How Did NASA Get Those Shots?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 มิ.ย. 2024
- I've been wanting to do this video for a long time.... Just how did they manage to get those spectacular shots of the stage separations of Saturn rockets? Many have asked over the years, so this one is by special request for all of you who have wondered about just that. OH - and hang on till the end to see the jaw-dropping unedited footage. Enjoy!
0:00 - Intro
1:00 - The U2 Spy Plane
1:42 - Project Corona
3:15 - NASA Ejectable Camera Pods
5:00 - The First Fiber Optics
5:38 - Apollo 8 LOX Tank (the only film pod recovered on that mission)
9:35 - Credits
11:43 - Apollo 4 S-II Staging, Pod A
(mislabeled in editing...)
14:27 - Apollo 6 S-II Staging, Pod B
17:11 - Apollo 4 S-II Staging, Pod A
19:56 - Apollo 6 S-II Staging, Pod B
(mislabeled in editing...)
22:39 - AS-203 S-IVB Staging
24:57 - AS-202 SS-IVB Staging
27:18 - Apollo 8 LOX Tank Fiber-optic Pulse Camera
29:34 - Atlas (1/2 Stage) Outboard Separation
Exit Music: "Interstellar Transmissions" - • Recording New Montage ...
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The fiber optic camera in the 1st LOX tank just blew my mind! I had never even heard that it was a thing. Simply incredible.
Same!
This shots are way better than any video today. Looks like the Star Wars escape pod scenes were inspired by these clips.
That's because analogue film has a resolution based on the size of the chemicals and not a crappy fixed and pixelated digital image! One reason why most films/movies are still recorded on film that can be re-digitised to any digital resolution as digital viewing media slowly improves it's resolution.
Film is still far superior to video.
@@dogwalker666 Not really. Have a look at Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K. Conventional wisdom is that 70 mm IMAX is about 12 k.
@@Axel_Andersen digital is always limited to the fixed pixel sensor, the Crystal's in film are far smaller and the randomness gives a more realistic record.
@@dogwalker666 They're extremely close these days, and both are running up against limits for how much finer the resolution can be. Those limits are actually the same physical laws in both cases - building a sensor on silicon is extremely similar to the process of exposing film itself. Silicon does have the advantage of working with ever-finer wavelengths of light, so the pixels can be finer than film grain, but both can't exceed the limits of optics of visible light. We're already at a point where the quality of the lenses matters more than either film grain or pixel size, even in cameras in phones.
I still find these stage separation videos thrilling to watch today, can you imagine how the engineers must have felt when they got those canisters back a played the footage for the first time? Must have been quite a moment for them. On today's launches we take it for granted - but just imagine being able to see something like that back in the 60's, truly amazing.
It's still thrilling to watch the staging of rocket (Falcon9) today. Yes, it's less majestic than the old Saturns, but the fact we now can get the images in real time and on every launch still get's me every time, and i've watched at least 50 falcon9 launches.
I remember reading about the Corona project in a magazine about 30 years ago when the program was declassified. I remember one of the innovations was Kodak developing an acetate free film stock for use in the extremes of space. As amazing as all of our gadgets are now, there were amazing people creating amazing things that got us here.
That film was polyester based.....the Ektachrome film the Our US Visitors to the moon used was the same emulsion as Ektachrome 64 EPR on a 2.5 mil [2.5/1,000 inch] Polyester base so they could load 200 frames in a Hasselblad 70mm back that normally held 80 frames of normal 5 mil stock.....it was used due to it's neutral color rendition and other factors I believe. The Polyester film is also very tough and almost impossible to tear where the acetate film is easy to tear, also the Polyester film does not shrink or expand like Acetate......I shot many many hundreds of feet to the product in 35 mm and can tell you, you needed scissors to cut when loading to process.....hope this explains a few things....Paul
The Russians recovered some of that film from a crashed stratospheric balloon and used it to photograph the far side of the Moon.
Soviet Union using kodak film in moon probes 🤝 United States using soviet-mined titanium in the SR-71
Just try to imagine the creators of the GP...
No one else, at the time, created such and we STILL have it today, 4.5 thousand years later and will have it for thousands of years more!
