katt fact: rocket exhaust plumes make me swoon.
the diamond-bright hydrogen blue of the space shuttle main engines especially so.
I mean just look at it.
(images both from wikimedia commons)
At launch the exhaust from those engines is traveling at 3.6 kilometers per second. In vacuum, >4.4km/s.
Rocket engines are absurd.
You see this giant gout of flame? This is a test from refurbished engine parts from the F-1, the engine used in the Apollo program. This isn't the engine as a whole. No, this is JUST the gas generator, which burns propellant to drive a turbine to pump fuel. This is exhaust from the fuel pump. And it's terrifying.
Saturn V F-1 Engine Gas Generator Fires Up | NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Video [1:10]
@starkatt Absurd, sure, but I get why you like this! It looks like a fox tail. :-)
