A Launch to Remember (Part 12) May 15, 2011
Posted by Lofty Ambitions in Space Exploration.Tags: A Launch to Remember, Space Shuttle
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ARRIVAL IN TITUSVILLE
ROLLBACK OF THE ROTATING SERVICE STRUCTURE
Go Endeavour!
White Room and Crew Compartment Waiting!
It’s bedtime now! We have to be back at the KSC News Center at 3:30a.m.! If everything remains on schedule, we’ll see the STS-134 crew in their orange flight suits at 5:11a.m. Then, they’ll make their short drive in the Astrovan to launch pad 39A, where Endeavour awaits. Mechanical problems are in the back of our minds because of our past two not-launch experiences, but it’s the wind that’s the tangible concern for the launch right now. That said, Endeavour looked great on the launch pad and seems ready to go.
A Launch to Remember (Part 11) May 14, 2011
Posted by Lofty Ambitions in Science, Space Exploration.Tags: A Launch to Remember, Nobel Prize, Physics, Space Shuttle
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We made our way from California to Florida once again. We’ll head to Kennedy Space Center on Sunday morning. In the meantime, here’s what’s caught our attention.
THE ALPHA MAGNETIC SPECTROMETER
Even now, comfortably residing in the aft section of space shuttle Endeavour’s bay is a sixteen-ton, three-meter-square instrument that represents a laundry list of significant commitments: 16 years from drawing board to delivery; 600 scientists, engineers, and technicians from 56 institutions and 16 countries to design and build it; and $1.5B (yep, that’s billions) of cash to fund it. And that price tag doesn’t include the $500M cost of launching the instrument into space and connecting it up on its new home, the International Space Station (ISS). This extraordinary expenditure of scientific and financial capital is labeled with a descriptive moniker: Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, commonly referred to as AMS. More precisely, this machine is AMS-02, having been preceded by a ten-day proof-of-concept flown by the STS-91 mission on the space shuttle Discovery in 1998.
So, why the big money, the multinational collaboration, and the long-term investment? The AMS is the brainchild of Nobel laureate Sam Ting, a particle physicist at MIT. The fact that the AMS will spend its working life affixed to the ISS is the result of a marriage of convenience, perhaps necessity (as it’s sometimes difficult to tease the two apart), between Dr. Ting and former NASA chief Dan Golden. In 1991, Dan Golden was desperately seeking scientific legitimacy for the ISS. At the same time, Dr. Ting was looking for the best possible spot in the world for his device to access unadulterated, so-called primary, cosmic rays. When hunting cosmic rays, it doesn’t get much better than 200 miles above the earth’s atmosphere. If you also happen to need to transfer a significant amount of data to physicists so they can analyze it, the ISS is a pretty good place to be. In fact, it not only provides support for communicating data, it also provides power and navigation. If you’re building an AMS to orbit the Earth, the ISS simplifies the project enough that it becomes much more possible.
We’ll have a future post about cosmic rays and their role in science, once the AMS is up in orbit and working. For now, suffice it to say that cosmic rays can be used to glean a significant amount of information about the universe’s past, its current makeup, and quite possibly its future evolution. In other words, if the AMS gets very lucky, it could revolutionize our understanding of the universe.
On a more workaday level, the AMS was designed to sift through the streams of cosmic rays that will pass through its multiple layers of detectors. The AMS will be looking for hints about one of the great cosmological mysteries: why the universe is predominantly comprised of matter. The logical outcome of the Big Bang Theory is that matter and antimatter should have been created in equal amounts. If this is the case, where did all of the antimatter go? The AMS hopes to find out.
Another question that the AMS will attempt to answer is perhaps an even greater mystery than the disappearance of—or our lack of ability thus far to detect—antimatter. Cosmologists, astronomers, and astrophysicists are confronted by the fact that what we can see in the universe—the visible matter in the universe—accounts for less that 5% of the matter that MUST be present in the universe if we explain it gravitationally. Simply put, from what we can observe, there simply isn’t enough matter to account for the rate at which the universe is expanding. Most current theories that attempt to explain this apparent contradiction do so by invoking dark matter and dark energy. Sam Ting and the hundreds of other scientists on the AMS project are hopeful that clues as to the nature of dark matter will be revealed by the project.
