A dramatic slow motion montage of the Saturn V liftoff of Apollo 11, the first and only rocket to ever allow man to break earth’s gravity on its way to the moon. When watching keep in mind that each of its five F-1 engines are 12.3 feet in diameter and 19 feet tall, large enough to comfortably drive a moving van into. Most importantly, the payload is that of three human beings riding on the top of what amounts to a 36-story skyscraper filled with enough fuel to equal the energy of a small nuclear bomb.

I. Can’t. Stop. Watching. This. Video.

The adeptly chosen music playing in the background is from the Battlestar Galactica Season 2 soundtrack.

Saturn V Launch Views – High Speed Cams [YouTube link via Tom's Astronomy Blog]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Heads up! Potentially free stuff!

Smashing Magazine (www.smashingmagazine.com) is currently looking for 5,000 comments to a single blog post from which they will randomly choose winners of some pretty cool prizes including a Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card, Sennheiser PXC 350 headphones and a Microsoft Arc Mouse. The catch is that they are requiring the post gets at least 5,000 comments or else no prizes get distributed. All you have to do is post a comment with your City, Country and your current weather and you’re in!

Smashing Magazine – Hardware Giveaway: 5,000 Comments Challenge!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

In December 2009 a new room will be added to the International Space Station that will include a “cupola” — an observation deck with 360-degrees of windows. As you can see in the image above it looks like a small turret dome (although it doesn’t rotate) sticking out of the Node 3 room like a giant R2-D2 head. The panoramic view will be the perfect spot for astronauts to observe and photograph the earth and space, as well as offer better views to operate the station’s 57-foot robotic arm.

I always thought the ISS needed better windows, however one needs to consider the risks of such windows causing exposure to solar radiation and damage from micrometeorites. This observation deck certainly fits the bill and adds about +23 cool points to the ISS, as if it wasn’t awesome-tacular enough!

As an added bonus, now until March 20th NASA is letting the public vote on what name to give Node 3, which includes the cupola, when it gets added to the ISS. Click here to cast your vote at Nasa.gov.

Help NASA Name Node 3

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!