The Sights and Sounds of Endeavour's Final Launch

By Nancy Atkinson - May 23, 2011 at 1:05 PM UTC | Space Exploration

Videographers David Gonzales and Mike Deep filmed Endeavour's final launch with two cameras from the Kennedy Space Center Press Site, and put this video together for Universe Today. They did a great job of capturing what a shuttle launch sounds like, from the countdown, to the cheering of the crowd, to the crackling and popping of the launch itself.

They used a Go Pro HD Hero, which is an HD camera with a 170 degree field of view with its fish eye lens and approximates what one sees if they are standing there at the Press Site for launch, David says. "It is actually a wider field of view than the human eye to show the scene if one were to look around."

For the audio, they used a Zoom H2 Digital Audio Recorder. "This digital audio recording device captures the sound of launch in multiple channels to the front and rear bringing the sound of man-made thunder to listeners."

I know every time I've tried to record the sound of a shuttle launch, it is so loud it just distorts the sound in my tiny little audio recorder. This captures the real sound.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com