Posted on 08/03/2023 12:37:10 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: In a photo from the early hours of July 29 (UTC), a Redstone rocket and Mercury capsule are on display at Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 5. Beyond the Redstone, the 8 minute long exposure has captured the arcing launch streak of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The Falcon's heavy communications satellite payload, at a record setting 9 metric tons, is bound for geosynchronous orbit some 22,000 miles above planet Earth. The historic launch of a Redstone rocket carried astronaut Alan Shepard on a suborbital spaceflight in May 1961 to an altitude of about 116 miles. Near the top of the frame, this Falcon rocket's two reusable side boosters separate and execute brief entry burns. They returned to land side by side at Canaveral's Landing Zone 1 and 2 in the distance.
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The re-skinned V2.
THAT is a cool photo!
Indeed it was. Standing next to one at the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque, it was very small. The guys who climbed into a Mercury capsule on top are such a cut above the astronauts of today. Truly insane levels of courage.
I have been to the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque many times, though not recently.
Soon to be the new background on my Mac…
“Reskinned V2”- I know that’s not true having personally worked as a Ground Support Engineer at Huntsville,Al and at the Chrysler Manufacturing Plants where the Redstone. Missile.
It was a direct decendant of the A4/V2 and built on the experience the US gained from launching captured V2’s and the Hermes program and of course our captured German rocket scientists. There were some American twists added however. The Redstone itself was more powerful having an 800 horsepower turbo pump and used an inertial guidance system instead of a plain old gyroscope. The Redstone also used a cylindrical shaped combustion chamber instead if the V2’s spherical combustion chamber. And to state the obvious, they had different airframe as they look nothing alike.
That’s cool!
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