David Knisely
Postmaster
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 8280
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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A few of you may recall (as young children) a Saturday morning TV series known as FIREBALL XL-5:
FIREBALL XL-5 opening sequence on YouTube
Yea, I know, it was pretty crude and a little cheesy, but I was pretty young at the time (the fall of 1963) and promptly fell in love with the show (mainly because of XL-5 itself, as that launch sequence still sends chills down my spine). Years later, I was getting into the space flight simulator ORBITER, when I noticed an add-on, namely XL-5 itself! After a lot of moving of files and playing, I got it to work, so I fulfilled a childhood dream of actually flying the XL-5. I even stuck-in part of the sound track from the series, so as I take off, I hear good old Fireball lighting its engines and roaring off into space with the opening music playing in the background. Since the add-on didn't have the original "Space City", I had to improvise, so I put it at the visitor's center at KSC and took off. After a few flights, I decided to star exploring the solar system with XL-5 and Orbiter's enhanced graphical representation of the outer planets. Here is the first image of XL-5 just after take-off as I am climbing towards a low Earth orbit prior to heading to the moon (XL-5 is about 66 meters (216 ft) long):
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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
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David Knisely
Postmaster
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 8280
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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Here is XL-5 about to land at the Brighton Beach moon base (located at Heraclides Promontorium on the edge of Sinus Iridum):
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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
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David Knisely
Postmaster
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 8280
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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Now, I pushed the envelope and here, XL-5 has taken off from the Mars Base next to Olympus Mons and is heading out into deep space (edited for a better version):
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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
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David Knisely
Postmaster
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 8280
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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Next stop, the Jovian system. Exploring Io was a real treat, as the enhanced "Level 8" scenery has the volcanoes glowing deep red on the dark side and easily visible in the reflected light from Jupiter itself. Here XL-5 is ascending from the surface of Io with Jupiter in the background:
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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
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David Knisely
Postmaster
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 8280
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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Here is the approach to Saturn:
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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
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David Knisely
Postmaster
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 8280
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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Now, "over" the rings roughly above the Encke division, XL-5 is seen again in a stunning flight:
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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
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David Knisely
Postmaster
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 8280
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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This next one is a stop near Saturn, and once I hit this location, I just couldn't stop looking at it. The music for XL-5 and several other Anderson series was done by Barry Gray:
Barry Gray space soundtracks
One particular piece done for the movie "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun" was simply titled "Sleeping Astronauts", and playing it in the background with this shot of XL-5 under Saturn's rings created a stunning environment which I could have sat there and stared at for hours. Here is XL-5 below the rings near the F-ring's distance from Saturn (try and find the sun if you can):
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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
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bcuddihee
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/04/06
Posts: 1402
Loc: Cincinnati Ohio
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Fireball XL-5 was great...I really enjoyed watching the series Stingray on Sunday afternoons as well. bc
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B Cuddihee
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1968 Jason Empire 60X700mm refractor (my buddy from way back)
Celestron Nexstar8SE aka "The Bumblebee",(there is no way this scope should perform as well as it does...but it does)
Feathertouch Microfocuser
Stellarvue 50mm "Sparrowhawk" finder
Denk bino's with Power x switch
Pair of Smart Astronomy 19 EF's (great ep's for binos)
Pair of Edmund 28 plossls
Pair of Edmund 28 RKE'S
Pair of tv 20mm plossls
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rboe
Reged: 03/16/02
Posts: 45400
Loc: Phx, AZ
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Kudo's!  I loved that show. The 90 degree turn in the launch rail just blew my mind though. Thanks for the memories
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Ron
NS11GPS
Pronto
16" dob
15X70 Obies
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rboe
Reged: 03/16/02
Posts: 45400
Loc: Phx, AZ
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Now I see it was just a ramp.  On our HD TV at the time it sure looked like a 90 degree bend. Still, that is quite a change in direction at launch speeds. 
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Ron
NS11GPS
Pronto
16" dob
15X70 Obies
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David Knisely
Postmaster
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 8280
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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Quote:
Now I see it was just a ramp. On our HD TV at the time it sure looked like a 90 degree bend. Still, that is quite a change in direction at launch speeds.
