Before the Scrub...

Since I began working at KSC I have slowly come up with a mental list of things I want to do at some point during my time there. Some have been pretty easy to cross off even if I didn't expect them to be. Others I'm fairly sure won't ever happen, but I still hope.

The first launch I saw from KSC was at night. I was still a college student, and I remember looking over the river as we drove and being able to see the launch pad lit up from miles away. When we got to our viewing site it was the only thing I had eyes for; everything else disappeared.

Considering that first experience, it's probably no surprise that taking pictures of the shuttle on the pad under the bright xenon lights made it onto my "To Do at KSC" list. This has not been as easy to cross off as I would have thought. Timing becomes very important.

Wednesday night RSS rollback was at 8pm for Thursday's launch attempt. This is when the Rotating Service Structure is moved out of the way and no longer covers the orbiter. It gives me a window of a couple hours to take pictures while I still have access to the pad, and being after sundown meant the shuttle would be lit up during that window. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

When I drove back to work that night I couldn't see the bright glow I remembered from my first launch. I stopped at my building and climbed the stairs on the outside to look in the direction of the pad and make sure it was worth driving the extra 7 or so miles to get there.

Yes, under those lights you really can see it from that far away. This picture was taken from roof level of the O&C with a good zoom lens. Atlantis is all you can see.

I'm sure I was glowing as bright as the shuttle when the security guard waved me through the badge checkpoint. I had finally made it

I went inside the fence as close as they would let me go and walked around the perimeter road to get a side view. I saw the crew guests taking pictures from where their busses had stopped to let them out. The skies were clear, but most of the stars were invisble in the brilliant lights pointed at the shuttle. Aside from the occaisional announcement over the area warning system it was quiet. It is a moment I think I will always remember.




Thanks for this set of pictures go to Haden in Security. Somebody reported the random person walking down the road taking pictures (me) and he was kind enough not to write me up or delete everything on my camera after telling me to go back. There's also a good lesson here: When asking permission for something, make sure you're actually getting it from the right people.

A Few Minutes on the Outside

A majority of the posts I have written over the past year have been focused on looking at what KSC does from the inside. I would like to wander away from that for a couple minutes to talk about you - the people outside the gates.

As I mentioned in the last entry, I was not able to watch the launch of STS-120 from the space center. My flight for Houston departed at 2:00pm. There was no way I could watch from Kennedy and still make it to Orlando on time. If you have never visited for a launch you will have to trust me when I say that traffic leaving the Titusville/Cocoa Beach/Merritt Island/Port Canaveral area after liftoff is terrible. There are actually people at KSC who will take launch days off just to avoid it.

My plan was to arrive at the airport just before launch and watch from the roof of the parking garage before going inside to catch my flight. It wasn't what I wanted, but I had no other choice. The entire drive felt like a race. If I lost, I'd miss the launch completely. If I won, the prize was a few minutes standing alone on a hot roof wishing I was back at KSC. I wasn't very excited about either outcome.

It was close, but I won. Imagine my surprise when I reached the top level of the garage and discovered clusters of people scattered against the railings and standing outside cars with radios tuned into the launch commentary.


They didn’t clap and cheer at liftoff like the Kennedy crowd does, but their presence on the rooftops sent me a very clear message. You, the people outside the gates, still care about what we do. Despite our failures you will still press pause on your day to watch 7 people realize their dreams at 25,800 miles an hour. Or, as I discovered days later in Houston, you'll still wait in the cold just to watch the International Space Station pass overhead on a clear night. In a world as rushed as ours that's very encouraging to me. Knowing people care about the missions we've dedicated our lives to makes a big difference. Everybody I shared this story with during our day of lunar meetings smiled too.

I don't know who you were standing on the rooftops with me. I don't know if it was your first launch or just your most recent. But whoever and wherever you are, thank you. It is because of you that I will remember STS-120 as a launch that inspired me; not because I again enjoyed the privileges my badge grants me, but because I lived momentarily as if they had been taken away. It turns out that 50 miles west of the launch site is exactly where I needed to be.


God speed, Discovery.

