Actually, it should be a really early morning launch of Endeavour at 2:28am or some God-awful time like that. I am off to bed but I have my alarm set to get up and watch the launch. Fingers crossed.

This morning at work I had to go get something done in the OPF (Orbiter Processing Facility) area, and I arrived just in time to be stuck on the other side of the clear that was established for the roll over of Endeavour to the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) for stacking. Since I was stuck waiting, I took some video and photos with my phone to share with you.

Here is Andy's video from today's launch- you can see my big head in the way in the first part of it.

Here are some photos I took:

It has been a busy but fairly non-eventful week so far. Well, I say that, but we did get to experience the twin sonic booms of the shuttle returning home today and watch it glide in overhead, so that was a bit of an event. On my way home from work today I passed the astronaut's Airstream vehicle carrying them from the Shuttle Landing Facility back to the astronaut quarters.

Anyway, today is my little Louie's birthday. Lou is the little black dog that is the first pet that Andy and I ever aquired together (I had three dogs already when we met). He was my wedding/Christmas present in 2001, and is our special little spoiled baby, He has never spent a night away from us since we got him at about six and a half weeks old.

Happy Birthday, Lou!

I am posting these photos because I really have to get some homework done tonight. I took my first quiz in my Legal Aspects of Safety and Health class and I got another 100%. I love how you can fill out your test/quiz and hit submit and get your grade instantly. At least it works that way for multiple choice, when you have essay questions you have to wait for the professor to grade them, but it is nice to get some of your scores instantly.

Today at 11:38 am Discovery lifted off on its way to the International Space Station. I have seen quite a few launches now, the last seven plus years worth, but they are always special. I can't see a launch ever seeming routine.

There is always excitement in the air on launch days. Even those workers that have spent their entire careers in the various space programs get excited about launches. You won't find anyone inside during a launch except those who have to be, for the most part.

I remember when I first started working at the space center, there was a guy in my shop who didn't care in the least about launches. He couldn't even be bothered to go outside or even stand in a doorway to watch. He said he'd seen launches and didn't need to see another one. That is sad. But he is the only person with that attitude that I have ever encountered out there and he's a little wacked in the head. Personally I think that a person like that shouldn't be permitted to work on the space program, because there are so many people out there who would jump at the chance and really appreciate it.

I have included Andy's video of the launch. It isn't perfect, but it is better than my video, which was really sucky. The durned thing is just so bright it overwhelms the equipment and makes those white lines on the screen. My video did the same thing, and it would probably have made you dizzy because I shook the camera so much.

I can't believe this is the same place I woke up in this morning. The nasty rainy weather has completely moved out and it was beautiful this afternoon. That is one of the nice things about Florida- we don't generally get days on end of icky weather, it just comes in spurts. And hopefully the weather will stay fair, because we have a launch scheduled for tomorrow at 11:38 am Eastern time.

There are lots of interesting things about the upcoming launch of Discovery for STS-120. One of the most interesting to me is the roles that women fill in this mission. The Associated Press explains it like this:

It will be the first time in the 50-year history of spaceflight that two women are in charge of two spacecraft at the same time.

"I really haven't heard very much like that at all from the Russian perspective," Whitson said in an interview with The Associated Press last week. "Russian cosmonauts are very professional and having worked and trained with them for years before we get to this point, I think makes it better because then it doesn't seem unusual to them either."

In other mission news, those of you who are big fans of Star Wars will be excited to know that the original lightsaber used by Mark Hamill in Return of the Jedi will be flown to the International Space Station and then will return to earth in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars franchise. Whoopee.

Anyway, we are hoping for good weather tomorrow to see this bird off. I will post photos, video or whatever I get from work at the time if she goes.

Andy spent some time this week supporting the astronaut training at the launch pads on the slide wire baskets, which are an emergency escape mechanism for the astronauts to escape from the launch pad if something were to go wrong. He was captured on the edge of this NASA photo- that is him in the grey shirt and jeans- that appears on the NASA website here.

Andy had to work today- he had to be at work at three am, but that was actually a good thing, because he had been scheduled to go in to work at one am! And he is on day shift! I think a lot of people would think it is ungodly to have to be at work as early as six am, but truly that pales in comparison to having to come in at three am or even two or one. Yuck. It has been a while since I have had to be in at three, but poor Andy has to go in at two am twice in a row last week, and work 12 and a half hour shifts.