Made by folks who lived, maybe, to age 40-50.
Any thought, ever, to how long current tech will survive?
It was never intended to be seen by the general population and it's a miracle of the internet that it's now out here to be seen by all enquiring minds. Thank you
So majestic! For some reason, none of the modern space cam footage comes close to this. Wonderfully researched and edited video! (oh, and great music too!)
Digital cameras have a lot of advantages, but quality like this isn't one of them.
Analog film stock still has better dynamic range than the best digital film production camera today... let alone being able to transmit the live feed of an Arri Alexa down to earth in real time.
Well, this footage is also digitized, graded and cleaned up. If you watch the original reels, you'll see a marked difference in quality. Digital photography is lighter, so it's used more now. However, we are still advancing processing power in digital cameras, and sadly, a lot of the market is swayed by movies, instead of documentary; and the technology reflects that. The biggest leaps in filmmaking technology has actually come from documentary filmmaking, especially when it comes to productions like Planet Earth or James Cameron's submarine docs. Productions where gear & equipment are built specifically for the doc.
This all being said, there are scenes in Star Wars Episode I that are shot on film, and experts still have yet to find which ones they are...
@@NextToToddliness if you had to perform the same amount of processing on average digital imagery, than was done to the anlog film, you would pretty much end up with a hot mess.
Dont get me wrong, good up-to-date digital material would most likely outperform the 60' film stock and the time that has weathered it.
The point - at leas the way I understood it was more the range from pitch black to glaring bright and all in-between that is depicted in this old footage. I work with
modern film cameras and I would find it hard to achieve the same.
35mm film is inherently 8 Megapixel …
The 16mm film in the Apollo capsules gives 2-3 Megapixel…
I have often wondered how they managed to recover the film from these shots. Now I know, thanks Fran!
My dad's first project at Lockheed was Agena. Amazing spacecraft, pioneering in many ways.
Stunning. Minutes away from the ground, a completely different and inhospitable environment. That blue earth.
Stunning stuff: I've never seen these films all the way through to the ejection of the canister. Thank you for explaining it so brilliantly. My Patreon dollars going to good use!
Thank you for your amazing video! I used a lot of that footage when I made programs for NASA. I never knew how the film was obtained. I’ve created over 300 videos and films for NASA. Most were overview programs of Space Shuttle missions. I’d get the 3/4” video tape a day after a shuttle landing, spend 72 hours plus writing and editing programs and having a finished video program ready for presentation in NASA’s building one.
There was a company called Taft Broadcasting that did almost all the video programs for NASA but it took them 30 days just to process the paperwork before starting a project. I didn’t use paperwork. I just got the footage from Cape overnighted to me and I’d spend 3-4 days producing videos without taking any breaks.
I greatly appreciate all the work you did in creating this fantastic video! 👍🏻
paperwork and red tape is the bane of modern life. I think its to blame partly for restricting progress. Id love to get back to a World where things just got done.
TH-cam em up!
I'm fortunate enough to have grown up watching these missions, and very much appreciate the difficulties the engineers overcame "back in the day". I seem to recall watching space walks ( EVAs ) and attempts at docking. They looked like two 16 year old "yoots" learning to park a care for the first time. To have faith in the math and orbital mechanics to be an astronaut back then is heroic to me. I worked at a rocket company startup in the mid-80s and recall technical discussion around fuel sloosh and whether it was a "real issue" with respect to vehicle control laws.
Thanks @Fran Blanche for sharing and stimulating old memories.
Honestly, videos like these are way more interesting to me vs most TV or Netflix entertainment stuff. Right into the stuff I didn't know.
...one of those things that I've seen countless times, but never actually stopped to think what I was looking at.
What a brilliant video, thank you for taking the time to create, edit, and share.
Imagine being the first person to see the first footage to come back from a rocket. It's still amazing footage today. Imagine how insane that would be to see that for the first time. Their jaw had to be on the floor.
My questions about the stage separation videos has been answered to the fullest! Thank you Fran, great job! I had no idea it had been this elaborate. Love the video!
Fun fact: They used some of these videos in Battlestar Galactica 1978. They were used to show ‘missile’ launches.
