Who am I going to believe, James Burke or some anonymous "scientists" on the internet. If James says they're launching a big vacuum flask then they're launching a big vacuum flask.
So very cool but honestly you just have to rehearse timing on approx ten seconds of speaking, and have someone next to the camera listening in on the launch and signaling him. Timing ten seconds of speaking doesn’t seem terribly difficult.
for those of us that read a certain Tintin comic as kids, and were told that a rocket could never land on its tail like that... even after now well over 100 landings it's still a miracle
A film crew works on timed cues all the time, each cue carefully choreographed to flow together in sequence at the right moment. A rocket launch works the same way. And just like a rocket launch it only works when everything goes off without a hitch and you only get that from skilled professionals. I agree its a shot that works because the nature of the two operations makes it more likely to get the shot, but what you see in the video is two separate highly skilled and experienced teams working
It wasn't a "live" shot. It's a great shot from an amazing show, but saying "greatest live shot in history" when we broadcasted the moon landing live seems misplaced. I'd even rank the livestream of the Shuttle Atlantis' final decent above it.
I don't remember "or Moscow" being included in the original clip when it was broadcast by the British Broadcasting Company ... the original, and still the best, BBC.
"The Planets, or Peking." It's hardly controversial that (space) rockets came from the military desire to lob ever bigger bombs at increasingly far away places. Considering von braun and the first rockets being literal missiles with much shared development after that it seems a very modest nod to history
Being sensitive doesn't mean we should censor the past just because it offends you today. The cold war was very real. The space race was as much a "My economic system is better than yours" as it was "If my rocket can reach the moon it can reach you".
They had several, but that's not what makes this shot so difficult. First off, they can't really rehearse it, the rocket only launches once. He can't make a mistake, or misspeak, or trip, or any of the other thousands of things that could go wrong. The timing is impeccable, which is difficult, because at any time the count down can be put on hold (and it was, four times I think though I could be wrong). They also had to account for delays from the launch to when they actually saw the rocket /1
Sorry, over that distance, it's instantaneous for all practical purposes. If they were 18.6 miles away (they weren't) then the delay would be 1/10,000 of a second. The light could have bounced back and for that distance over 400 times in 1 video frame.
As for the timing, he surely practiced the speech, and knew it would take 12 seconds. So they subtract that from the launch time, and start then.
launch. Lightspeed is fast, but it's not instantaneous, and they're several miles from the launch. They also didn't get a second shot. If they missed it, that was it, they'd never get the shot. That's less true now, we launch more rockets in a month than we did in a year back then. This was also shot back in 1978s, coming up on 50 years ago. The tech level difference alone is insane.
That was a whole lot of pandering dumb fuckery in one comment first of all rockets can't achieve light speed. And yes successful launches like the one shown do happen on time and can be accounted for based on time of expected depart regardless of distant between people and the rocket. Shut the fuck up clown.
The person above tried to sling lies to sound like they knew what they were talking to try to defeat an observation about timing in TV production and made lies about science and how rockets launches operate and yes usinng names and explosives is a way to get a pointacross, read the post and do some googling on rocket launches and light speed the personal lied. You are one day and one explanation late read the response above, not just mine. Fucking clowns.
This was the launch of Voyager 2 atop a Titan IIIE launch vehicle, derived from Titan ICBMs. Unlike the narration focusing on hydrogen and oxygen burning, the first stage actually uses dinitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine propellants. It also has solid fuel boosters burning polybutadiene acrylonitrile and ammonium perchlorate, and that causes most of the very bright, opaque exhaust plume. Hydrogen and oxygen exhaust is much less bright and opaque.
Furthermore, the first stage on the core of any of the boosted Titans (Titan IIIC, Titan IIID, Titan IIIE, Titan 34D, Commercial Titan III, Titan IVA, Titan IVB) were all air-lit. The only exhaust in that shot is the solid fuel boosters.
This was the launch of Voyager 2 atop a Titan IIIE launch vehicle, derived from Titan ICBMs. Unlike the narration focusing on hydrogen and oxygen burning, the first stage actually uses dinitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine propellants. It also has solid fuel boosters burning polybutadiene acrylonitrile and ammonium perchlorate, and that causes most of the very bright, opaque exhaust plume. Hydrogen and oxygen exhaust is much less bright and opaque. Credit: see Opcit
writerbuddy
Who am I going to believe, James Burke or some anonymous "scientists" on the internet. If James says they're launching a big vacuum flask then they're launching a big vacuum flask.