Anyway, he snapped these shots this morning as the shuttle stack left the Vehicle Assembly Building and headed toward the launch pad.

You may have seen it on the news; last night at approximately 6:36 pm was the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour. This was the first launch of Endeavour since 2002, and also was a bit historic as it caried Barbara Morgan, who was Christa McAuliffe's backup for the "Teacher in Space" program back in the eighties. Barbara actually came to the area I work in sometime last year with one of the other crewmembers from this mission and talked to a few of us for a bit. She's got a very interesting history with thhe astronaut program.

You may remember this post from January where I wrote about an OMS pod we had just finished working on. Last night's launch carried that pod into space for the first time in over five years. Normally it doesn't take so long after we finish working on one for it to go up. but this launch was much delayed due to hail damage to the external tank early this spring, so it sat around for some extra time.

I am just happy that it was a safe launch. It is hard not to hold your breath and worry as space travel is still inherently very risky. We were at dog training class during the event, but everyone stepped outside to see Endeavour off. I hope thhat I can always appreciate watching such a thing. Even in this county where there are regular rocket launches, I feel lucky to get to see a little bit of history each time. I can really watch with a sense of pride now as I have put so much into the processing of this orbiter. Let us hope for a safe, successful mission all around.

These are a couple of photos of the Orbital Manuevering System Pod my co-workers and I have been working on for the last few months and that we delivered today for installation on Discovery, or OV-103, for STS-120. Yay! Thank God it is finally done! More blogging to come on an evening when I haven't been up since 2:30 am as I have today.

I was kicking myself today for not planning ahead. I was sitting at my desk this morning amd I heard a noise that sounded like a very large airplane was about to land on top of the building I was in. We are in a restricted airspace, so we don't get casual air traffic overhead, but sometimes the ENORMOUS Russian planes that transport payloads go by and are neat to watch. It sounded like one of them so I stepped out of the side door and looked up to see Atlantis piggybacked on top of a Boeing 747 pass directly overhead at a low altitude while coming in for a landing at the Shuttle Landing Facility.

Strangely I had never seen this before, and it was certainly very neat, but I wish I knew beforeheand what time it was coming so I could have taken a picture. Oh well. This is a NASA photo, not mine, but shows what it looks like:

Well we did it, and for the first time in a while I wasn't right there in the midst of the action. Since Andy is on first shift now, and didn't have to be there to support the launch, and there is massive traffic like you wouldn't believe today for the launch-it has been backed up for hours- we just watched from the backyard. Our backyard is about twenty miles farther away than the spot where I usually watch and take photos from, so all I have to offer is this one small, sucky picture, but it is at least genuine. You can always look back at my "space stuff" category archives if you want to see decent launch photos.

So hooray for a safe launch and happy Friday everyone!

I haven't even mentioned the fact that we are scheduled to launch Atlantis here in a few minutes, weather and such permitting. Will be back with the lowdown.

You have probably heard about it already as it has been all over the news, but there has been a shooting at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Apparently it all ended up as a murder-suicide. I can't believe that such a thing could happen in the NASA family. Okay, actually I can , but it is still shocking. With recent events such as this and the astronaut scandal with Lisa Nowak I think it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that it just doesn't matter how much security you have or how many psychological screening tests a person has passed, we are still human, and very unpredictable. It is impossible to predict what people may do when they are under stress.

It makes you think, what could possibly drive someone to that breaking point? And how exactly do we plan to avoid it in the future? I can forsee a lot more of a pain in the ass in the mornings going to work in order to gain access to to Kennedy Space Center. Because after this event I am sure that the response will be very reactionary until life settles back down a bit.

I love the way these two things look together- a 1933 Chevy and an OMS Pod from Space Shuttle Endeavour. And it is not so much a juxtaposition of old and new, as the shuttle represents the best of say, 1970s technology, but I still think they look neat together. The car belongs to one of my friends at work who lovingly restored it herself. Pretty amazing, isn't it?

I feel compelled to mention it, since it was all over the news today. In case you didn't hear about the female astronaut that was charged with attempted murder, the bizarre story can be found here.

