Launch sequence begins at 4:50

In light of the Shuttle program’s 2005 return to flight, I established the fictitious National Aerospace System or NAS (pronounced N-A-S). This was originally going to be a routine set of launches for a two-foot-tall model rocket I had been designing since then. But upon learning how to use 3D modeling software, I conquered what I thought was impossible for me back then–using a computer program to animate my own controlled Space Shuttle launches.

Launching a model rocket has way too many downsides; for example, it’s best to launch with a club. But I wouldn’t have had the freedom I needed because not only were these going to be hobby launches, they were to be film and production projects as well. Launch space was limited in Baton Rouge, and the dangers outweighed the benefits. Also, there are a lot of physics, calculations and predictions in the sport of rocketry, and launching a delicate, two-foot tall model for a rather slow liftoff and a low apogee would have been physical impossibility and an engineering disaster. As a result, the project was shelved for good in 2010.

The original build from 2005.

The revamp from 2006.

In October of 2012, I came across free models of spacecraft and launch pads on the NASA website and from there, the rest was history. Using elements and ideas from the two launch pads and designs I created above, I took the NASA models and their textures and made them into works of my own, thanks to Adobe Photoshop and Maxon Cinema 4D (C4D).

In my 3D model, light is generated from an artificial sky, as well as from floodlights around the pad. The photorealism was captured through the global-illumination feature in C4D.

NAS Shuttle Launch Test #1, 2012

NAS Shuttle Launch Test #2, 2012

The Design

The model belongs to NASA’s collection of space-related models, free for creative and demonstrative use. The package contains highly detailed textures and bump maps, but being a devout follower of the Shuttle program, made many necessary modifications for the sake of accuracy. I wanted to continue on with my fictional NAS, so I swapped out the NASA markings with my own through Photoshop. Other details, such as sandings, tan lines and color changes on the foam of the external tank (ET) were also taken into account, as well as the coloring of the insulation on the Shuttles’ main engines (SSME).

The assembly process was difficult, as the ET was slightly off proportion and the launch pad was scaled too small for the Shuttle stack. The mobile launch platform (MLP) was also too big for the rest of the launch pad, so I scaled everything, especially the orbiter, and extended the Rotating Service Structure of the tower to fit the Shuttle properly…or so I thought. Nearly finished around Christmas 2012, I looked at the launch replays I created and noticed that the orbiter was way too big for the stack. With this becoming a blaring mistake, I had to start over from scratch; the orbiter was the correct size to match the launch tower, but the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) and ET were not. I had to re-scale them and with doing so, I had to re-scale the MLP as well. Along with other adjustments I decided to place my cameras more accurately to real-life while adding models of the pads’ Operational Television cameras (OTVs) as placeholders, thus giving the launch pad even more detail. I made all of these changes over the course of a week.

This was the launch pad and Shuttle in the original set-up.

This is the launch pad after modification. Note the change in proportion.

Design Elements

The entire launch countdown, as well as the camera replays, are modeled after the real NASA broadcasts and were examined with a fine-tooth comb. Sounds of the engines and boosters are recordings of engine tests and on-site launch videos that I converted from mono to stereo audio. Additional sounds, such as the venting and the radio calls, were extracted from past Shuttle launch coverage. There are several 3D Shuttle launch simulations uploaded to the internet, but staying true to my ethic and enthusiasm, I made sure that mine looked as close to the real thing as possible. With that said, the detail that I gave to the ignition sequence caught the attention of many, asking how I managed to pull it off. Are they overlays? Are they CGI? Well, let’s spell it out milestone by milestone.

Terminal Count

This is when the countdown resumes from the T-9 minute hold. Video overlays of steam and smoke were used for during milestones, blended, masked, positioned and rotated with respect to camera angles, the time of day or even wind direction, which usually comes from the north or the east due to the Atlantic Ocean. Starting with SM-9, these were replaced with my own custom overlays. Additional plugins for rippling and motion blur were also used for some of the long-distance tracking cameras to represent a heat haze on a hot day.

Overlays of steam are placed behind a mask of the handrails, compared to real footage on the left. Images cropped from STS-102 and SM-3.

Flowing ripples and a gaussian blur were used to create a heat haze, compared to real footage on the left. Images cropped from STS-121 and SM-4.

