caused a bit of a sensation on social media. Let's talk about the science explaining the shape and behaviour of the launch using Doug Ellison's fantastic footage:
Here's Doug's original video:
• SpaceX Iridium 4 Launc...
Also includes a closeup showing Fairing RCS from this video:
• SpaceX Iridium-4 launc... - Věda a technologie
Apologies: I made a huge Mistake - The gap in the trail is the staging event. I thought the time stamps didn't match up and came up with an alternate explanation, but then when I looked again I realised I was looking at the wrong video, I should have trusted my first instinct. So thanks to everyone who noticed. I'll try to do better in the past.
Happy Christmas!
Scott Manley In the future surely ;)
He meant in the past ... and don't call him Shirley!
In the past? Is Scott Manley actually merlin in disguise, living backwards in time, remembering the future?
Lol,I was just about to jump in the comment to say it but oh well
Merry Christmas :)
The launch was livestreamed, filmed start to finish, people still argue that it's aliens.
Can not wait to leave this planet
Hundreds of thousands of people in LA saw this - people still argue it’s fake CGI
Some people people deny facts, truth and knowledge even when it's staring them square in the face. It's best to ignore these types of people, it's a waste of breath to try any further to get people like that to understand wisdom and knowledge.
Jep leave this planet and become an alien ourselves on an other planet :)
People are morons. I stopped counting myself a part of the human species quite a long time ago now.
I too cannot wait until we can jettison ourselves into space!
I watched it in person from lift-off to re-entry burn from Manhattan Beach with my daughter. I curtailed a few nearby conniptions by explaining that it was a Falcon 9 launch and not a sign of the apocalypse. A few seemed disappointed.
chaz720 The Earth is FLAT, you've been fooled my dear friend!
It's been a plane wirh next-gen amoke generator
haha i did the same at work at ontario airport. half my coworkers were like, 'aliens!' and half were 'north korea nukes!'. i was ummmm... spaceX launch out of vandenburgh. sorry.
A sign of the apocalypse came Nov 21st 2016, its a very annoying, racist and lazy sign, so paperwork might save us...
In all seriousness I don't blame their disappointment
Андрей Мишин: You're kind to call me your dear friend sight unseen; have a happy holidays!
@oldfriend: *Vandenberg
Everyone in the world: Oh cool, a rocket.
Everyone in LA: urmahgerd alieeeeeeens!!
Holmesy87 welcome to the U.S.
It's a little alarming how frequently people scream aliens during a rocket launch.
You'd think they'd learn what they look like, especially in parts of the world where rocket launches are somewhat frequent, lol.
California is primarily used for high inclination and polar orbits (and retrograde orbits), Florida has more generally useful launch opportunity
What An Intro Productions Mostely the LA. As everyone else in the Us had to stream this or watch up loads, so obviously knew what it was. There are plenty of exceptions though I suppose....
I was in the LA area, and I drove over closer to the ocean specifically to get a better view before the launch. Not everyone from a specific region is a moron. Just most of them.
Isn't it funny how the public has lost all love for sci fi, yet panic and think aliens are the reason for something they've been publicly told about.
except... you know... rocket launches tend to actually not be in stuff like... news reports? (of the first 20 news reports i'm finding on the falcon 9 launch, only 4 were posted before the actual launch... and they were posted earlier on the day of the actual launch)
seemingly the only way to even know about these launches before they actually happen is to look at spacex's launch scheme, which people who don't actively follow them won't likely do
so... i don't honestly consider these things to be "something they've been publicly told about", heck, i've stumbled upon maybe 4 spacex launch streams this year, mostly from scott and some other twitter people who DO actively follow them. i hadn't heard of a single one of them beforehand and honestly don't even know how many there have been (though i think i saw a report say there were 18 launches somewhere as i was looking for reports on the falcon 9 launch)
News is to busy telling us about what Miley is up to or who Rihanna slept with... They can't be bothered with things that actually matter like ground breaking space tech or things that will fundamentally change mankind as we know it. It much more important to know about a fake Russia investigation or e-mail scandal than history in the making, am I right?