I can't even imagine what must have been going through her mind to throw away her whole career like that, if the story is correct. This morning I saw a couple of inspectors that work over in the area that suits the astronauts up before flight. They had worked with Lisa Nowak and knew her a little. They were shocked and could not believe she had done such a thing. I guess you never really can tell what people are going to do, psychological profiles not withstanding. I do imagine that the NASA public relations department is dealing with some major damage control right now, though.

Today we got an FRCS, which is a space shuttle's Forward Reaction Control System. You might recognize it, it fits on the orbiter just below the "windshield" or the windows where the commander and pilot look out, right across the nose of the ship. This particular one belongs to Discovery, which just returned to earth from space in December. We have a little bit of work to do on it to get it ready for its next mission, so we transported it to our facility today. Lifting the FRCS into the building and onto the stanchions it rests on is a big ordeal, a hazardous operation due to propellants on board. Here are some photos I took just before the lifting operations began showing the convoy arriving at our building and the FRCS on the trailer.

Today at work we finished nearly a year's worth of work on one of Space Shuttle Endeavour's OMS pods. OMS stands for Orbital Maneuvering System, and the OMS pods are the two large "bumps" on the orbiter towards the aft on either side of the tail. They house the thrusters and associated systems that allow the orbiter to manuever in space. Here are some photos of the pod on the trailer getting ready to join the convoy to the Orbiter Processing Facility after we spent this morning completing preoperations and then finally lowering it down onto the trailer with a pendant crane.

I just got back from watching the launch. I wasn't sure if I was going to go to the space center or just watch it from the backyard, but Andy reminded me that I had never seen a night launch up close and said that I should really see it. He was out there at work supporting the launch and he forgot to bring his boots, so I brought those to him and used it as a good excuse to go see. I took some photos even though it was almost too bright for my camera to handle. It was like the sun came out in the middle of all that darkness. See for yourself.

I am headed out here in a few minutes to the space center to meet up with Andy who is working to support tonight's planned launch. This will be the first night launch in several years, so I have to go out to see it. Photos to follow if it goes- wish us luck!

Well, we have just scrubbed the shuttle launch for tonight due to weather, but it still remains to be seen what the scrub turnaround plan will be. I am hoping that they will make another attempt tomorrow even though the forecast is not looking that great right now. Stacey will be back from her cruise tomorrow, and I would love to be able to take a blog friend to a launch and share the experience. Pray for good weather tomorrow!

This morning I got up from my vanity where I was getting ready and stubbed the hell out of my toe. I think it might be broken- it looks pretty nasty. I have been suffering with a painful toe all day. Other than that i don't have too much for today; I am just biding my time until the Thanksgiving holiday. Hooray for a four day weekend!

Stop over at Andy's blog to see some interesting photos of him in a SCAPE suit, which is a sixty pound rubber suit that he sometimes has to wear at work, like last night when he was freezing his ass off in it until nearly four in the morning. They stayed so late last night that I got up to go to work before he was in bed. This is a glimpse of real space program operations, so please go by and pay Andy a visit.

Family Day used to be an annual event at the space center, but due to security concerns there hasn't been one in six years and they finally decided to revive the tradition. Yesterday was the day, and badged Kennedy Space center employees could bring a carload of family and/or friends to see some of what we see every day, and way more than can be seen on even the expensive paid tours that are offered by the Space Center Visitors Complex. Those tours only take people around the space center in buses to allow them to see the outside of the buildings; yesterday we got to actually bring our families inside to see the orbiter Endeavour and inside the firing rooms and the VAB and more. My mom and dad made the trip from Tallahassee to see the sights and Andy and I took them around. Here are some photos from the event:

So yesterday Space Shuttle Atlantis safely returned home to us at Kennedy Space Center early in the morning. I heard the double sonic boom of its arrival while on my way to work in the dark of morning. If you are not aware of what was accomplished on this mission you must watch this video. Massive solar arrays were attached to the International Space station and carefully unfurled and it is a pretty interesting sight to see. I am going to leave you this Friday evening with this to watch and see a bit of my world and what we work towards all year. Enjoy!