Actually wasn't aware of those ejectable pods! 🤔 60s kid learned something new! 😎 Thanks, Fran! 👍
And the pods actually date from 1946 - they were developed for the USAAF testing of the captured V-2 missiles…
I love this kind of deep technical dive into niche topics like this. You answer so many of the followup questions I had along the way. And the footage is just amazing.
Mesmerising! And I love the soundtrack!
Seen it a million times and never thought how they actually did it! The fact that the stages were expendable and were destroyed hadn’t quite registered. So thank you for explaining this, it really is fascinating.
3:15 NASA Electable Camera Pods, they got my vote.. seriously, for some reason I always just assumed the astronauts could see the stage separations video (not that they could do anything from the capsule about a malfunction anyways) but now that you reminded me that this was done with Film Camera Pods, it's pretty amazing that the footage was never live & wasn't viewable until days later after launch
No video screens in Apollo capsules (CRT’s weighed too much)…
Oh wow. Child of the 70’s here. The Australian national broadcaster used to show a ‘filler’ from Apollo 11 launch to touchdown. Made it a thing to chase for my adult career. Still love developing colour reversal film. So much better colour rendition for my preferences.
Great footage and narration. I had no idea how they ever got that footage. Cool music too.
A lot of super cool data I haven't heard anywhere else - that fibre optic tank camera is a really good one.
Stunning footage never thought about films being ejected in a capsule with each stage of the rocket. I thought that the images were saved and returned with the astronauts in the main capsule.
Ah, you're fully a child of the Digital Age!.. 😀
These here ruffians were analogue - flying on the absolute pioneering cutting edge, at the time - with their, "Guidance Computer", that had an entire _4 kilobytes of RAM....._
They only way they were saving a film was to go outside and get it.
@@lewis7515
Square loop ferrite core non volatile memory. Tediously complex and time consuming to make. Heavy and bulky, but very robust and inherently hardened against corruption from cosmic radiation when compared with modern semiconductor technology.
IIRC, the RAM modules you mention were all hand made.
@@lewis7515 The AGC had 32Kb of total memory (and were 15bit computers).
B jeez you people believe any shite.
As always Fran... awesome! The space program managed to transcend into our toys back then, remember the Estes rocket kits of the 70's? I had the earlier Estes "Camroc" which took a picture using a piece of unexposed film and later in my teens had another that used 110 color/IR film. The first picture that came back was amazing.. but needed more altitude and of course you went back to the hobby shop and bought the biggest motors your paper-route could afford, D-6's I think.. so a way to ignite the multiple stages and spit out the motors in succession was derived by my dad and uncle... one was an AME/heli-pilot and the other demolitions -vietnam vet, perfect combination of mentors in those days. The first Astrocam was "lost" for a few months and recovered by a guy turning a field in the spring and saw our names on it, he just dropped it off at the airport -that's what people did back then with things that fell from the sky. I remember waiting for it to be developed, we would get the kodak 110-6 picture because it only took one photo. The pharmacist looked at me and asked where I got the photo from, because he said it looked like a picture taken from a U-2.. haha! It went very high, so high, my dad who was the pilot was amazed. Keep us thinking Fran.. it's fun to delve into the magnetic bubbles once in a while.
I love a good Francumentary.
Simply stunning, Fran. Love this and all the lab stuff you do. Thanks!
Got to watch these films in 1971 projected by a 16 mm Bell and Howell projector on a large screen. My teacher was in the Air Force and ordered them for the school from NASA. Also saw 16 mm footage of Apollo 11 Moon walk. It was so much clearer than what was live in 1969 on TV.
Beautiful, thanks for posting this! Your Apollo videos are always great :)
Awesome! I've always wanted to see all of these. Even better is your explanation. I have wondered how these could even have come to be. Thanks so very much. You're the greatest Fran!
I had ALWAYS wondered how they did that, thank you for explaining! Also, I’d never seen the footage where the camera rides along on the discarded stage and you get to see the rest of the spacecraft fire up and keep on going.
I was in the military intelligence early 80's. I've handled and printed films from Corona like systems. They were still used in the eighties. The first digital imaging systems were just coming into use then. Between the low resolution imaging sensors and the low power computers ( compared to todays) the images were quite pixilated but intriguing to the possibilities the future might bring. The film systems still had much more quality.