Sirius Black SpaceX does have their own CZcams channel where they stream the launches themselves.
if you look specifically on various spaceflight news outlets you will find articles about it prior to launch,
Michael Halpern Thats the reason the general public doesn't know about the launches, because the news is posted on space news outlets, which you have to specifically and actively look for. The general public of the US is more concerned about North Korea and Donald Trump, I bet tonnes of people went looking on the news for signs of a missile launch from NK lol.
Did Kerbal get a new graphics update or something...looks great! 🚀😀
They definitely cranked up smoke lifetime
Mods, it's not gaming without them.
dude, no one says "kerbal" for ksp. cringe
@@nightshade8958 coming from a dude that names himself "Night Shade" cool.
@@mordoc333 lol
Nice MiB2 reference!
The shots of the fairings returning to earth is absolutely breathtaking... I didn't realize they were putting cold gas thrusters on those, very cool! Not sure how the fake spacers and flat earthers are going to interpret the 100s of video accounts of this launch... I will be interested to see what they come up with lol.
stupid round earther this is clearly the mighty spaghetti monster ascending back into the sky
I stand corrected. I forgot about the mighty spaghetti monster...
tbird81 yes it does, this proves that it is too expensive to fake round earth and rockets and provides no benefit
tbird81 and a smart guy like him is going to launch a rocket every two weeks and provide vast amounts of high-quality CGI footage just to make it look like Earth is round, when he could just be like "rockets are expensive so we can't go to space often" and launch like once a year...
How idiotic do you think this guy is
heh, can wait for non-stop live stream of moon fly-by, that will be a bugger to explain :)
I take every opportunity to explain the Twilight Phenomena to as many people as I can when they question this and get aterrified they're being invaded by aliens.
The trusth is we're going to see this more and more as the cost of building and operating rockets goes down. The more people know about it and understand it the less mass hysteria we'll see.
It still requires the launch window to be in the "golden hour" and weather conditions to be pristine, still statistically we should see it more often
Scott, that pause in the rocket trail is main engine cut off transition to second stage, not clouds blocking the view. You can also see the trail slamming into the first stage as the second stage ignites and it gets very distorted for a short period until the second stage is further away from the first stage.
The pause happened loooong before stage separation. Plus, even after MECO, it still leaves a little bit of a trail. It was most certainly a cloud.
If that's what you think that was, what the heck do you think happened when he said stage separation occurred?
I don't think so, here is a video which gives a much better and closer, picture, narrated by another SpaceX employee.
czcams.com/video/nqr4rMVSpYo/video.html. At 1:15, MECO happens with the thin trail now showing, Note that it is a full 10 seconds between MECO and second stage ignition. This is the same as can be observed from the spacex live stream video czcams.com/video/wtdjCwo6d3Q/video.html, there is a 10 seconds gap between MECO and second stage starting. In both videos, the trail is thinner after MECO but not completely gone, and in both the time between the two stages is the same.
he's right tho, it actually was MECO and second stage start up delay.
Watch the Spacex video and you'll see it was definitely stage separation. You can even see the first stage fire at 90º and disturbing the plume of the second stage.
The timing didn't seem right, that's why I thought it was a shadow. However, I'm now thinking I got that wrong.
NASA doubters are concluding that because the rocket was going almost horizontal, that it must not have gone very high, and it "looked very low".
I tried to explain to them that perspective is involved, and that it must have been very high because of two simple deductive reasons...
1) The rocket and plume was high enough for the sun to highlight it, given that it was past dusk.
2) If the event was able to be seen from Arizona, it means it had to be very high.
You are doing a great job Scott. I live in Huntsville, Al. 68 years. The testing here was awesome in the 60s and 70s. Thank you. We don't have to be perfect!
I think the booster was even Block 3, not 4.
