What a Space Shuttle Launch REALLY Sounded Like

When I attended my first space shuttle launch, the most amazing thing about the whole launch experience may have been the

sound

. Being there at Kennedy Space Center is

nothing

like seeing it on television. When the sound waves travel across the 5.6 km (3.5 miles) from the launchpad to the KSC press site, the noise and sound just absolutely overwhelm and engulf you. You don't only hear and see a space shuttle launch, you feel it! I heard astronaut Steve Robinson describe it as "it seems the air just isn't big enough for the sound." That sums it up pretty well.

Each launch I attended, I tried to record the crackling and popping of the rockets burning, but my audio equipment was just overwhelmed and the sound was completely distorted. This video is fairly close to what the sound is like, especially if you use a good sound system and turn it up, as the video's creator,

indiegun

suggests. He used dozens of different video sources and several audio versions of shuttle launches mixed together to mimic as close to the real experience as he could.

He doesn't say what launch this is, but it looks like Discovery's final launch for STS-133 on February 24, 2011. I was there and the day was as beautiful and clear as this video shows. The sky was so clear, we could actually see the solid rocket boosters separate with unaided eyes. You can read my article about the launch

here

, and see our huge

gallery of images of the launch here.

Below is a video that was taken from almost right where I was standing for the launch of Endeavour on STS-130 on February 8, 2010, and it captures the brightness of booster ignition for a night launch (which also overwhelms you) and it does a really good job letting you hear the loud crackling and popping of the SRBs without becoming distorted. This video is by @Spacearium.

When I was at KSC, I got a behind the scenes tour of the NASA TV studios, and I asked one of the technicians how they deal with the sound -- since they have microphones and cameras so close to the launchpad. "It is a fine mix," said Loren Mathre, one of the audio control technicians. "It is a different mix every launch depending on the weather, the temperature – sound travels at different levels, different speeds depending on what is in the atmosphere. The microphone we put out on the pad, we only use that when the sparklers ignite. Once the engines kick on you have to get off that immediately, or you have nothing but overdriven clipping noise. The pad perimeter mic, it overdrives immediately as well, but you have to ride that a little bit, so it's a fine tuning of riding the fader and the trim pot until the microphone at the beach picks up the audio. Once the microphone at the beach picks up the audio, you're pretty much good because the shuttle is so far away. That's where you hear that low level crackling."

You read about or hear (there's a podcast, too) my behind the scenes tour

here

.

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