So we finally launched STS-115 after much suspense. You may not realize that this is the first launch of Atlantis since 2002. It was in the Vehicle Assembly building being stacked for launch at the time of the Columbia accident, so afterwards it was destacked and went through a major modification down period. Yay Atlantis!

These photos were taken just outside the press site at the space center. It is the best place I have found to get a good view unless you are some kind of VIP, and I don't qualify; I just put the durned things together!

So after all the craziness that has gone on this "flow" as we call the preparation for a space shuttle mission, it looks like we actually have a decent shot at launching tomorrow, at 12:29. It will be really good to see another one launch, and get back to some sense of normalcy with regular missions again. The next mission after this one is scheduled for mid December, which is right around the corner.

I don't kow how much of it will be televised, but this mission should be a really interesting one. Several HUGE solar arrays are being delivered to the International Space Station where they will be carefully unfolded to their full glory. These will give the station much needed electrical power, and it is pretty impressive to see the way they managed to get the enormous panels to fold up so small. I saw it on TV actually. The Discovery channel, you know, they have all kinds of neat space related shows. It is weird sometimes when they air programs about space shuttle processing and I see a bunch of people on there that I know from work. Anyway, everyone please keep their firngers crossed or pray or whatever you do for a successful launch tomorrow and safe mission thereafter. Godspeed Atlantis!

Here is the little video of the launch yesterday that Andy took with the small digital camera we have. Notice how people cheer a little at the beginning and then are quiet until near the end which is when the solid rocket boosters separate. Memories of Challenger are the reason for that.

You probably already know, but we successfully launched Discovery today, on the fourth of July. It was a beautiful launch and I felt more pride and accomplishment with this one than ever before, knowing that the work I did with my own hands, such as wiring and welding, left the earth and traveled to space today. I will post more about this later along with a video Andy took, but I am going swimming now- it is freaking HOT here! In the meantime, here are some close-up photos I took out at the space center right next to the press site. The dark line you see in the sky in the last photo is the shadow of the plume of smoke- it is really cool looking.

If all goes well, today we will be launching the best Fourth of July display possible, Space Shuttle Discovery. Andy was out there almost all night last night preparing for the mission, and has to go back in a few hours to support the launch. The delays to launch mean working a lot of overtime for him. Where I work, all of our work is done well before the shuttle even makes it out to the launch pad, so there is no scrambling around for us. The photo above is one he took last night with all the lights on the vehicle. Keep your fingers crossed that it goes today, and if it does I will post photos.

Okay, so by now you must know that the space shuttle launch was scrubbed due to weather. Looks like "the big day" turned into "the big delay." The weather was actually good everywhere but right over our own Shuttle Landing Facility which would be needed in the event that the shuttle had to turn around and make an emergency landing. Rats. Anyway, on the brighter side of things the traffic was a breeze; I sailed right onto the center and found Andy at the Operations Support Building 2 or OSB 2. It is a new building with a huge observaton deck on top and the secret service people were crawling all over it because the vice president and his entourage were up there. Here are some photos:

Andy was actually there working, but I was able to hang out with him and his co-workers as they prepped to go back to the launch pad after the launch. Here's a photo of Andy checking out an ELSA (Emergency Life Support Apparatus) bottle.

So it is only a few hours away from the next scheduled launch of the space shuttle, weather permitting. Andy has to go out there to work as he is a part of a group called "red crew" which is there to deal with any issues that might arise after thye pad is closed out for launch.

I am probably going to drive out there to the center to watch. Normally if a launch occurs during a day or time when you are not scheduled to work, you are not supposed to go out there, but this time I think they realized that the people who make the launch happen should be able to go out and see it close up, even though it is on a Saturday. I am sure the traffic will be horrendous, so I will probably head out pretty soon. Andy has to leave for work in about an hour and he will call me on his cell phone to let me know what the traffic situation is looking like.

So far the weather is looking okay. Not great, but okay. It is pretty cloudy, but we may still be all right. We also have to be concerned with the weather at the contingency landing sites around the world as well. Zaragosa, Spain and Istres, France are two of the Trans-Atlantic Landing sites or TAL sites available in the event of an emergency. For more information about contingency landings and abort modes of the shuttle look at this website that gives an explanation.

Anyway, I am arming Andy with our small digital camera to take a video of thhe launch, and I will take the digital SLR with me to take some photos. More posting later, hopefully. Pray for a safe launch.