What was interesting about that launch rail/ramp method is that it actually would work and had some real benefit as far as getting a ship up and flying is concerned. I was in my junior year at UNL in my Physics of the Solar System course (taught by Dr. Don Taylor) and surprisingly, he brought up the launching rail concept and why it was feasible. He was more referring to the way the launching rail worked in the George Pal movie WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, but with XL-5, one would still see some benefit. In astrodynamics, it is better to burn once you are already moving, so sliding the ship down a mountain-based launching ramp or accelerating it with fixed rockets on a sled both act to get it moving without a penalty for fuel expended getting the ship off a pad vertically. I don't know if Gerry Anderson consulted anybody on the true science of the concept when cooking up the launching rail system for Fireball XL-5, but in this case, he got it right. The launching ramp is inclined about 40 degrees to get the ship off the ground. Interestingly enough, there is a version of Fireball XL-5 for Microsoft Flight Simulator which includes Space City and the launching ramp. With the ORBITER version, I don't need it, as I use the hover engines to just barely get off the ground and then fire up the main rear engine to get the thing going, throttling the hover engines back and eventually shutting them down once I have established the proper initial flight trajectory to get the ship out of the atmosphere (about a 50 degree inclination from the horizon). However, it would have been nice to have the rail system available too. Clear skies to you.
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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
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Gone caving
sage
Reged: 04/02/07
Posts: 316
Loc: Underground really
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David,
I still have my XL5 from my youth .
Enjoy !
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Welcome back my friends to the show that never end.............................
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David Knisely
Postmaster
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 8280
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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Quote:
David,
I still have my XL5 from my youth .
Enjoy !
Yup, I had one too, although I didn't use the parachute system. I had a bunch of wood blocks in the basement (as well as several large Tinkertoy sets), so I built a small version of Space City and that long launching ramp for the XL-5 toy. Someone even came up with a model rocket version of XL-5 that flies:
Model rocket launch of Fireball XL-5
Clear skies to you.
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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
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David Knisely
Postmaster
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 8280
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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Here, XL-5 is about 195 km above the western portions of the Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars:
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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
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StarWars
Postmaster
Reged: 11/26/03
Posts: 13809
Loc: CyberSpace
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Quote:
Kudo's! I loved that show. The 90 degree turn in the launch rail just blew my mind though. Thanks for the memories
 
With the cigarette smoke blasting out of the rocket..
http://www.earthstation1.com/ThemeSongs/fbxl5.wav
enjoy... 
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Sony Digital Media player..
MX 460 earbuds
Celestron 2x Barlow Lens
Orion Collimation Eyepiece
Rigel Quick Finder
Assorted Bino's 
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David Knisely
Postmaster
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 8280
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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Quote:
Quote:
Kudo's! I loved that show. The 90 degree turn in the launch rail just blew my mind though. Thanks for the memories
With the cigarette smoke blasting out of the rocket..
http://www.earthstation1.com/ThemeSongs/fbxl5.wav
enjoy...
Actually, it wasn't cigarette smoke coming out. They used small solid-fuel "toy" rocket motors that were custom-fabricated for the show. On YouTube is a 4-part summary of Gerry Anderson's puppet sci-fi series (mostly about the Thunderbirds, but does have pieces devoted to Supercar, Fireball XL-5, and Stingray).
The Making of the 21st Century (Gerry Anderson's series)
Clear skies to you.
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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
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StarWars
Postmaster
Reged: 11/26/03
Posts: 13809
Loc: CyberSpace
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As I recall the first episodes of FB-XL5 were in black and white.. 
Or was I watching on a B&W TV... 
I really enjoyed the Thunderbirds Saturday morning.. 
Thunderbird #2 was my favorite...
BTW: David your graphics look great!! 
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Sony Digital Media player..
MX 460 earbuds
Celestron 2x Barlow Lens
Orion Collimation Eyepiece
Rigel Quick Finder
Assorted Bino's
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RobertED
professor emeritus
Reged: 07/11/03
Posts: 1192
Loc: Johnston, RI
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That was one fantastic tour of the solar system with XL-5!!!Thanks for the 'ride' David!!!...and thanks for bringing back all those wonderful old memories!!!
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RobertED
professor emeritus
Reged: 07/11/03
Posts: 1192
Loc: Johnston, RI
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"Gone Caving", very cool that you kept your Fireball XL-5 in such good shape!! I had the same toy, but it went the way of all my old baseball cards!! What small kid wants to save something that cool for future collectibility?? Same as my Mickey Mantle, Nolan Ryan, and Carl Yastrzemski baseball cards.....pffffftttttt!!! 
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David Knisely
Postmaster
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 8280
Loc: Beatrice, Nebraska
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Quote:
As I recall the first episodes of FB-XL5 were in black and white..
Or was I watching on a B&W TV...
I really enjoyed the Thunderbirds Saturday morning..
Thunderbird #2 was my favorite...
BTW: David your graphics look great!!
All the episodes were broadcast in black and white. There was some colorization done for the re-release of the show on DVD, but I think it was restricted to the box graphics. Clear skies to you.
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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
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