SpaceJew
Great TV. But that guy was wrong.
The F-1 engine used on the Saturn V used RP-1 as fuel not hydrogen.
weirdnorwegianguy
Ah, good ol' Wernher Von Braun https://youtu.be/QEJ9HrZq7Ro?si=QPjJSUij_bC6oZZc
NZSheeps
"Sorry, the lens cap was still on. Can we do another take?"
Cavalrysword
"Ready when you are, CB!"
Klojum
James May attempts to ignite a SS-18 Satan nuclear missle with a lighter...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MgSmh3vXaQ
Enlightenment
Science Education TV series by James Burke:
* "The Day the Universe Changed" (1985)
* "Connections" (1978)
* "Connections 2" (1994)
* "Connections 3" (1997)
* "ReConnections" (2004)
* "Connections with James Burke" (2023)
gobnaitOLunacy
The hair, the glasses, the brown shirt. Yup, this guy was born to be a science teacher.
Asadsadsadclown
Good ol Wernher von “Brown”
Malinut
I spent a week with James Burke and his wife at a symposium some years ago. Lovely people.
Grimmrog
Wow, his hair
GenStrike
Wow! It's almost as if he knew that was going to happen!
rmmmm
Beautiful
bingotown
So very cool but honestly you just have to rehearse timing on approx ten seconds of speaking, and have someone next to the camera listening in on the launch and signaling him. Timing ten seconds of speaking doesn’t seem terribly difficult.
bookconfloption
YouTubeRed
Its all about the timing (sound)
ScottPerri
It's almost like he was watching a countdown counter that prompted him to when the launch would start. Crazy stuff.
gingersnapdragon
This is my childhood. I would stil love Connections and Tomorrows World to come back
apLundell
"The Moon or Moscow". I'm not an expert, but I recommend actually choosing one BEFORE launch.
tarkus10
Werner Van Braun book "I Aimed For The Stars" - and somebody subtitled it, "But I Mostly Hit London."
slotheroll
I believe this is still considered the greatest live shot in the history of news/shows. Still incredible even today.
[deleted]
[deleted]
RyanOldford
Single take, perfectly executed, still awesome
SJohnson23
It wasn’t live though. It was a pre-record for a documentary b
CoffeeIsBest
You've been told by the internet this is the greatest live shot over and over again. Personally I'm going with Tower 2.
GolbatChan
This clip annoys me. The "live shot" is the cut-away of him pointing. It's cool, but nothing extraordinary with some stopwatch practice.
Housemaster
I like the shot, but I get muffed by people claiming it's "live". This was for a TV docu-series, not a live broadcast.
ironymus
Closely followed by the blasted whale carcass and this video:
mikeatike
And every single time Tom Scott says, "One Take!" Also, James Burke was one of his inspirations.
HoneNathan
Is that real though?
somethingsomethingwittyhere
He's Quentin Sommerville, the BBC's Middle East Correspondent. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/23/bbc-reporter-gets-high-from-a-burning-pile-of-drugs-on-camera/
anSSLerrorhasoccuredandasecureconnectiontotheservercannotbemade
A quick google suggests it’s very real and that makes me happy.
SlyMrFox
Ah, the whale carcass brings me back.
32FGWolfhound
Here another exploding whale carcass.. not the ‘live on air version’ as mentioned but just to get an Impression..
ironymus
Probably the worst case happened in Taiwan twenty years ago: /gallery/F7uTK
neverhappytoasterdog
The garden hose!
32FGWolfhound
blablubby
Considered by whom?
somethingsomethingwittyhere
+1
SirWhiskersThe3rd
Dentists.
itmfa666
Only 4 out of 5 tho
greyrey
GadenKerensky
A great deal of planning went into it, because they can't exactly schedule a rocket launch on a whim.
magical8ball
I mean, it's OK, but watching live the twin rockets of Falcon Heavy landing together was absolutely phenomenal
Acc87
for those of us that read a certain Tintin comic as kids, and were told that a rocket could never land on its tail like that... even after now well over 100 landings it's still a miracle
StephenDaniels
I agree its well choreographed; but they aren't showing NASA's huge countdown clock. Which makes it kinda easy IMO.
wingweaver415
Lol. People who have never before done something love to claim its easy.