Daniel Wolf yeah that's what I thought too.
it was indeed a block 3, still they are similar enough they both are considered F9 FT variants
Point was, it was old an busted compared to the new hotness.
But I was still surprised that they didnt land it - they could have sold/donated it to a museum or something like that.
Daniel Wolf this one isn't historically significant enough for a museum to be interested, the crs 11 crs 13 booster (same booster for both) is historically significant as those are NASA missions therefore more interesting to a museum
The whole internet reaction on twitter and Facebook and stuff like that of people not knowing what it is and recording it and taking pictures is what would happen if there really was a UFO over a city one day, not the gritty potato videocamera footage that we see a lot lol
That's such a good point.
Fuck it
So many UFO "experts" break out their trusty Potato-Cams when they see an unusual extraterrestrial event.
D
I'm so glad you did this video! Merry Christmas!
I was waiting for this vid. Thanks, you're awesome.
Thank you for the explanation
Literally the next suggested video is titled “ do you really think this was a rocket?” And it has a picture of the launch with a thinking emoji
Ask them about this www.fox13news.com/news/space/pre-dawn-satellite-launch-puts-on-stunning-show-in-sky
lol honestly my man, you and I both know we could show them miles of evidence but they are just posing a video for views and clicks
Finally, a violation of Betteridge's Law of Headlines.
@@scottmanley so weird, because it levels out and doesn't appear to go up through the atmosphere to enter orbit?!
Ask them about coverups
I love the video Scott! Really appreciate it!
Fantastic video Scott. Thanks for the awesome info! -MolokoMan
Why can't people just say: "That was a very beautiful and successful rocket launch?" (Happy Christmas SpaceX, may the Force be with you all)
What I want to hear now is how will the flat earthers explain this one. lol
Van Allen! Turtles! Holigrams! lollllll
Next gen chemtrail.
Aliens of course. I doubt they would have any problems believing in both.
Illuminati
The rocket failed to break through the glass sky firmament and just bounced off! (Yes there are people that believe the sky is made of glass)
Thanks for all the details and explainations..
Merry/Happy Christmas, Scott!
cool seeing the fairings using thrusters. In the image with the roadster you can see composite pressure tanks, i imagine those hold the propellants?
Hydrazine propellant?
It was mentioned on a SpaceX discussion that the fairing attitude thrusters are of the "cold gas" type. They use compressed chilled gas like nitrogen.
That's consistent with what we saw over Los Angeles last week.
Is Nitrogen hypergolic with oxidizer or do they need TEA-TEB on board the fairing as well?
Edit: I feel like if Nitrogen was hypergolic with Oxygen we would have a few big problems on our hands 0.0
Dihydrogen Monoxide Have you ever used a can of dust off?
Same principles apply with cold gas reaction thrusters.
This Falcon 9 was actually a Block 3, not Block 4
My brain knew, my mouth thought it knew better.
Haha I'm impressed I caught this too. We forgive you Scott
IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR A VIDEO TO EXPLAIN THIS THANK YOU SCOTT
Excellent video Scott.
It's a giant space sperm from Oumuamua, which is obviously a giant space phallus. Earth is just the alien's wahine.
stcredzero vagene
Was that break in the trail not staging? From the view of other videos it looked like it was.
Thanks for making this video Scott :D
Was waiting for this video. YOU LEGEND SCOTT
I believe that the gap in the trail is the stage seperation, not some cloud. The turbulent trail you see afterwards is the result of the boostback burn and the 2nd stage burn colliding (they did attempt a soft splashdown). you can see it here in this great close-up czcams.com/video/JRzZl_nq6fk/video.htmlm13s
They should do every launch like this. I'm soooooooo bummed I missed it because of the flu. I'm out on a bike ride around sunset 350 days a year. The one time I'm sick... So bummed ;/
Upcycle Electronics i wouldn't worry so much. This will soon become a common thing.