STS-134 Arrives at KSC AGAIN
To accomplish this—to give scientists a chance to find dark matter—the AMS had to be a formidable piece of technology. At its heart is a 1250-Gauss permanent magnet that will curve the path of charged particles that make up cosmic rays. Particles that bend one way are ordinary matter, whereas those that are bent in the opposite direction are antimatter. The AMS has 300,000 data channels to transmit information about the particles passing through it. The dry run in 1998 had nearly 100M cosmic ray events in 103 hours, so they’re expecting a lot of data. We’re at the Space Coast hoping they start getting that data from space in about a week.
A Launch to Remember (Part 10) May 11, 2011
Posted by Lofty Ambitions in Collaboration, Space Exploration, Writing.Tags: A Launch to Remember, Space Shuttle
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The launch of Endeavour is now scheduled for Monday, May 16—this coming Monday! We want to be there, in case it actually launches. We want to be there because we’re part of the press corps for STS-134. Doug has media credentials for the first time, in hopes of gathering material for Knox Magazine. Anna has media credentials, as she did for the not-launch of Discovery in November. Our article based on that trip to Florida last year appears in the new issue of Chapman Magazine.
We want to be there so much that, unless NASA finds a problem before Saturday, we’re heading back to the Cape. Yes, we’re going back! We’ve written before about being a writing couple, about doing writing together and working on our separate projects as a couple. STS-134 has made us a couple of writers in a new way.
The morning after we landed in Orlando, we headed over to the Badging Office at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Then, we flashed our badges and IDs at the gate and proceeded to the Press Center, across the street from the looming Vehicle Assembly Building where the shuttle is mounted to the external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters before making its way to the launch pad on the crawler.
Even though it was launch day, the Press Center was relatively quiet when we first arrived. Still, the television cameras and trucks made it clear that this launch was getting far more media attention than any in recent memory. The main building is set up classroom style, with long desks facing the counter behind which the press officers sit, stand, and answer phones. The flags of countries participating in the International Space Station hang overhead. When we requested a desk, we were assigned to a shared desk in the press annex building.
Doug and STS-133 Astronaut Michael Barratt
We had missed the rollback of the Rotating Service Structure the night before, and the sign-up sheet for the astronaut walkout was already full, with 150 names. We jotted our names on the overflow sheet, just in case. And we signed up for a few astronaut interviews, including one with Michael Barratt (see HERE). The launch was still hours away at 3:47p.m.
By 7a.m., other journalists began streaming in, huddling in small groups, checking Twitter, asking questions, and creating a palpable buzz. Jay Barbree from NBC, who has been covering the space age since Sputnik, made appearances all weekend. And a young whippersnapper was at the astronaut walkout (yes, we waved to the STS-134 in their orange launch suits!), piecing together shots for his segment on CBS Sunday Morning. Reporters from Houston’s NPR station, an Arizona television affiliate, a website in New Zealand, Florida newspapers, and science magazines like Physics Today were in the mix too.
The press people behind the counter handled the hubbub in stride. They answer whatever question is lobbed their way. In fact, at one point, they worked our question about how many launches have been delayed, and Allard Beutel explained to us the difference between a scrub—which is a delay announced after tanking—and a delay. Candrea Thomas helped coordinate a phone interview for us (more on that interview in a future post). The press officers, however, don’t answer questions they aren’t asked. They don’t volunteer information.
