Slashdot Mirror
Dying Man Shares Unseen Challenger Video
longacre writes "An amateur video of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion has been made public for the first time. The Florida man who filmed it from his front yard on his new Betamax camcorder turned the tape over to an educational organization a week before he died this past December. The Space Exploration Archive has since published the video into the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the catastrophe. Despite being shot from about 70 miles from Cape Canaveral, the shuttle and the explosion can be seen quite clearly. It is unclear why he never shared the footage with NASA or the media. NASA officials say they were not aware of the video, but are interested in examining it now that it has been made available."
Why would someone keep this private and/or secret for so long?
Houston, they've got trouble of some kind...
http://nycaviation.com.nyud.net:8090/2010/01/31/previously-unseen-amateur-video-of-space-shuttle-challenger-disaster/
Because they can't get 7 up.
they herded us into the library of my elementary school to watch the launch. I must have been in 3rd grade or so.
The teachers hurriedly ushered us back into class when the "space ship" was "done". Most of us came away thinking a shuttle launch was supposed to look like that.
THL phish sticks
It's not that it would be useful for analysis, but it's useful as documentation of an historical event.
Cory Doctorow talking about cloud computing makes as much sense as George W Bush talking about electrical engineering.
How could they? They violated his copyright and took away any incentive for the man to make another movie.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
... that betamax did not just have great audio and video, *it can survive years in the attic* without losing much of the quality.
It was weird that there were so many tasteless Challenger jokes. Anyone know if this was common all over the country or was it only my neck of the woods?
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
On the original article:
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100129/NEWS02/1290397/
Even distant observations might still be useful if it was shot at a different angle than other observations of the event, and as it's in the sky, and you're 70 miles away, it's a different angle.
The problem with video is that it's not as useful for judging the speed of things coming towards you, or away from you, unless it's of a fixed size, it's not tumbling, and you have sufficient resolution. If this had a different plane of the sky as the other 'official' footage, it could be used to test any 3d models that might've been made of the disaster, and if it disproves them, provide input for a new model to be made.
Disclaimer -- I work at a NASA center as a contractor, but I have absolutely nothing to do with the shuttle program.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Uh yeah, or that the living might want to sell the rights to their works and not have a corporation say, "look you're 70, so we'll give you $300 for it, but we're pretty comfortable just waiting for you to die."
70 years after death might be excessive, but in order for the selling price of a work to be related to the value of the work, copy rights need to be somewhat protected from the author's death. I'd suggest a fixed term that is smaller than 21 years. One generation is more than enough of a monopoly on cultural items.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Seventy miles is not that great a distance for viewing space launches. I remember watching from Satellite Beach (about 40 miles from Cape Kennedy) as Apollo 11 lifted off for the Moon. We could easily see the Saturn booster, and the roar of the engines was LOUD, even that far away. My mother took Super 8 footage of the launch, and, even with the very modest zoom factor, the rocket and payload capsule are quite clearly visible for the first 40 seconds or so.
Check out my novel.
Dr. Jack Moss' son is my eye doctor. From what I understand, Dr. Moss thought that his recording of the catastrophe was only of any value to himself and possibly his family, as testimony that they had witness the event first hand. He believed, especially with all the media coverage, that he had nothing of scientific value to offer NASA. Like a lot of things, with time we often forget we have them ;)
Somehow the last four minutes of the recordings were incinerated, but all the other footage is intact.
You are absolutely correct. I don't get why people cried over this. Seven people died. That sucks for them and their families, but seven people die every day. Crying and feeling despondent over 7 people you do not personally know dieing doing something that they were fully aware was highly dangerous is bizarre. It is a little like crying and having real sadness over the injuries the guys on 'Jackass' incurred.
I'm Canadian and 29 years old. I don't remember the real event, but I still tear up a bit when I see the Challenger break apart on video. Part of me hopes it won't each time, of all things.
They were carrying humanity's banner into space. They didn't make it. It's as if a top athlete were shot as they carried their nation's banner into an Olympic stadium.
That either resonates with you, or it doesn't.
Hero worship has nothing to do with it.
>You Americans are rather melodramatic about this entire event...have you every tried to consider why?
Because space exploration is fucking awesome, represents the height of human achievement, and the timeless urge of mankind to explore.
These people died doing something amazing, and thus they too were amazing.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
I'm not sure I agree with your premise; the mourning was worldwide as I recall, and not just an American phenomenon. (Much as it was years earlier for the Soyuz 11 cosmonauts, or years later for Princess Diana.)
I was working at Rocketdyne on the Shuttle Main Engines at the time.
When the Challenger exploded we were told over the intercom that a "System Malfunction" happened on flight 51 and the phones went down. It was not until people went out for lunch that they found out really what happened. In the mean time guards came in and confiscated all the engine build log books to prevent someone from going in and "fixing" some data with the sudden realization of a serious error.
Spent the next year helping to prepare a giant report at the request of Richard Feynman.