The launch windows are calculated, and there is about 30 min after sunset, and 30 min before sunrise when it can happen like this statistically it should be more common with more launches, for instance starting 2018 SpaceX is anticipating 30 to 40 launches a year, not counting launches for their own Starlink broadband mega-constellation, this year they reached 18, last year it was just 8
Most beautiful launch I have ever seen. Lit plume with dark background show details of the exhaust flow better than anything I have ever seen. Spectacular in the extreme
Great video as always!
I wonder if the pause in the trail was caused by the pause between 1st stage meco and 2nd stage ignition?
Jess Awake320 - You'd know what Don Denesiuk is talking about if you've watched the 30+ minute full launch webcasts and not the 2 min version. Go to the SpaceX Channel and learn! You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand the basic principles... especially when they explain the stages.
I think that was throttling down for Max-Q, because yours isn't long enough, duration-wise
I'd love to see the NASA doubters and flat earthers explain this.
Yes I know this is SpaceX but they go hand in hand as far as the doubters are concerned
Robert Kitch hologram from ground stations hahahah. the stupid mind is always rested.
They think it crashed into the dome firmament.
@@maxesmay3597 aka the waters above. Which is basically the van Allen radiation belts. They are electromagnetic and we can not get through them as of yet. It's much like trying to put two like poles together on a magnet, they repel. Nasa says they never left low earth orbit, you can verify that. Operation Fishbowl in the early 60s saw us nuking the skies under Operation Dominic; Latin for belonging to the Lord. Werhner von Braun, father of Nasa, has psalms 19:1 on his gravestone, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handiwork." Just saying. ^^
Thanks for this awesome video!
Thanks for this video Scott
No Thumbs down??? ULA hasn't shown up yet! 😆
playgroundchooser nope an hour later two thumbs down, there are a couple of haters
playgroundchooser Hahahahaha buuuuurn
hi scott! if i could be so bold, a friend of mine caught a predawn launch of an atlas V back in 2015 that you can also see this effect on, the link is /watch?v=6EbBij-Vrtk
one of the prettiest launches ive ever seen(and much closer to the action than this irdium launch
Wow! That was awesome
Believe it or not I managed to capture something similar on holiday when I was younger, it still goes down as one of my fondest memories, took a lot of effort to upload it so I hope you enjoy it czcams.com/video/dQw4w9WgXcQ/video.html
Wow that is an amazing sight well worth it.
[SAW]Spitfire ffs xD
Great video. Explained wonderfully the appearance of those beautiful near night time launches. Thanks.
TY for the video..Hopefully all the doubters will watch this
Do not go gentle into that good night; Rage, Rage against the dying of the light.
*incredible organ music intensifies*
Any chance of SpaceX doing a few of these on New Year's Eve?
Yaldabaoth check their schedule
Awesome explanation! Thanks for shedding light on it =)
Thanks Scott, has been a big question in my mind since the last Rocket Lab launch here in New Zealand, 9pm launch up into sunlight at high altitude... beautiful plume also...and now I know!
Thanks Scott. Awesome explanation, as usual.
Just as an addendum: this video also proves that the Earth is round rather than flat. I’m sure the flat-earthers will all give up their obsession now.
One can only dream.
It's always gonna be cgi or holograms from ground stations. Until somebody takes the flattard "leaders' and straps them to a rocket, there is no way to convince them. Even then they will claim some kind of forgery.
Until someone has a practical example of a liquid conforming to the exterior of a shape there will always be people who disagree with the globe model. The term flat earther is quite ambiguous.
Speedy 8 Well you can demonstrate that if you’re in zero g since in the absence of gravity surface tension causes water to conform to whatever surface it comes in contact with.
Reading through this comment section is quite refreshing. If you were hoping for more comedic gold, I think Everyday Astronaut took the brunt of it.
If you wan't your brain to throb angrily from stupidity check out the comment section on the TMZ video of the plume.
Great explanation. Thank you
Thank you for a clear explanation. I saw this in person and it really freaked me out.