STS-134 Crew Walkout
That works pretty well because the journalists ask a lot of questions and also share information. We have come to see journalists (though perhaps not photographers, who are a different sort) as collaborative. A pack? A flock? A herd? Sure, some probably keep secrets, and others have more in-depth knowledge than the rest of us need. But for the most part, word—about the time of the next press briefing, the president’s motorcade, the location of the food truck—gets around the Press Center quickly. Maybe journalists are generous folk who realize the person at the next desk is underpaid too. Maybe the old pros recognize that there are first-timers who need a little orientation, if only so as to not hold the whole group back. Or maybe the press knows that secrets can’t be kept for long; once they file the story or post that tweet, they want to do a favor for the person at the next desk, in hopes that what goes around comes around.
Those who have been through this situation before have an ease about them, but they are still anxious not to miss anything. Anyone might hold a potentially interesting or important tidbit. Friendships don’t seem to grow at the Press Center, but camaraderie forms. Before one press briefing, we talked with the reporter from KOLD and the writer for Physics Today. The television news guy had never been to KSC before. The science writer had been holed up in the Press Center on nine (yes, 9!) previous occasions without ever seeing the space shuttle get off the ground.
When the scrub was announced, we all felt a little buzz—the scrub was a news story to get out—and a lot of disappointment. We hadn’t planned to leave for a few days, but the rest of the press had to decide whether to stay until Monday or go. In the first moments, most resigned themselves to leaving and started making escape plans for that afternoon. But within a couple of hours, many convinced themselves and their editors of staying. They wandered in and out all weekend, until Sunday’s press briefing (where we asked questions!) announced a longer and indefinite delay. The next day, the Press Center was almost empty.
We wonder how many of the same journalists will return for Endeavour’s launch, now scheduled for Monday. The media credentials—the mission badge—are good for STS-134, no matter when it launches. Thomas Jefferson touted the importance of the press for democracy and for individual improvement. But we’ve heard nothing about Representative Gabrielle Giffords attending for the second attempt, so that will likely limit the wider appeal of the story and editors’ willingness to pay for airfare, lodging, and a rental car. Weather at Cape Canaveral on Monday doesn’t look fantastic, with isolated thunderstorms predicted, and one never knows what else could delay the launch again. Some press will be there, of course, but many more news organizations will hold out for the last launch, which is scheduled for this summer. The date for that one is up in the air because of Endeavour’s delays. It’s really difficult to predict when news will happen, and that’s why we’re packing our bags.
A Launch to Remember (Part 9) May 3, 2011
Posted by Lofty Ambitions in Information, Space Exploration.Tags: A Launch to Remember, Space Shuttle
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Doug and STS-133 Astronaut Michael Barratt
While we’ll likely have another post or two in this “A Launch to Remember” series when Endeavour actually launches, we leave Florida today to head home to Southern California. Besides, the NASA shuttle management team met yesterday and decided that May 10 is now the earliest possible launch date. The latest news from Kennedy Space Center: “The date [May 10] is success oriented based on preliminary schedules to replace a faulty Load Control Assembly (LCA) box in the orbiter’s aft compartment.” That means that the swap-out of the LCA box must go smoothly, they must prove that the problem is in the old box, and they must not discover a problem elsewhere as they test the nine systems to which the new box will be connected. To launch on May 10, everything must go exactly right.
STS-134 Crew Patch
This morning, we have an interview scheduled with Stephanie Stilson, the NASA manager who is overseeing the process from each shuttle’s last landing to their transportation to the museums where they will go on permanent display. We’re working several angles of the larger space shuttle story, and we’re thinking about what that might bring to Lofty Ambitions.
After today, though, we’ll take a break from our series. In fact, tomorrow’s regular post will be about radioactivity and the ways we think about risk. In the meantime, here is an overview of what we’ve covered in “A Launch to Remember.” Just CLICK on the PART to read that post.
PART 1 (April 22): Lofty Ambitions is awarded media credentials thanks to Chapman Magazine and Knox Magazine.
PART 2 (April 25): Lofty Ambitions examines the space shuttle tile that the Leatherby Libraries archives recently acquired; Doug is overseeing the acquisition of NASA artifacts there.
PART 3 (Thursday night & Friday morning): We arrive at the Space Coast, discover some things have changed in Titusville, try to adjust to the time difference, and wake at 5a.m.