Ignition Sequence

At T-15 seconds, the Sound Suppression Water System cuts on. This was a system of pipes on the launch towers, pads and platforms that pumped out thousands of gallons of water from the adjacent water tower onto the launch pad itself. This helped reduce the noise and vibration from the SSMEs, whose shock would otherwise damage the vehicle. This was also mimicked through the use of steam overlays, but I used a self-made waterfall effect for the torrent that emits from the launch platform in order to make my close-up shots more realistic.

Still a work in progress, waterfall compositions were placed and masked beneath the launch platform’s SRB and SSME holes, compared to real footage on the left. Images cropped from STS-122 and SM-4. The effect has since been improved…

Smoke overlays were used to create a mist, compared to real footage on the left. Images cropped from STS-130 and SM-3. The effect has since been upgraded.

At T-10 seconds, the Hydrogen Burn-off Igniters fire. This was a system of six pyrotechnic devices whose emissions burned off any excess hydrogen gases that would cause an explosion once the SSMEs ignited. These effects were created through the use of particles with a glow effect, and I created different overlays for front, side and angle views. The blend modes for these are changed based on the time of day for the launch, as light naturally appears brighter in a dark environment.

The igniters in action, compared to real footage on the left. Six are used–three on the left and three on the right, with two of them in the front and four in the back. I began with only four in total, adding the other two later on. Images cropped from STS-124 and SM-3. The effect has since been completely redone.

Stills of my overlays, these are different angles that I use depending on the host camera shot. Featured are the front view, side view, a view pointing toward you and a view pointing away from you.

A day launch, SM-2, with a “lighten” overlay blend mode, versus a sunset or night launch, SM-3, with an “add” blend mode.

At T-6.5 seconds, the engines cut on within .12 seconds/3 frames of each other, starting with the viewer’s right, then the left, then the center. The SSMEs are so powerful that they can drain an Olympic-sized swimming pool in a mere 25 seconds. But they are also the cleanest rocket engines ever designed, as they are essentially fueled by water. The massive orange-hued external tank feeds them during their eight-minute burn, as it stores one part of liquid oxygen fuel (LO2 or LOX) for every two parts of liquid hydrogen (LH2)–water. Because of the way the fuel is fed through the engine chambers, the LO2 burns first, causing a disorganized red flame. From here, the LH2 kicks in which turns the flame almost clear.

This exhaust was created with a white oval–just that simple. With overlays of a steam puff and a flamethrower used to represent the actual ignition, I applied a downward light ray effect to the oval, adding heavy noise to mimic pulsating exhaust. Beginning with SM-6, the flamethrower overlay was replaced by an actual SSME test fire. I also keyframed the color to change from red to white at specific points. As supersonic engines ignite, the exhaust takes the shape of a helix whose points intersect at the white mach diamonds. This was created by duplicating the oval and shifting it downward where needed, using lens flares for the mach diamonds. But my favorite effect is the shockwave; this is quick, pulsating reflection of light resembling electricity was created using an obsolete lightning plugin.

Liftoff

As soon as the 6,000+ degree Fahrenheit exhaust met the suppressant water beneath the launch platform, a large cloud of pure white steam would rapidly build. This was, without a doubt, the hardest element to recreate. I’ve tried cheats and overlays galore and nothing would work. Then I came across a tutorial for a simple smoke trail, took my preexisting knowledge of particles and created some really nice-looking plumes. This was also doctored in various ways to represent wind and daylight. At T-0, the bolts that kept the Shuttle on the pad exploded (explosion overlays), the SRBs ignited and liftoff we had.

The golden fire of the solid fuel exhaust garnered the most attention, as no other upload on YouTube had anything remotely similar. This was created from a flamethrower/torch tutorial for After Effects, adding a lens flare at the top of the plume to complete the look. For my eighth launch, I updated the particles to make the plume less rigid, and also adjusting the spread so that I could assign a plume to each SRB rather than both at once.

The final elements were the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS — ohms) and Reaction Control System (RCS thruster) burns, and max-q, which is the aerodynamic shockwave that forms around the Shuttle right between liftoff and SRB separation. These were simply reworked versions of the SSME exhaust. Starting with SM-8, max-q was updated, utilizing a noise overlay as opposed to the Shine light rays plugin.