With the upcoming return to flight of the Space Shuttle, you would think I would have posted more about it. In fact, launch is scheduled for Saturday, so it is looming near. It looks like weather could be a factor, though, because we are back into our pattern of convective thunderstorms every afternoon, and the launch time is set at 3:49.

Anyway, I don't know why I haven't posted about it- it isn't because I haven't been thinking about it, but instead maybe because it is so much a part of my consciousness that I don't even think about mentioning it. Andy has to work Saturday to support the launch since he works at the pad, and I may go out there if it looks like it is really going to go. Please everyone pray for a successful launch so we can get back to the business of human spaceflight with some regularity.

You may have already seen my photos of yesterday's space shuttle rollout, but Andy took the good camera to work last night at the launch pad and got some more. Andy is the one on the right in the first picture.

Today was another milestone for us at work, as the space shuttle made it's way very very slowly from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad B (where Andy works). A couple of co-workers and I went up there to check it out this afternoon.

Here is the building that it rolled out of; you can see the opening where the stack came out, which is remarkably small compared to the massive building.

At work we are getting a lot closer to actually launching again. The orbiter was just mated to the external tank and solid rocket boosters a couple of days ago, and the whole stack is almost ready to roll out to the launch pad, which is where Andy works, so he will be working a lot of overtime coming up. He is back on second shift so I am here by myself at night, but at least there is someone home with the dogs most of the time. Here are some incredible photos of the stacking process, where the orbiter is mated to the rest of the stack. These are not photos that I took, but they were emailed to me. There is only a very minimum of people allowed in the Vehicle Assembly Building during the procedure, because in a worst case scenario a booster could light off and suck every bit of oxygen out of the building and kill everyone in a split second. It is quite a dangerous operation. I hope you enjoy the photos of a delicate operation that the public rarely gets to see.

Neat, huh?

Here are the tops of a couple of Solid Rocket Boosters sitting in the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building. That is all I have for today as I am exhausted from my project this week.

These are some pics I took today at the VAB. You can see the very tops of the solid rocket boosters in the middle two pictures, and the last one is the top of the External Tank, or ET as we call it. We were WAY higher up than it looks in the pictures. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

At work this week I am working on a special project. Actually it is a mundane piece of shit project that I don't really want to get into here, but I am working in a different area about five miles down the road from where I am normally. I am working in the VAB, or Vehicle Assembly Building. We sometimes call it the BAB, or Big Ass Building, because that is what is is. The building covers over seven acres of land and when it was completed in 1966, it was the largest such structure in the world. It is 525 feet tall with something like 52 stories. In the early days the elevators in the VAB were the fastest in the world, and now, even though they have been slowed down, they are still fast enough to make your heart leap up into your throat when going down, or your ears pop when going up. There are a couple of glass sided elevators and those are cool because you can see exactly how fast you are going. For many years it has been impossible to visit floors above 19 without a special key for thhe elevator, but where we (me and a couple of co-workers) are working is above that so we went up to the 34th floor (the highest we had access to) and when we got ready to ride the elevator down, we pushed the button and everyone jumped at the same time. You can be weightless for a few seconds, so it is kind of fun.

On the 34th floor, when you look down, you can just barely see the tops of one set of solid rocket boosters. I am fine looking down, but if I try to look up from there it makes me a bit dizzy. I will have to take my camera tomorrow and take some pictures so that you can see what I am writing about.

Well, the GlobalFlyer II finally took to the air this morning after seven am while we looked on, shivering. It was quite cold waiting out there for the take off, at least for us Floridians. Everything was announced over the loud speakers so we knew what was happening, like when the GlobalFlyer II's engines were started, and when the official from the FAA placed the seals on the hatch. It was all very exciting. We were positioned at the shuttle midfield landing site which is approximatley halfway down the landing strip. The GlobalFlyer screamed past us still on the ground and ate up so much runway before it took to the air that it was well past us. Still, it was very neat to be a part of this potentially historic event. Click on the picture to enlarge. My picture isn't the best, but it was all that my frozen little fingers could take at that point!

