For those that are not familiar, the Saturn V was equipped with 5 (yes, you read that right)... five F-1 rocket engines. Each engine produced an absolutely staggering 1,500,000 pounds of thrust; that's a total of 7,500,000 pounds of thrust!<p>Can you imagine being tucked into the small, cramped Command Module, sitting on top of this power at lift-off?<p>The whole thing, the technology, the sound, the people coming together to make it happen... it's soul-stirring.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-cv_JJOxGI" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-cv_JJOxGI</a>
A fascinating story. Although the situation was very different, it reminded me of the aborted launch of Mercury Redstone 1:<p><i>"...following a normal countdown, the Mercury-Redstone's engine ignited on schedule at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (14:00 GMT). However, the engine shut down immediately after lift-off from the launch pad. The rocket only rose about 4 inches (10 cm) before settling back onto the pad. It wobbled slightly, but stayed upright and did not explode. An odd series of events then took place.<p>Immediately after the Redstone's engine shut down, the Mercury capsule's escape rocket jettisoned itself, leaving the capsule attached to the Redstone booster. The escape rocket rose to an altitude of 4,000 feet (1,200 m) and landed about 400 yards (370 m) away. Three seconds after the escape rocket fired, the capsule deployed its drogue parachute; it then deployed the main and reserve parachutes, ejecting the radio antenna fairing in the process.<p>In the end, all that had been launched was the escape rocket. Meanwhile, a fully fueled, slightly wrinkled Redstone and its Mercury capsule sat on the launch pad, both with full batteries and live pyrotechnics. Among these pyrotechnics were the capsule's retrorockets and the Redstone's self-destruct system, which was still active. Furthermore, the capsule's main and reserve parachutes were hanging down the side of the rocket, threatening to tip it over if they caught enough wind..."</i> [1]<p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_1" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury-Redstone_1</a>
Somehow my occasional entry into the command line on a production server, opening up vi, and snapping a new configuration tweak in place and testing it – it doesn't seem quite so brave or adventurous any more…
The author humbly failed to mention that late last night he accomplished quite an extraordinary just-in-time feat himself:<p>Today Artsy launched its live auction platform with TWO x TWO, a charity to benefit AIDS research: <a href="http://artsy.net/feature/two-x-two" rel="nofollow">http://artsy.net/feature/two-x-two</a>