It's a nice theory but I don't believe this is the answer. I live on the Florida coast and have my whole life, I've seen a lot of launches in my lifetime but these launches are different. Not once have I seen a glowing contrail at any time of day or night, but I've seen 6 since space x started launching off the coast. The glowing contrail can be seen hours after launch well into the night(no sunlight). When you do a side by side comparison to other rocket launches these seem to be very odd. Rocket launches typically launch towards the 2 o'clock off our coast, these launches fly parallel to the earth. The contrail usually looks looks like a rough cylindrical shape, these launches look like sperm. Too weird
Copied and pasted from Karl Storie:
kerosene and oxygen yielding carbon dioxide and water. Yeah, if the mixture was stoichiometric, that's all you'd get. All kerosene rockets, however, burn the maximun specific impulse mixture, which is 25% rich. That means a fifth of the fuel finds no oxygen to combine with and its hydrogen and carbon are split up by the heat.
The hydrogen is of course invisible, but the carbon forms microscopic, white-hot particles of soot. That's what you're seeing as a bright yellow plume. Any time you see a visible exhaust plume from a liquid-fuel rocket, that's what it is--leftover carbon. This is what the hoaxtards are complaining about not seeing in the Lunar Module's exhaust, because yellow kerosene flames confined to a narrow column by a thick atmosphere would look totally realistic. /s
So the soot from the Falcon's exhaust, if caught by the sun, would probably be most of what you're seeing there even though it's a minority constituent
Don't buy in to this rubbish! It's just santa leaving early for Australia
It’s the rocket hitting the dome and not successfully getting through
r/wooosh
@@BacoTellMan r/wooosh
Damn satisfying video ...Thanks for making this so informative. All my questions are answered. Congrats for making it so simple and understandable.
Haha. Total bullshit.
This was just a bunch of word salad disinformation.
There is something massive going on that people are being lied to about.
Really good video. Thank you
Damn all the good conspiracy jokes are already taken...
You said altidue instead of altitude
At roughly 2:00
Not as great as mr Altidude though.
Where?
Leander America I think it's because he is developing an American accent. He seems to be using American words now like math etc., so I fear we may soon lose our favourite Scottish CZcamsr 😋 (JK)
2:15
Thank you for the explanation! Now I can tell my co-worker to check out this video. :) Merry Christmas!
Keep up the good work, Scott!
I have one question, why isn't the trail seen more often?
Because they have to launch at the right time in the right direction
Scott Manley that makes sense thank you
He said it in the video
The blue sky overpowers it and doesn't let you see the detail
And it's dark at night
So there's a 30 min window where this can happen
there are many reasons for this: 1 most launches are sent away from land and over the Oceans where there are few if any people to see them. 2 the time of day and atmospheric conditions must be exact for this to be seen. 3 The rocket trail is always there behind the launch but due to the above mentioned reasons may be obstructed from view or impossible to see.
6:13
I no joke thought Kim Jong un had finally lived up to his threats when I saw this in person.
It wouldn't take that long or look like that. You'd suddenly see a bright light growing bigger for about 40 seconds and then a really really bright light.
221 b yeah I realized that it wasn’t a nuke after a few seconds, but when I initially saw it it scared me.
Oh I can believe it was quite a sight. Wish I had seen it in person.
whaaat? that looks neither like a nuclear detonation nor a re-entry vehicle. yes i saw it in person and yes some of my coworkers were scared Un had finally done it.
Just for future reference (that I hope you'll never need), when a reentry vehicle with a nuclear payload comes streaking out of the sky, it will look something like a shooting star for a brief amount of time. You might not see at all. Until it detonates. Then you'll see the brightest light you've ever seen in your life. Depending on how far away it is and how high a yield the weapon has, you may or may not suffer permanent vision loss. Of course if it's close enough, it definitely will be permanent because you'll be dead before you can recover.
Thanks for an excellent explanation!
spectacular video thanx :)
It is easy, he hit the firmament proving man has never landed on the moon.