PART 4 (Friday morning): At this point, launch is a go for the afternoon, the external tank is being filled with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, and we’re pretty excited.
PART 5 (Friday afternoon): Lofty Ambitions focuses on the STS-134 crew, particularly Commander Mark Kelly (also see posts HERE and HERE) and Mission Specialist Mike Fincke, a new favorite of ours.
PART 6 (Friday afternoon): In person from just yards away, we see the astronaut crew in their orange launch suits as they head to the Pad 39A. After the launch is scrubbed, we catch a glimpse of the president’s motorcade; he says if the launch is Monday, he can’t return for it because he has plans (we now know what those plans were).
PART 7 (Sunday morning): Lofty Ambitions features the creatures of the space coast, including an alligator.
PART 8 (Sunday afternoon): We each ask questions at the Launch Status Briefing on NASA-TV, find out exactly what’s holding up the launch, and that it’ll take time to fix.
PART 9 (Tuesday morning): On Monday, Lofty Ambitions featured guest blogger Bill Taber, who also wrote about space exploration. Part 9 is the post you are reading.
For our earlier series “Countdown to the Cape,” about our trip to see Discovery‘s not-launch, see posts from October 27, 2010, through November 7, 2010.
A Launch to Remember (Part 8) May 1, 2011
Posted by Lofty Ambitions in Space Exploration.Tags: A Launch to Remember, Space Shuttle
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Sunday at 3:15p.m.: Good news: we each asked a question at the press briefing, which you can see in repeats on NASA-TV today! Anna asked about how they make some of the determinations to send the astronaut crew home. Doug asked a technical question about the load control box, which is being replaced in hopes of fixing the problem that’s delayed the launch. In fact, Doug’s question and the official answer leads us to think that maybe the box is the source of the problem, but maybe something upstream in the electronics caused the short in what is essentially like a circuit sub-panel you’d have in your garage or laundry room.
Endeavour Launch! But not STS-134!
That leads us to the bad news: the earliest possible launch date is May 8, and that seems incredibly optimistic, even though Launch Integration Manager Mike Moses called it a “typical electronics failure.” Tomorrow, engineers will remove the problematic box, which will be examined to prove that the failure occurred there. While that forensics work is being done, a new load control box will be inserted in the aft avionics bay of the space shuttle. Engineers will guide the 40- to 50-pound box into place using guide rails. Once in place, all nine systems connected to the box must be tested upstream. In other words, it would be like replacing that sub-panel in your garage, then turning on each light bulb and the washer and the dryer in order to ensure the whole system is working properly and that each individual component is receiving adequate power. That testing takes a full two days, and as Doug’s question implied, that testing could lead them to discover that the electrical problem lies upstream in one of the nine systems, perhaps some debris or a bad solder on a line or something else.
Orbiter Avionics Bays, with Aft Load Control Assembly noted
As the team on Launch Pad 39A makes progress over the next day or two, the launch management team will look at the mission schedule to determine the next reasonable launch date. For instance, a May 9 launch with the extra days they want to add to the mission, for a total of 16 days in orbit, would put Endeavour‘s undocking from the International Space Station (ISS) on the same day as the scheduled Soyuz undocking. Those two events must be decoupled because ISS, shuttle, and Soyuz crew workloads and sleep shifts are adjusted for different tasks, such as launch, undocking, and landing. Undocking on the same day would require two crews working different schedules, when even astronauts are human and, therefore, need some rest.
And of course, if the delay gets extended past a certain point, Endeavour’s launch could push Atlantis‘s launch further into the summer. The exact time needed between launches depends not just on getting Endeavour off the pad to make room the next shuttle, but also on preparing the pad for the last space shuttle launch, which depends upon how much damage is done during Endeavour’s launch. The hard-working folks at KSC can’t start cleaning up after Endeavour until she actually leaves the Earth, and we just don’t know when that will be. Despite the optimism of Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach that May 8 is possible, we just can’t imagine that any time before May 10 is realistic. We should all know more tomorrow or Tuesday.