Closing Up to Finish Launch Preps

Last Sunday Discovery was rolled out to Pad 39-A to do the final preparations for launch later this month. The target date for the next blast off is Tuesday, October 23rd, around 11:30am. I have to leave for Houston that day, so unfortunately this will be the first launch I will miss since I started working at the Cape almost 3.5 years ago. Is it wrong if I hope they have to delay it a week?

Anyway, I was very surprised when I got into work on Monday and found that they had not moved the Rotating Service Structure (RSS) into place over the orbiter yet. I immediately went to look for one of our new contractors, Phil, so I could get him out to the Pad before the move took place. That first glimpse you get of the shuttle from up close is truly awe-inspiring and I didn't want him to have to wait for the next process flow to see it. As we drove past the security check point I told him that showing my badge and having the guard say "Okay, go ahead" still hasn't gotten old.

I knew we were rushing the clock, I just didn't know how much. They already had the clears (areas you can't go into unless you're essential for the operation) set up. The move began just after I got a few shots of Phil with the vehicle behind him. The pictures for this entry will enlarge a bit bigger than usual if you click on them. They're not full size, but they're still pretty nice.

Here's Discovery looking like she's ready to leap into the sky without her crew.

This is where they drive the RSS from. It's a little car at the base of the structure.


I was surprised to see people riding the RSS as they moved it into place. I guess I've always been so focused on the vehicle that I never looked away to notice. That guy standing by the doors to the Payload Changeout Room (PCR) - aka the white thing in the upper center of the picture - must be very brave.

This one I really liked because of the people standing in the foreground. I think it gives a great overview of the whole operation and some terrific perspective on the size of the "toys" we play with at KSC. I was closer to the people than the vehicle and they are still dwarfed.

I also took Phil over to the VAB at the end of the week. They're busy stacking boosters for the STS-122 mission that will launch in early December. It was nice to walk around a bit and remember what the rest of the space center is doing while I'm off on travel, which I am doing a lot of lately. Most importantly, I love sharing this stuff with people who have never seen it before. The grin on Phil's face was priceless. I would still bring everybody in to wander with me if I could.

Pictures from the Desert

As the title suggests, I'm going to keep the words at a minimum this time around. The trip to Arizona to drop in on the Desert RATS 2007 activities was cool; they are working on some awesome stuff for us to use when we go back to the moon. Everybody on the team was wonderful, the scenery was beautiful, and they even let me drive one of the moon cars. It was also a great place to break in my new camera a little more. Myca spent the day in the safety of the tent. Unfortunately I did not have a good chance for a photo op with her, but she enjoyed the trip as well. These are the kinds of things we got to see:
















There were a number of photographers out there during our visit. NASA TV and the NASA Digital Learning Network both had tents set up, and later in the afternoon the team was paid a visit by the guys with NASA Edge. So, it was busy around the test site, but it was fun. We also went out for a look at where they did similar testing for the Apollo program. There may not be trees or blue skies, but outings like this are what will make sure our next visit to the Moon is successful. My role may be small, but I am privileged to have it.

Leaving for the Desert

Tomorrow morning I will be visiting the Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS) field activity taking place in Cinder Lake, Arizona. This NASA team goes into the desert for two weeks every September to test robots, space suits, communication technologies and other equipment somewhere that's more like space. Our visit is on media day this year, so there will be some neat tests going on for the reporters that come out to visit.

The Desert RATS team is also doing a webcast tomorrow on the NASA Digital Learning Network for students across the country. I won't be on camera since I'm just there to watch too, but if you can tune in definitely check it out.

Here are some pictures from when I got to visit in 2005. The dirt everywhere is orange because we were pretending to be on Mars that year. It's the closest I think I'll ever get to that planet.


I am very excited to see the things this group is working on for our return to the Moon and to spend a day bouncing around in the grey dirt with them. It's going to be awesome!

About the Silence

It has been almost two months since my last post and, as is to be expected, I have been asked if I am going to keep this site up. The short answer is that I would like to.

Adding content has not been far from my mind, it just became lower priority when compared with work, final exams and term papers. A few failed attempts at getting new pictures also did not help. I borrowed our division camera for the last launch and the shots came out terrible. I missed landing because of meetings. I tried to take Myca out to the boat dock and it was closed off. Fortunately it has been summer vacation, so the break was probably well timed.

