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[john sanders]

The following was taken from Road & Track, April 2011,Volume 62, Number 8 and I hope you may find this as fascinating as I did:

"For the onlookers standing at the NASA Causeway six miles away (the closest public viewing area), you first see the shuttle rise and its white exhaust plume billow out of the flame trench in silence. Moments later you hear the rocket engines and feel the crackling noise pulsating past you. The sound pressure energy level at the launch pad is about 220 (db), and at amile away, 135, where your hearing would still be damaged. Human death occurs at around 200 db due to intense vibration of the internal organs.NASA says that at 400 feet away, the heat will kill you. And at 800, the sound will. Watching the shuttle launch from six miles away doesn't seem too distant after all.

[Steve Hurt]

Be curious to know how loud it is inside the shuttle.

[john sanders]

Be curious to know how loud it is inside the shuttle.

[john sanders]

Steve, Interesting question. While I don't have the answer for you, I'm sure the shuttle is well insulated and in addition so are the astronauts helmets. 44 seconds after liftoff the shuttle is traveling at Mach 1 (735 mph.) and by 8 minutes 30 seconds it's traveling at 17,000 mph. That's a lot faster than the speed of sound.

[Lee Buckalew]

The following was taken from Road & Track, April 2011,Volume 62, Number 8 and I hope you may find this as fascinating as I did:

"For the onlookers standing at the NASA Causeway six miles away (the closest public viewing area), you first see the shuttle rise and its white exhaust plume billow out of the flame trench in silence. Moments later you hear the rocket engines and feel the crackling noise pulsating past you. The sound pressure energy level at the launch pad is about 220 (db), and at amile away, 135, where your hearing would still be damaged. Human death occurs at around 200 db due to intense vibration of the internal organs.NASA says that at 400 feet away, the heat will kill you. And at 800, the sound will. Watching the shuttle launch from six miles away doesn't seem too distant after all.

Here's a link to some interesting info (which also has a link to a great surround sound recording of the Launch).  I was fortunate enough to be able to Talk to Bob Katz about this project.  It was a truly phenomenal job.  The recordings were done 3.1 miles from the launch pad.

http://www.musicofsound.co.nz/blog/space-shuttle-lift-off-at-24bit-96k

In this link, Bob responds to some criticism.  There is also information about acoustical limits for some of the shuttle structure and how this problem was overcome.

Lee Buckalew
Pro Sound Advice, Inc.

[Kay Ostar]

That is loud. I'm sure the guys at NASA have some out of this world sound systems in their pads.

[Cameron Stuckey]

"For the onlookers standing at the NASA Causeway six miles away (the closest public viewing area), you first see the shuttle rise and its white exhaust plume billow out of the flame trench in silence. Moments later you hear the rocket engines and feel the crackling noise pulsating past you. The sound pressure energy level at the launch pad is about 220 (db), and at amile away, 135, where your hearing would still be damaged. Human death occurs at around 200 db due to intense vibration of the internal organs.NASA says that at 400 feet away, the heat will kill you. And at 800, the sound will. Watching the shuttle launch from six miles away doesn't seem too distant after all.

I can personally vouch to this being true, I was able to see one of the last publicly open viewing on the causeway(after 9/11 it was shut down to only credential approved family members). After ignition it takes the shuttle several seconds to begin moving and what feels like an eternity for the shock wave to hit the causeway(really, 28seconds). While it felt like a strong breeze blowing past you and ruffled your clothes, NASA strongly recommend hearing protection for every viewer. Also something that they repeated ad nauseam was to keep your car's windows all open. This seemed unnecessary at the time, but once the wave hit the causeway it set off every car alarm.

[John Halliburton]

Here's a link to some interesting info (which also has a link to a great surround sound recording of the Launch).  I was fortunate enough to be able to Talk to Bob Katz about this project.  It was a truly phenomenal job.  The recordings were done 3.1 miles from the launch pad.

http://www.musicofsound.co.nz/blog/space-shuttle-lift-off-at-24bit-96k

In this link, Bob responds to some criticism.  There is also information about acoustical limits for some of the shuttle structure and how this problem was overcome.

Lee Buckalew
Pro Sound Advice, Inc.

At the time, Mr. Katz was remastering a couple of our albums, and Servodrive had a booth at the NSCA in Orlando that Spring, not long after Bob recorded the launch.  I got in touch, told him that the company had some Contrabass subwoofers at the show, and he should drop by with the recording to have a listen.  Unfortunately I wasn't there, but he reported that he was smiling as the recording played-a very impressive replay.

I suspect there are some Labsters that may have experienced this at that show, but I don't remember.

I've played it on my Contras, it is an eye opener.

Best regards,

John

[Scott Flaws]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sound_suppression_water_system_test_at_KSC_Launch_Pad_39A.jpg

[Christian Tepfer]

Wow, 220 dB SPL must be heavily distorted. Everything over 194 maxes out the valleys at 0 pressure.

Shocking. Hence the word shockwave...

[Bennett Prescott]

Wow, 220 dB SPL must be heavily distorted. Everything over 194 maxes out the valleys at 0 pressure.

Shocking. Hence the word shockwave...

That's why all the recordings you hear of the space shuttle sound distorted. They aren't, the air is.

[ProSoundWeb Community]