A Launch to Remember (Part 7) May 1, 2011
Posted by Lofty Ambitions in Science, Space Exploration.Tags: A Launch to Remember, Biology, Space Shuttle
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Sunday Morning: We headed to the Press Center at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) this morning to see what’s what. No press briefing has been scheduled, but we’re expecting one after the launch team makes a determination. The buzz around KSC is that the launch will be no earlier than May 8 or maybe May 10. The simple thermostat swap-out, for which we were hoping, isn’t the planned fix; it’s a much bigger problem.
In the meantime, we’ve kept ourselves busy, and Lofty Ambitions isn’t just about the space shuttle. KSC, in addition to being an active launch facility for both NASA and the Air Force, is a wildlife refuge. Alligators are protected here, and the area hosts 350 species of birds. As native Midwesterners, we’re used to seeing squirrels and bunnies, not reptiles and long-legged birds. Here are some photos of the creatures we’ve seen during our visit to the east coast of Florida.
Wild Boars at KSC
Bird in nest outside the KSC Press Center
Alligator at KSC, just swimming around with the tourists
Bird at KSC Visitor Complex
Turtle!
Another turtle!
Bird at the Saturn V rocket center
Yes, we were that close to an alligator!
Overview of a gator at KSC
Bird in flight over KSC
We’ll have another update later today. We’ll likely be heading home well before Endeavour launches. While that’s disappointing, this trip has been utterly worthwhile, and we have more to share than we’ve been able to keep up with. Stay tuned.
A Launch to Remember (Part 6) April 30, 2011
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STS-134 Crew Walkout
Saturday Afternoon: Yesterday was a very long day for us. You’d think that a scrub shortly after noon, shortly after the excitement of witnessing the crew walkout, would mean that we could kick back for the rest of the day. But whenever there’s a significant change in plans, the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Press Center schedules a briefing at some point. We wanted to stay for that. Besides, we were concerned about traffic. The driver of the bus back from the crew walkout to the Press Center said that he had a long shift ahead of him but that he didn’t mind because he imagined that it would take four or five hours for some of the people who were heading out right away to get home. Indeed, one photographer staying at a hotel about a dozen miles away from the Press Center spent about 90 minutes getting back to his room, and he waited until after 4p.m.
Presidential Motorcade
Yesterday’s press briefing was delayed a bit, so that it could focus on two things: the political, or President Obama’s visit to KSC and Representative Giffords’s plans, and the procedural, or what it will take to get Endeavour ready to fly. While we were happy to see the president’s helicopter land behind the Vehicle Assembly Building across the street from the Press Center and then see his motorcade drive by, that wasn’t really our bailiwick for our blog. The procedural boils down to repairing a malfunctioning heater in the orbiter’s left APU, or Auxiliary Power Unit.
As we listened to Launch Integration Manager Mike Moses and Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach, we understood that the problem was either a faulty thermostat, which could be relatively easily switched out, or the larger line of heaters on string B that wraps around a hydraulic fuel line. Had they discovered this problem once in orbit, they would have burned off that system and gone on their way, but the concern about flying with this known problem is the possibility of a frozen line, the possibility that a frozen line would thaw at some point after pressure had built up, and the possibility that a thawed line could catch fire during reentry. This problem meant they were in violation of launch criteria and the decision to scrub was “straightforward” according to both Moses and Leinbach.
The Obamas at KSC
We hope that a faulty thermostat is the problem. Leinbach pointed out that changing out the larger system, the box that houses various parts, would take an additional two days of retesting after the fix itself is completed. That would make a Monday or Tuesday launch an impossibility, and then KSC runs into a conflict with the Air Force, which is launching an Atlas rocket this week. If they must delay, they also have to look at the whole mission schedule so that undocking from the International Space Station in preparation to return to Earth doesn’t fall on the same day as the scheduled Soyuz undocking. It’s a complicated syncing up.
