NASA has released this beautiful, crystal-clear video of Discovery’s launch. It was taken from an HD camera mounted on the left solid rocket booster, during liftoff of the shuttle for mission STS-133.
https://gizmodo.com/this-is-the-last-launch-of-the-space-shuttle-discovery-5769527
Take a close look. There have been other booster videos before, but not only this one is especially impressive, it’s also the last time you are going to see Discovery rising up to the stars.
The space shuttle uses two solid fuel boosters, giant fireworks that produce 2,800,000 pounds of force each. At liftoff, each produces 12,500,000 newtons and continue to burn for 124 seconds. The spacecraft’s own engines produce a combined 12,000 pounds of force (54.4 kN), and accelerate and decelerate as the shuttle goes through different launch phases, to reduce shock.