We had a, I believe a senior chief ( at least a chief) that did his reserve duty at our command. He was in charge of camera systems from Apollo to the first Shuttles. His photo library was amazing 120 films from the lunar Hasselblads, stills from every angle of the launch pad, and those same films of the pod system.
It was always fun when he came in, he taught me a lot about camera and equipment repair. He enjoyed sharing his years of skills. Every time I watch these films I seem to think of "Red Smith" the wonderful documentarian of that era. Probably no one has ever heard of him but he was very dedicated to his mission.
I can't watch that NASA footage without hearing Phillip Glass' Koyaanisqatsi score
Oh my gosh, Fran, I never thought of this! I've been a space nut forever, never, ever thought about this! Eject-able film pods, I never would have thought! Thanks for the fantastic content, I learned something that blew my mind! I love that @curiousmarc has seen this!
That's so cool! Awesome video as always Fran!
Excellent Fran! Absolutely excellent!
Thank you for sharing these!
Thank you so much for posting the unedited versions !
That was simply amazing. Thanks Fran !!
Incredible stuff! Thanks, Fran.
Wonderful, Fran. I always wondered how they did it, and now I finally know! Great stuff!
That' fascinating. I'd always assumed it got transmitted, but never gave it much thought.
I love the music these awe inspiring clips are set to, it seems so ethereal and perfect. I check the artist, of course it's fantastic Fran! Thank you for making these available to us in such a great way. I learned a lot!
Fantastic work Fran. Well done
Thank you so much for this, Fran. Very informative and truly astonishing - I've always wondered how the shots were taken and then retrieved.
What a great video! Stunning shots at the end and love your music, that was fantastic.
As always,, Thank you Fran !!
Lovely presentation...thanks!
Fran Blanche, Thankyou for this great video! Its always been one of those questions I've asked myself so thank you for filling in the knowledge blanks.
Your best ever video. Truly wonderful.
This was really cool. Thanks, Fran!
Some amazing footage there, thanks for taking the time and effort to make these easily available for our pleasure. A nice relaxing video to come home and watch after a good night out. ☺
Amazing! Thank you for this presentation!
Great story, excellent footage, great narration!!! Superb!!! Thanks Fran!
ALWAYS wondered about this, thanks Fran!
Just beautiful! Many thanks for compiling these. You have answered a question I have always wondered about.
wow, what a spectacular TH-cam video! Thank you Fran!
These shots take me back to the 70s.
I’ve always wanted to see video of the S1C or even the S2 hitting the water. I do know the S1C for Apollo 4 was witnessed impacting the water by down range personnel however I’ve never heard of existing film of it.
Thanks for showing us and explaining how it all worked. Superb images, and yes I did wonder as a kid how they obtained those shots.
Fascinating! Thanks Fran!
Magnificent. Thanks Fran.
Good job Fran, excellent footage.
wow so cool to get that kind of perspective! thank you fran!
Oh God I needed this! Great explination of a cool technology, and relaxing footage of stage separations. Not to mention her music reminded me of my 4-track cassette recordings I made in the early 90s.
Fantastic shot compilation at the end. Fascinating back story!
I have been wondering how this was done for a long time! I haven't seen the video yet, very much looking forward to it!
Great channel, love your videos!!
This is awesome content. Thanks Fran!!!
Cool stuff! I was always a fan of the entire Apollo missions. I'll have to look for the same type of raw unedited footage of the any Saturn 5 rocket launch from the pad perspective. Thank You Fran!
That is some awesome footage, and detailed info - thanks for sharing!
Fran. Good seeing you on here again. Thanks for this very interesting content.
Amazing, the engineering, development, manufacturing, launch and recovery effort that went into these getting these movies.
Thx again for uploading, this footage is absolutely beautiful and you explain the tech very well
super video ! genuinely did not know this story ! great editing / narration too. thank you !
Amazing! Thank you so much for this video, and the depth of the information!
Fascinating, awe inspiring stuff! Great video!
Many thanks!