George Diller, Bob Cabana, Mike Moses, Mike Leinbach
We’re now in the Press Center, where we just received the inside scoop that workers have entered the aft section of the shuttle, where the heater is located. It took them a full day to get into the shuttle to take a look because, once the external tank is full of fuel, it takes 24 hours to drain it and let the remaining hydrogen evaporate. In addition, they had to roll the Rotating Service Structure back into position to provide access to the shuttle. We’re hoping that another update is available on the KSC website at about 4:30p.m., or shortly after the Press Center closes for the day. In the meantime, we’re heading to the KSC Visitor’s Complex for further research.
A Launch to Remember (Part 5) April 29, 2011
Posted by Lofty Ambitions in Space Exploration.Tags: A Launch to Remember, Serendipity, Space Shuttle
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Friday at 1:30p.m.: We went to the STS-134 crew walkout! Woohoo, we saw all the astronauts in their orange launch suits!
We have lots to say about the crew, even though, as we rode the bus back to the Press Center, we heard news that the launch was scrubbed until at least Monday. We are unfortunately familiar with this news, as a result of our experience last November. As you might expect, this news isn’t slowing us down. We have a few one-on-one interviews scheduled, and we want to share some info about the six-man crew of STS-134.
Mark Kelly
STS-134 is all men this time. Mark Kelly, the husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, is the mission’s commander. We’ve written about him before HERE and HERE. He’s flown three previous shuttle missions—two on Discovery and one on Endeavour—and logged 38 days in space.
Greg Johnson is the pilot for STS-134 and was the pilot on a mission in 2008. Andrew Fuestal is one of the mission specialists, was on the shuttle’s last servicing mission to the Hubble telescope, and will be doing several EVAs, or extravehicular activity spacewalks. Greg Chamitoff is another mission specialist and previously served on the International Space Station (ISS). Roberto Vittori is the Italian on board this mission and has flown to the ISS twice before.
Greg Johnson
Our favorite astronaut on this mission, though, is Mike Fincke. His early education and career did not foretell great success. In an interview that aired on NASA-TV, Fincke admitted that his grades were not always stellar, and he’d known a C or two along the way. Even worse, he washed out of pilot training. Even worse than that, the day he washed out of pilot training was his birthday.
He attributes his ultimate success as an astronaut, in part, to five years of studying Latin. He said that made learning Russian much easier, and learning Russian allowed him to travel to the ISS and also become qualified to fly as a left-seat flight engineer on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. And he speaks Japanese fluently too.
Mike Fincke
Fincke’s enthusiasm is obvious and often punctuated with a grin that exudes childlike glee. This guy never gave up. When he washed out of flight training, someone suggested he think about engineering, so he gave that a whirl. He was ambitious, but more than that, he’s not easily daunted.
What’s especially interesting is that, upon completion of STS-134, Mike Fincke will hold the American record for number of days in space, as a result of his two stints on the ISS. He shrugs at the milestone, pointing out that Russians have well surpassed the hours in space he’s logged. The interesting part of his American record, though, is that Fincke has never before flown on the space shuttle and will be listed as the last-ever shuttle astronaut. While Roberto Vittori hasn’t flown a space shuttle mission yet either, their mission specialist designations place Mike Fincke behind Vittori, and all the STS-135 crew have flown shuttle missions before.
Roberto Vittori
That’s just the kind of who’d-have-thought serendipity story that Lofty Ambitions likes: the guy who washes out of flight school ends up holding the American record for time in space and gets listed as the last space shuttle astronaut ever.
A Launch to Remember (Part 4) April 29, 2011
Posted by Lofty Ambitions in Space Exploration.Tags: A Launch to Remember, Space Shuttle
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Friday 9:30a.m.: The KSC press rooms are buzzing now. The folks with the big cameras are busy setting up. Reuters and CBS are the only news organizations with permanent structures, so they have rooftop viewing posts. We’re sitting next to the reporter from the Miami Herald.
