katt fact: rocket exhaust plumes make me swoon.

the diamond-bright hydrogen blue of the space shuttle main engines especially so.

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]

youtube.com/watch?v=5IdJuq9KaZ

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@starkatt Also, this is inspiring me to geek out about high-energy electromagnetic physics. :-D

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