Even more stupidity

That was probably the hardest scene to swallow. Bailing out at Mach 2 is dangerous enough.

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Well...compared to trying to manually land a shuttle I think I'd take my chances jumping out the back. And I don't think it was quite Mach 25. They'd have to wait till you drop the speed down to at least Mach 3.

Edit: I'm watching the scene and just after the bail out they read out the airspeed as "500". I'm assuming that's 500 mph and she couldn't have slowed down that quickly between the bail out and the speed reading so I'd say the ship was safely subsonic by the time they had the other guys bail out.

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity

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didn't they say it was very risky? like 1 in 3 chance of survival? Seems like they tried to stick close to reality.

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According to the dialogue, the bail-out altitude was 10.000 feet (2 miles), which is way, WAY after re-entry stage. It's also a PROPER ESCAPE PROCEDURE in case of an unlandable shuttle.

But merit where merit is due; the thread title sure matches the original post content.

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Oh, there are too many technical goofs in this movie to count!

With all the cooperation Eastwood obviously got from NASA, it really bugs me that he'd go half-way with a nice bit of realistic detail, and then drop the ball entirely!
Case in point: The bail-out procedure...

NASA Human Spaceflight - The Shuttle - Inflight Crew Escape System
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/shutref/escape/inflight. html

When the orbiter descends to an altitude of approximately 30,000 feet, its airspeed must be decreased to approximately 200 knots (230 mph). At approximately 25,000 feet, a crew member in the middeck (referred to as the jump master and seated in the forward left seat in the middeck) raises a cover on the left side of the crew compartment middeck at floor level and pulls the T-handle, which activates the pyrotechnics for the depressurization valve at the crew compartment X o 576 aft bulkhead. This equalizes the crew compartment cabin and outside pressure before the side hatch is jettisoned.

At approximately 25,000 feet, the software for the automatic autopilot mode changes the orbiter's angle of attack to approximately 15 degrees. This angle of attack must remain nearly constant for approximately three minutes until the orbiter reaches an altitude of approximately 2,000 feet.

At approximately 25,000 feet, the jump master jettisons the side hatch by pulling the hatch jettison T-handle next to the depressurization T-handle. When the T-handle is pulled, pyrotechnics separate the hatch assembly by severing the side hatch hinge, and three pyrotechnic thrusters jettison the tunnel/hatch from the orbiter at a velocity of approximately 50 feet per second.

The jump master pulls the pip pin on the escape pole and pulls the ratchet handle down, which permits the two telescoping sections of the escape pole to be deployed through the hatch opening by spring tension.

A magazine assembly located near the side hatch contains a lanyard assembly for each flight crew member. Each lanyard assembly consists of a hook attached to a Kevlar strap that surrounds the escape pole. Five roller bearings on each strap surround the pole and permit the lanyard to roll freely down the pole. Each flight crew member positions himself or herself at the hatch opening and attaches himself or herself to the escape pole via the lanyard hook assembly and jumps out the hatch opening.

Each lanyard assembly incorporates an energy absorber rated at 1,000 pounds. The Kevlar strap consists of two sections of permanent Nomex thread stitching and a section of breakaway Kevlar thread stitching. When the crew member exits the side hatch on the escape pole, the breakaway Kevlar thread stitching can break away, providing the crew member with an energy absorber. The crew member slides down the escape pole and off the end into a free-fall. The escape pole extends downward 9.8 feet from the side hatch and provides the crew member with a trajectory that will carry him or her beneath the orbiter's left wing.

It would take approximately 90 seconds for a maximum crew of eight to bail out. After the first crew member bails out from the middeck, the remaining crew members follow at approximately 12-second intervals until all are out by approximately 10,000 feet altitude.

Crew Escape Certification Test - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfVTX25hH-I

Clint was doin' all right for a while there, showing the procedure, from depressurizing the cabin, blowing the hatch and deploying the escape pole... and then everybody just sorta hops out of the hatch, without hooking-on to the pole (or even closing the visors on their helmets)!
So, whoever wasn't splashed across the left wing had their faces ripped off in the airstream.

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That's why you hear multiple sonic booms as it's coming down.

You do know that speeds in excess of the speed of sound do not create multiple sonic booms, don't you?

There is one sonic boom, as an object passes through the sound barrier. After that there is no additional booms for every multiple of the sound barrier!

SpiltPersonality

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Bailing out of the back of the space shuttle during re-entry????!!!

1) it was not out the back, there is no hatch in the back. It was out the Port side through the same hatch they board and exit the shuttle from on launch and landing.

2) It was not during reentry either, but after the shuttle was lower down in the atmosphere, having completed reentry and decelerated below the speed of sound and was in glide mode.

I mean, we're talking about Mach 25!

3) NO... we're not. We're talking a couple of hundred miles per hour.
Mach 25 is their Orbital velocity , not the speed they were doing when they egressed during the glide portion of flight.

That's why you hear multiple sonic booms as it's coming down.

4) Ummm.... NO again.
You don't get multiple separate booms every time they pass a Mach Number.
You get TWO booms, generally so close together they are virtually indistinguishable as separate booms. This is because there are two separate shockwaves, one off the nose and one off the leading wing edges.

Even if they waited until nearly the end of the re-entry, which they didn't

5) Not only they did, they waited til well AFTER reentry. They were below 20,000 ft and below 300kts when they egressed.

there is no way a person or their parachute equipment would remain intact.

6) not at what you are claiming, true. But what you are claiming is utter bullsh!t.

So in summation.... Your entire post is just so much ignorant bullsh!t.



I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water!

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