There is no firmament and the Apollo missions took place.
@@Ethan_Roberts Yeah, maybe in your pants!
Not a single comment on top how it look like a condom inflating, I'm impressed (ノ・∀・)ノ
That was great! Thank you
Great explanation ! Thank you!
The is missle hit the dome . water from above. . it is real true
True nitwit idea.
no it didnt. It isn't a missile either.
Cant wait for the conspiritards to pick this up.
Brilliant overview!
thanks for that info scott. ive been waiting for an explanation that makes sense of that thing.... that really made my day ... thanks and dont sell out like these other channels have..... Lawrence
So...... chemtrails?
I guess technically yes, a trail of chemicals: mainly of CO2 and the dreaded dihydrogen monoxide!
Electros Industries something that eats steel away! You really want that in your air!?!
sounds deadly! we best not ingest it!
I've heard large amounts of it can collect in your lungs and you can actually asphyxiate on it!
Cheesie Christ. They put a warning about the stuff on the side of buckets, an otherwise safe plaything for babies ruined!
Honestly; Did it really have to be explanied?
Well yeah.
Yes, because I wanted to know precisely which operations were causing which effects.
Ah well.
Absolutely. The circumstances of this launch was somewhat unusual, giving an effect we never normally see.
Just after sunset, I saw something which looked like a *_huge_* spiral galaxy near the horizon. I usually stay abreast about what's happening in the sky so "What the hell!? Impossible!", is what I thought upon seeing the giant pinwheel. It turned out to be a fuel dump from a tumbling rocket stage.
UnfortuneLess I’m sorry im not up to your “level”. Even if I was, I’d still love to learn more.
Thank you Scott Manley, When I first saw that video I remembered your video on Rocket nozzles. I was especially wow'ed over the Reaction Control system trails form the first stage, a very very rare shot in fact I believe the first of its kind.
Really awesome content.
it hit waters above
No it didn't Timmy. No such thing exist.
Last
Thank you! God I wish I had seen this live! About forty years ago I saw my "vertical rainbow flower blossom" from the Sierra Nevada. I finally figured it was a Vandenberg launch, the rainbow was similar to a rain rainbow but from ice crystals, and the flower blossom was the staging. It was really something to watch!
I just finished reading ROCKET GIRL and highly recommend it!
Very informative and interesting
I get SpaceX is a private company but why are they so secretive about certain things? Like why don't they release official details about their fairing recovery operation or details on why they don't want to recover certain boosters?
ITAR covers lots of data.
competition.
The same reason Ford doesn’t talk about their new autonomous vehicle technology. Super interesting to us nerds, but easily copied by the competition
They didn't recover the booster because it was old. Scott explains it in the video.
Scott Manley thanks for the information!
eyh was waiting for this
I actually learned a lot, thanks😄😄
Best I've watched to date.
Oh, I missed this little Christmas present. Awesome footage with the Moon in the shot! If only the rocket was doing there :-)
FINALLY. I only found this in memes and noone told me what it was. Thank god im subscribed too you. LOVE YOUR VIDS MAN
Fascinating stuff, as usual.
Thank you scott !!
Perfectly explained - as always 😅👏👍!!
Love your work Happy New year from Egypt 🤗
good to know there is no 'Invasion' :-P
Thx as always. Your info vids are so choca full, love em thumbs up
Thank you Scott for the explanations. I saw this from El Cajon, Ca.
Thank Doug!
you* :D
Ty for this i just saw the one that happened today and was super fascinated by it. That was looking every where for why this happens ty now i got more knowledge.
Amazing stuff!
This is super cool
I saw this from all the way over in Avondale, Arizona. Truly a spectacular sight.
amazing footage, Murry xmass scott!
Nice explanation.
So sick! Looking at stuff like this makes me proud to be a human. I can hardly believe a team of people just a bit smarter and more dedicated than me can make something so powerful and complicated.