I should have known that any vehicle destined to launch or take off from Kennedy Space Center would be subject to delays, and the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer II was no exception. This morning before sunrise we were out at the Shuttle midfield viewing area poised and ready to watch the GlobalFlyer take off the 15,000 foot runway. Unfortunately, the take off was scrubbed due to unfavorable winds and a small fuel leak.

While we were out there in the dark waiting, my friend Julie and I tried to edge closer where we would be able to get a better view, and Julie grabbed my arm and said "There he is!" I was like "What, who?" and she said "I don't know- it's that guy I saw on Oprah!" It was Richard Branson, of Virgin Atlantic, and the TV show "The Rebel Billionaire," standing right in front of us. It was shortly thereafter that it was announced that the flight was scrubbed for the day, and we all left. The photo above is of all the cars leaving the site and a bunch of the news vans parked to cover the event.

According to the website, virginatlanticglobalflyer.com, the next attempt is scheduled for tomorrow morning between 6:41 and 7:06 am. Rest assured I will be there!

Working at the space center can have its advantages. I was lucky enough to score a pass to view the GlobalFlyer II takeoff, scheduled for tomorrow morning at first light. If you are not familiar with the GlobalFlyer II, it is an aircraft built to try to fly farther than any other aircraft ever has, non stop. From the website, virginatlanticglobalflyer.com:

..NASA's Kennedy Space Center will be the launch site for "The Ultimate Flight," which will see Steve Fossett pilot the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer aircraft in order to set the record for the longest flight of all time. Steve Fossett - aviation’s most prolific record breaker - will fly over 700 miles further than any aircraft or balloon has flown...

I am pretty excited to get go to the big event and will definitely be bringing my camera. Hopefully I will get a few good shots to post tomorrow.

Some interesting facts about the GlobalFlyer II:

• Steve Fossett, the pilot, is planning to fly the plane 26,084 miles in about 80 hours.
• Fully loaded, the Global Flyer II carries more than 18,000 pounds of fuel and the aircraft is 83% fuel by weight.
• The GlobalFlyer II is powered by a single slightly modified Citation Jet 2 engine (which I actually used to work on when I was an aircraft mechanic).
• The aircraft is equipped with two autopilots to allow the pilot some limited sleep periods and to take human error out of the planned route.

This afternoon I was invited to a meeting held by a representative of NASA's next program, the one to take over after the shuttles are all retired. He came around to let us know what is going on with the CEV (Crew Exploration Vehicle) Program and let us ask questions about what direction things are moving. We didn't get a lot of concrete facts about the new vehicle because as of yet, a lot of things have not been decided for sure. We were told that the workforce would be retained less those lost to attrition and that layoffs are not forseen. Apparently NASA learned from the mess after the Apollo Program ended and the entire county's economy was devastated due to the loss of jobs. Thousands of people left their homes in the middle of the night with the doors swinging wide open, abandoning them because they couldn't afford the payments. Most of the space program's best talent left the area to find jobs elsewhere. NASA does not want to see this happen again, so that is a good thing. Many of us will have to learn completely new skills, although some of the work will be very similar. It will be interesting to say the least.

Okay, so I went to work last night at eleven and didn't get home until about eight-thirty this morning, but I will be back on day shift tomorrow. You see, when you are one of only five people on the space center who can do a certain job, and they decide to work around the clock, you have to be flexible and work weird hours sometimes. It is tough, but it is kind of expected, so I do it. I had to go and work away from my normal work area, and instead reported to the Orbiter Processing Facility, Bay 1. We were doing thruster valve signature traces, but I don't want to bore you with that, so instead I will post a couple of photos I took from the area. In the first one you can see the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) nozzles, then there is a shot overlooking the open payload bay looking from the aft of the ship. The last is a shot inside one of the SSME nozzles. Click on the pictures for big.

Today at work I was part of a convoy to deliver a large piece of flight hardware to the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) where it will be put back on the orbiter. We took the Forward Reaction Control System to OPF Bay 1 where it will be installed on Atlantis. The piece we were transporting goes on the nose of the shuttle- you can probably sort of recognize it. Our convoy could not go faster than 15 miles per hour and we had police escorts so we got to back up traffic on the space center for miles. It was such a production, as always, and I took these pictures so you can see what it was like. We had one motorist violate our convoy and they were slapped with a $250 ticket. Ouch!