NASA's new camera makes rocket engines look like Hollywood CGI

NASA has created a camera that can film slow motion footage of booming rocket engines with higher dynamic range than ever before. It’s called the High Dynamic Range Stereo X camera, or HiDyRS-X, and late last week the agency released some of its footage to the public for the first time.

The three-minute clip shows the most recent test of one of the boosters for NASA’s upcoming Space Launch System rocket in unprecedented detail. SLS will use two of these 17-story tall solid rocket boosters, each of which is capable of burning 5.5 tons of propellant per second to create 3.6 million pounds of thrust.

The problem when it comes to filming tests like these (and eventually, launches) is that the plumes of fire they produce are extremely...