James Burke Voyager 2 launch 1977
by Capucine · old hollywood: Movies
In 1977, while covering the launch of Voyager 2 for the BBC series CONNECTIONS, James Burke inadvertently filmed what is widely regarded as one of the most impeccably timed shots in television history.
Transcript (en)
You see, all three men had understood that certain gases ignite, and that the thermos flask permits you to store vast quantities of those gases safely in the frozen liquid form until you want to ignite them, at which point you take the top off the flask, the gases evaporate, you apply a light, and boom! Now, two gases do that better than any other, and it was Obert's assistant who put them together most efficiently. His name was Werner von Braun, and the two gases that he released from his particular version of a thermos flask, the one lying on its side behind me now, were hydrogen and oxygen. If you release those two gases into a confined space with a hole at the other end of it and mix them as you do so, and then set light to them, you get that. Destination, the moon or Moscow? The planets or Peking.
