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Frontispiece

A space shuttle launches into the sky. Massive jets of flame fire out of two long cylindrical solid rocket boosters which are attached to either side of a much larger cylindrical tank of liquid oxygen. The shuttle is affixed to the tank. Not shown, in the flight deck, the powerful propulsion presses the crew of astronauts rigidly into the back of their launch seats as they face up, hurtling towards the heavens.


[rumbling rockets send waves of intensifying vibrations that then fade away]

 

Image and sound: NASA