I always wondered how they made these shots ! Thank you for enlightening us !
Incredible stuff! I too, always wondered how. Thanks Fran!
Thanks Fran for this very interesting video. It was one mistery for me, now it's clear. 👌
Thanks also for all those awesome shootings you shared.
6:21 This wasn't the front of the S-II. That was going far too fast (15,500 MPH) for the film pod to survive reentry. Instead, it was a Saturn IB. Specifically, AS-202. These were used to launch the CSM into Earth orbit when it wouldn't need to go to the Moon. They used a S-IVB, identical to those used for the Moon missions, as a second stage. It needed all of its fuel to reach Earth orbit. On a Saturn V, it only needed a small portion of its fuel to reach Earth orbit, the rest was used for TLI.
To be nitpicky here, the S-IVb on the Saturn 1b rocket was not 100% identical to the S-IVb on the Saturn 5 rocket. The version on the Saturn 1b could not restart its engine after being ignited like the S-IVb on the Saturn 5 could.
@@Nghilifa Also the Saturn V version of the S-IVB had only 2 "ullage" motors while the Saturn IB version had 3. The 3 plumes in the footage are a dead giveaway that it was shot from an S-IB stage.
@@frankbrockler True! Thanks 👍🏿
how does thrust work in a vacuum? You can’t even light a fire in a vacuum.
@@catonehere You can. To start a fire, you'll need an ignition source, oxidiser and fuel. While still inside the atmosphere, you don't need to provide an oxidiser as air comes for free. In space, you'll need to bring a source of oxidiser with you, liquid oxygen in this case. The ignition energy is provided by a hypergolic mixture of Triethylaluminum and Triethylboron, which ignites on contact with LOX. Then some fuel is poured in, and you have a fire in a vacuum.
As for how the engine works, search for 'Rocket Propulsion Basics' by LabRat Scientific.
I never had an answer to this question for years. Thank you.
wonderful. a LOT of detail work and answered many questions. Thank you
Thank you for this! I had always wondered about these videos.
Great job! I even like your short introduction with the analog animation!
Great video. Thanks for all this work. Well done 👌
Ok, thank you again Fran, 100% moist!
I just wanted to ask something about the Apollo 6 S-II pod b, footage.
When the ring shaped portion is ejected at the beginning of the footage, why exactly is it lit up as it is?
Is it from exhaust fuel burning from the vents in the shot, which would make sense. it just appears that they're not currently firing just then, so I wondered if the atmosphere was that intense/re'entry effects. Or perhaps I peruse the probability of the solar heat/radiation taking responsibility..?
The S-II engines are running. Their exhaust isn't visible (hydrogen, IIRC, so the flame is transparent), but when the exhaust hits the ring it starts burning off the paint on the ring.
@@h.dejong2531 Thank you for responding, I hadn't thought about the possibility it was burning, only it was invisible. 🙏
When initially separated the upper stage is being pushed by eight solid rocket motors to push the fuel to the bottom of the tank and then the liquid fuelled engines light off. Shortly after the interstage with the burned out solid rocket motors is dropped off.
Fran, thank you for the great explanation and amazing images
Fantastic. Always wondered about that wonderful footage
I absolutely love your historical bits :)
Thank you very much..such great info!
I wondered how since first time I saw these images. Thank you Fran.
And once again Fran blows my mind, thank you thank you thank you for this upload.
The pods were from Apollo 4 and 6!!! REALLY??? I did not know this. The icing on the cake for me though is the LOX tank strobe camera footage. Unbelievable!!! Project Apollo still astounding and gripping me even now. Truly awesome stuff!
Wow, that footage is so enigmatic - I could watch that for hours; it's so beautiful and such a great choice of music to accompany the almost surreal visuals.
Thanks for posting these. It's funny but I was just thinking about this very subject the other day when I watched a video of the stage separation. Good to know how it was done!
beautiful! very well researched and explained! these shots are breathtaking
Very interesting. I was just wondering about this in the last few days.
Thank you for the explanation 😉
In the very first two minutes of this video I subscribed. Absolutely wonderful and delivered with clear diction and a pleasant voice… I look forward to learning from you and thank you.
This was magic. Thank you so much