POST STS 123 DISCUSSION

That was the first night landing I followed on NASA TV and was amazed at the exhaust/venting from the APU units until they were shut down. What I'm wondering is why I've not ever seen them during night launches since APU's are on before launch, or is that they're masked by all the floodlights on the stack.
 
I found it odd, that they didn't light up the orbiter, with flood lights, right after landing.
 
I didn't notice the APU venting on the STS-114 night landing and that was shot with an infra-red camera, IIRC. I would have thought it would stand out even more in infra-red than in visible.
 
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