For those of you who know Anna personally, you can imagine her panic when she discovered that the beverage vending machine was sold out. Luckily, the snack truck arrived at 8am with cans of Diet Coke. Rest assured that Lofty Ambitions has recaffeinated and will schedule another break at the appropriate time.
STS-134 Crew
We’re unlikely to be able to see the astronaut walkout. The Press Center posted the sign-up sheet yesterday morning, and the 150 spaces filled up quickly. We’re on a standby list, but there are about a dozen people ahead of us and even more behind. The press officer who manages the launch events for us said that, in his memory, they’ve never taken 150 members of the press out to see the astronauts wave on the short walk from the suit-up room to the van that takes them to the launch pad. Another reporter just said that he’s on the list to go to the walkout, but he can’t imagine that they’ll be able to fit 150 people in the space for the press there, and it’s a lot of effort for a few seconds of waving. Still, since we haven’t seen astronauts in launch suits up close and personal, it seems pretty appealing to us.
We’re also unlikely to have coffee with the president, but we’ll see what happens. The KSC Press Center doesn’t know anything about the president’s schedule. We imagine that the White House coordinates their own press corps traveling with President Obama. He has a busy schedule today, with a stop in Tuscaloosa to survey storm damage and speak with residents there as well as his stop here for this afternoon’s launch.
STS-134 Patch
We’re having a great time despite these possible missed opportunities. We picked up the official photos of the STS-134 crew (we’ll have more on the crew later), Endeavour on the launch pad, and Discovery landing. We also picked up a couple of stickers of the STS-134 official patch.
The weather is looking to be relatively good for launch. There’s a 30% chance that clouds or wind could be a problem, but the talk is positive. If you judged by the way the sky has looked these past three hours, though, you’d have trouble believing the optimism.
The countdown clock just hit the three-hour mark, which signals a built-in hold. There are seven planned clock-stops in this launch countdown.
A Launch to Remember (Part 3) April 29, 2011
Posted by Lofty Ambitions in Space Exploration.Tags: A Launch to Remember, Space Shuttle
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Thursday at 9:20p.m.: Already, this launch feels markedly different than our visit last November for what has become known around Lofty Ambitions as the not-launch. Getting off the plane this time brought with it waves of that famous Florida humidity. Last fall, the Space Coast was actually a bit chillier than our adopted Southern California home. The differences kept piling up.
Last fall, the drive across the parkway was dark and solitary. This time, we faced a nonstop display of lightning illuminating hundreds of cars sharing the road with us. The car rental agent quipped that he’d checked in a party of thirty Brazilians the day before, all here to see the launch.
As we pulled into our familiar Titusville Super 8, we were stunned to find that the mom-n-pop Italian restaurant, Jimmy and Cora’s II, where we had eaten every dinner during our last trip, was gone, replaced by the Garden Club. While Anna checked in, Doug grabbed a table at the restaurant. It still served Yeungling on tap.
We would have posted this after dinner, but we were tired, and the hotel wireless connection wasn’t cooperating, perhaps because of the rough weather. Some things feel the same, but we’re hoping for a different outcome.
Friday 7:15a.m.: We woke at 5am. That’s 2am in our reeling California minds. The news reported that the countdown was running smoothly.
As we headed to the accreditation office for our media badges, we saw pockets along the coast filled with RVs, cars, and tents. The news reported that 750,000 people are expected to view the launch in person here. They recommended that people driving in from Orlando (a 25-minute drive for us last night) leave by 8am to arrive in time for the 3:47pm launch. Who knows when we’ll be able to get back to the motel, if the launch goes off as planned?
Meanwhile, we secured a shared spot in the Annex at the KSC Press Center, and we’re parked in an extra lot. The main building’s desk spots are full, and the Annex is nearly so, though reporters are only now trickling in. We’re on a standby list for the astronaut walkout, the seats on the bus having been filled yesterday. We have a few one-on-one interviews set for this afternoon.
Check back again soon–we’ll post updates on our launch to remember! And if you missed our warmup posts in this series, here’s PART 1 and PART 2.
