STS-120 external tank

[furgee]

It is not excess gas actually. It is compressed air in the ET that is "puffed" out after separation that causes the ET to tumble away from the orbiter as well as back to earth. The tumbling also ensures a less than dynamic burn causing less of the ET to survive re-entry.

[explorerSG1]

Thanks for the information Furgee. What would the compressed air be used for in the ET?

[furgee]

I am not sure what the "air" actually is. It may be helium from the tank pressurization system. The helium also purges the hydrogen lines of air because it hydrogen is so cold it will freeze air. That may be what you are seeing spurting from the ET. It is used to cause the tank to tumble back towards earth faster than it normally would.

[Andrewmcmelonse]

steam

[brolyss4]

You have an incomplete video, there is a section of the video where we can see something like a spider near the tank, dont you have that part of the video? Its the most impressive part.

[explorerSG1]

No brolyss4, I don't have that video, but I did see on NASA TV live what your talking about. The object came off the external tank (some type of hoses that linked the external tank and the shuttle together.) Similar pictures can be seen on STS-115 and STS-121 shuttle mission (ET-115 and ET-121) while the astronauts took pictures of the (ET) external tank. No real ET here to phone home about.

[brolyss4]

Oh yes, thank you for the explanation. I have found the videos of the mission you told me, and yes, they are ice mostly and even there is a video of a strange metallic part filmed from the cabin on sts-120, I have added some of those videos to my favs, you can see the ice things on them.