10001110101periodictablewithasantapieceofmind
A film crew works on timed cues all the time, each cue carefully choreographed to flow together in sequence at the right moment. A rocket launch works the same way. And just like a rocket launch it only works when everything goes off without a hitch and you only get that from skilled professionals. I agree its a shot that works because the nature of the two operations makes it more likely to get the shot, but what you see in the video is two separate highly skilled and experienced teams working
dReDone
It's everything together that makes it the greatest live shot in history.
Housemaster
It wasn't a "live" shot. It's a great shot from an amazing show, but saying "greatest live shot in history" when we broadcasted the moon landing live seems misplaced. I'd even rank the livestream of the Shuttle Atlantis' final decent above it.
dReDone
Fair enough.
Housemaster
People keep saying that, but live broadcasts hit multiple timed prompts every day. Many of them without an enormous countdown timer.
stret
Don't understand this, it cuts 20 seconds from the end, so it's not one shot.
AdamGenesis
It's on par with "Lightening Girl".
trigonman3
We don't do that anymore, Mr Jackson.
awunder
I was enamored of JB after The Day the Universe Changed (and its companion book).
SithElephant
I keep meaning to look up how many times there were holds/scrubs before that mission launched.
Whatdoyousaytoanicecupoftea
4
ztygs
4 upvotes, on the comment 4 posted 4 hours ago.
QuickAndFun
I don't remember "or Moscow" being included in the original clip when it was broadcast by the British Broadcasting Company ... the original, and still the best, BBC.
esparadrapo
MonsterGrendel
Connections & Cosmos - Great time to watch science TV!
Cavalrysword
Connections was one of the best history/science shows I've ever seen. Highly recommended.
MotherfuckinGoats
I'll be honest, the first episode spooked me a bit, but then I devoured the rest.
kingrhoton
Life-changing for me as a teen.
GoSens
Another great show he did was "THE DAY THE UNIVERSE CHANGED"
osglith
Most episodes of Connections are available on YT!
thatdudeyousawthatoneday
The Day the Universe Changed was pretty good too.
CitizenPrime
Still is my homie
ktkboom
Have fun watching! https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke
rabidCOVIDphysician
.
Zakcl
Thanks!
ztygs
Dot for later.
nanocamesho
thanks
Eomund521
I have the whole show downloaded. Love this show
boondoggle2025
He's still broadcasting! Connections on Curiosity Stream
Cavalrysword
Where did you download it from?
Eomund521
There is a place online. It's a bay where people hang out. People with peg legs and eye patches. This is the place to find it.
traintracker
He got a guy, named captain Morgan
RawSuger
"or moscow"??? da fuq?
Sakkura
The rocket belongs to the Titan rocket family, initially developed as ICBMs but later used as space launch vehicles.
SJohnson23
The assistant was only concerned with it going up, who cares where it comes down, that’s not his department, says Werner Van Braun.
Dafodarian
Thank you, Tom Lehrer. Always nice to see the classics get an outing!
Grumposstuff
I, have the record. LP/Vinyl. My dad bought it. Here is a clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro&pp=ygUddG9tIGxlaHJlciB3ZXJuaGVyIHZvbiBicmF1biA%3D
demizu
"The Planets, or Peking." It's hardly controversial that (space) rockets came from the military desire to lob ever bigger bombs at increasingly far away places. Considering von braun and the first rockets being literal missiles with much shared development after that it seems a very modest nod to history
RawSuger
offhandedly mentioning murdering millions is pretty controversial, maybe im just overly sensitive...?
RatsLiveOnNoEvilStar
Times change? It was the Cold War era.
ztygs
Being sensitive doesn't mean we should censor the past just because it offends you today. The cold war was very real. The space race was as much a "My economic system is better than yours" as it was "If my rocket can reach the moon it can reach you".
green110
Dat woz in the dayz when Muscow were the baddies.... not like now when they is.... ang on a minute they are de baddiez again.