Maneuvers

The Shuttle stack maneuvered in various ways for various reasons, starting at SSME ignition; some of these were intentional and some were due to physics. There were three powerful main engines on the assembly, none of which are in the vehicle’s center of gravity. This caused the stack to bend back nearly six feet while bolted to the pad, regaining momentum soon after. From here, my stack launched at the correct up-and-backward path towards the ocean at T-0. Because of this, the null (grouping object) to which the Shuttle’s pieces were aligned is squared up with the bottom of the boosters. After all, this area was the source of the power.

About ten seconds into the flight, just after clearing the tower, the stack did a 90-, 120- or 140-degree roll-pitch-yaw down and to the right. In real life, the amount of roll depended on the destination, and was done through a very slight gimballing or “swiveling” of the SSME and SRB exhaust nozzles, as well as movement from the orbiter’s elevon flaps on the wings. This relieved weight on the delicate spaceplane, and also relieved stress from sunlight. I initially created the roll maneuver by carefully pivoting and banking the Shuttle stack, having my tracking cameras gradually move and tilt to create the impression that the rocket was zooming past. Handheld camera movement was created using wiggle expressions in After Effects, but after ten launches, I grew dissatisfied with the above camera trick. For SM-11, I created an all new sequence in which the shuttle actually left the ground.

In my launches, you’d see the SRBs separate, the remainder of the stack perform the heads-up roll (performed so that the orbiter would now have better signal with the nearby Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, or TDRS–teedriss, for Mission Control). Then the external tank separated as the orbiter pitched upward and flew off. This was all done through camera tricks; the stack is sitting still, while everything around it was moving and a background video played underneath.

The Orbiters

The orbiters, or “the Shuttles themselves,” were named after the figures in which the zodiac constellations Aquarius, Gemini and Virgo represent respectively. Having started with four, I alternated among them each mission while one orbiter would eventually sit out for “maintenance” every few missions. In real life, this downtime is called Orbiter Maintenance Down Period–OMDP or Major Modification for short.

These launches had a fan in Zachary Sellingrr on YouTube, as he launched Shuttles on the highly popular Orbiter simulator. Around the tenth mission, he reminded me of an old thread I started on the Rocketry Forum in 2005–humble beginnings.

here’s the deal: i am building a complete scale model spaceshuttle.
for the shuttle’s main engines, i plan to use those mini engines for the teeny-tiny rockets that estes makes, and i will use the size “d” or”e” engines for boosters. i plan to set it up like a real shuttle launch by having the tiny engines ignite a few seconds before the big engines, meaning that the shuttle won’t leave the pad until the big engines spark. is anything going to blow up or get engulfed in flames?

__________________

Booster ignition and liftoff of Daedalus as she kick-starts a new era in the Space Shuttle program!

NATIONAL AEROSPACE SYSTEM progress report——————-
COMPLETE: complex 39a/b/c tower(s), DISPLAY orbiter, external tank, and SRBs; launch platform
COMING SOON: interchangeable orbiters, new DISPLAY tank(s) and SRBs, ACTUAL tank(s) and SRBs
ON THE DRAWING BOARD: Pad A remote structures

*Thank you, Rockitflite!!!*

My username was ‘spaceshuttle.’ Back then, I had ten orbiters with one, Daedalus, serving as a fill-in. Going back to my roots, I’ve revived that orbiter.

Mission Patches

Mission patches are a tradition in spaceflight, symbolizing the objective of the mission while often feature the shooting star and orbit–the symbol of the Astronaut Office. Below is the NAS logo, as well as patches that I created on PowerPoint and Photoshop to go along with each launch.

Crew Photos

The crews of my missions were named after newspeople, TV cast members, classmates and family. A last-minute addition to this long-term project, the crew photos helped make this whole project seem complete. In real life, flight crews take a quick break during the beginning of training at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas to snap a few photos for their upcoming mission; one official photo and a few creative ones are released to the public. I created my own using re-worked astronaut models from the NASA site mentioned above, customizing and rigging them as needed.

I stopped doing the photos because of the amount of time it took…

Conclusion

After 30 planned missions, one abort, two tests and more than 80,000 views on YouTube, I decided to end the NAS Space Shuttle series. For eight years, I got to revive (for what it’s worth) the magic of the launch countdown, the culmination of a dream that began in Mrs. Lightfoot’s 4th grade class as I watched John Glenn return to space in 1998. But due to limited time, as well as a need for creative change, my fictitious Space Shuttle program will come to a close in 2021.