[space] James Burke On Thermos Flasks … ‘You see, all three men had understood that certain gases ignite and that the thermos flask permits you to store vast quantities of those gases safely in the frozen liquid form until you want to ignite them; at which point, you take the top off the flask, the gases evaporate, you apply a light, and boom! Now, two gases do that better than any other. It was Oberth’s assistant, who put them together most efficiently. His name was Wernher von Braun…’
James Burke On Thermos Flasks
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 17th, 2011 at 6:30 am and is filed under History, Science, Space.
« Neal Stephenson On Rockets Metafilter on Neon Genesis Evangelion »
Did they actually time that last shot to coincide with the launch? Awesome. Or was it tricksie?
It is awesome isn’t it? :)
According to the blurb for this post on YouTube: It’s probably the one scene Mr. Burke is most famous for. The scene was filmed (at Cape Canaveral), from beginning to end, with only a short pause to re-align the cameras for the final bit which, as you can see, you get only one shot at.
In re-Connections Mr. Burke explains that they could not hear the countdown and someone had to show him the current “T-minus count” visually with hand signals.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.