PotatOSLament
Again as though they ever weren’t to America once they started.
GadenKerensky
Username checks out.
rockarolla
wired314
Damn the Soviets assassinated this account
Whatdoyousaytoanicecupoftea
Cold war innit brah
[deleted]
[deleted]
demizu
No, not really. We're like that . People as a whole that is.
Whatdoyousaytoanicecupoftea
Y?
10000Bees
It's from a series called "Connections". That line is a reference to the connection between the space program and Russia
mcc1ane
or the space program and ICBMs
[deleted]
[deleted]
10000Bees
Is there really so little out there for you to get your panties twisted over that you have to jump to that kind of conclusion so you can be mad at literal science historian James Burke? https://www.tvinsider.com/1111377/connections-with-james-burke-streaming-vod/ here kiddo, knock yourself out.
demizu
And the next line being about Beijing as well, right?
ironymus
Every rocket capable of launching a satellite into orbit, is also capable to launch a nuclear warhead to any place on this planet
zombiebatman
Couldn’t launch it into the depths of Moria.
commandersalamander1
Maybe just maybe someone off camera had some sort of time telling device that could inform of when to point...
lukavago13
They had several, but that's not what makes this shot so difficult. First off, they can't really rehearse it, the rocket only launches once. He can't make a mistake, or misspeak, or trip, or any of the other thousands of things that could go wrong. The timing is impeccable, which is difficult, because at any time the count down can be put on hold (and it was, four times I think though I could be wrong). They also had to account for delays from the launch to when they actually saw the rocket /1
jursamaj
Sorry, over that distance, it's instantaneous for all practical purposes. If they were 18.6 miles away (they weren't) then the delay would be 1/10,000 of a second. The light could have bounced back and for that distance over 400 times in 1 video frame.
As for the timing, he surely practiced the speech, and knew it would take 12 seconds. So they subtract that from the launch time, and start then.
lukavago13
launch. Lightspeed is fast, but it's not instantaneous, and they're several miles from the launch. They also didn't get a second shot. If they missed it, that was it, they'd never get the shot. That's less true now, we launch more rockets in a month than we did in a year back then. This was also shot back in 1978s, coming up on 50 years ago. The tech level difference alone is insane.
commandersalamander1
That was a whole lot of pandering dumb fuckery in one comment first of all rockets can't achieve light speed. And yes successful launches like the one shown do happen on time and can be accounted for based on time of expected depart regardless of distant between people and the rocket. Shut the fuck up clown.
Cavalrysword
Does calling other people names make you feel important and powerful? If not, why so disrespectful?
commandersalamander1
The person above tried to sling lies to sound like they knew what they were talking to try to defeat an observation about timing in TV production and made lies about science and how rockets launches operate and yes usinng names and explosives is a way to get a pointacross, read the post and do some googling on rocket launches and light speed the personal lied. You are one day and one explanation late read the response above, not just mine. Fucking clowns.
Sakkura
This was the launch of Voyager 2 atop a Titan IIIE launch vehicle, derived from Titan ICBMs. Unlike the narration focusing on hydrogen and oxygen burning, the first stage actually uses dinitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine propellants. It also has solid fuel boosters burning polybutadiene acrylonitrile and ammonium perchlorate, and that causes most of the very bright, opaque exhaust plume. Hydrogen and oxygen exhaust is much less bright and opaque.
Acc87
like seen on the Space Shuttle, hydrolox is basically invisible in daylight
TJCizadlo
Furthermore, the first stage on the core of any of the boosted Titans (Titan IIIC, Titan IIID, Titan IIIE, Titan 34D, Commercial Titan III, Titan IVA, Titan IVB) were all air-lit. The only exhaust in that shot is the solid fuel boosters.
InkGoat
Thank you. I came here to say that.
sunnydayingermany
This was the launch of Voyager 2 atop a Titan IIIE launch vehicle, derived from Titan ICBMs. Unlike the narration focusing on hydrogen and oxygen burning, the first stage actually uses dinitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine propellants. It also has solid fuel boosters burning polybutadiene acrylonitrile and ammonium perchlorate, and that causes most of the very bright, opaque exhaust plume. Hydrogen and oxygen exhaust is much less bright and opaque. Credit: see Opcit