Another challenge is that Myca has seen many of the major things on center. There are a few other places I can think of that might be cool to take her, but eventually I will run out of them. The question then becomes whether I stop updating the site entirely or do something different with it.

I have very few pictures from Houston because my visit to JSC was so short. I considered posting a couple even though Myca was not in them. I will also be spending a day in Arizona with the Desert RATS next month and I hope to bring her for a photo opportunity there.

My question to those of you visiting the site is this: what do you want to see? A major driver for this page was to share, and it helps to share what others are interested in.

That said, I am going to end this post with a picture I took in the parking lot of the O&C when I left work tonight. The moon is almost full and the overall effect after a few camera tweaks is pretty cool. I love the feel of Kennedy Space Center at night. I think this is the first picture I've taken that even comes close to capturing it.


I will be back with some sort of update in about a week. Take care until then.

Back From Mars

Well, not quite, but we are home from our trip to California to visit NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena.

JPL is best known for the robotic missions it sends to explore other planets. The Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which have been in the news many times since they landed in 2004, belong to them. The first thing I noticed when we got to the center was how different it is from ours. Kennedy is flat and very spread out across a swamp. JPL is packed together on the side of a mountain and you can walk everywhere.

I think that's why they have nicer animals running around than we do. I'll take deer over alligators any day.

I was sent to JPL to meet people I am working with on some projects for Constellation. I mentioned one of them in my first post. The other project is a computer program that will let us test our missions to the moon before we actually go there. It's very cool stuff, but I was happy we didn't spend our whole visit in a computer room. The JPL guys were nice enough to walk us around so we could see some of the other neat things there.

So what's cool to see at JPL? Well, this guy here is an exact copy of the Mars Rovers. Before they send any new code to Spirit and Opportunity they test it out on him. I forgot to ask if he has a name.

They also took us to their Spacecraft Assembly Facililty (SAF). This is where they build the robots they're going to send into space. There wasn't much inside when we walked through because they're just starting a new spacecraft. We were told the pieces there now are for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL).

There are a few labs we visited that had robots in them as well. I got to drive one, and to see some of the early versions of the Mars rovers. Too bad we stopped there when I didn't have my camera with me.

Last stop was the Mars Yard. This is an area covered in red dirt and rocks of all sizes to simulate Mars. They drive rovers around in here to test how they will work after they land.


It's also the one place I went back to for that special picture when I had some free time. Myca has now been on Mars. :)

The trip to JPL went very quickly. The shuttle was supposed to come back from California the same day we did, but we got here first. I wasn't at work early enough to see it land, but I did drive past the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) on my way home. It was a last minute thing and I don't usually bring Myca home with me, so she was back in the office when I snapped this picture of Atlantis and the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) in the Mate/Demate Device (MDD). It was pretty impressive to see like that.

Thanks this week go to Mike for sending me to a very cool new place, and to Hari and Steve for showing me around when I got there. Unfortunately there may not be an update next week because I'm being sent to Houston for a big meeting. It's going to be a busy month...

We Were So Close...

After Atlantis launched the signs around KSC changed. The ones out on Thursday and Friday this week were just as exciting as the ones on June 8th.


I had won the drawing for one of my group's seats on the bus so I could go out to the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) and watch Atlantis come home after a successful mission. Myca and I were all set to go.


Unfortunately, as you can see from the picture below, the weather was not on our side. It was taken on the NASA causeway looking toward the Vehichle Assembly Building (VAB). The SLF would be behind the VAB, a bit further north and slightly west. They don't like that many clouds around when they need to bring an Orbiter home.


They ended up deciding that the weather was better at the other landing site in California. The change in location meant Myca and I had to watch the landing the same way as everybody else at Kennedy: on TV.


So, since I don't have any cool "Atlantis is Home" pictures, here are a few from the Atlas V launch last week.



Thanks this week go to David for letting me borrow his bus pass for my picture. I was going to get mine from HQ before boarding the bus and since landing got moved I never made it. Thanks also go to IT-C for use of their camera and vehicle for the Atlas Launch, and to Bill and Wyck for putting up with my childish excitement as the rocket went up.

Next week I am being sent out to JPL, so there will probably not be an update. If I get any cool pictures while I'm in California I might be able to share, I just can't promise Myca will be making an appearance. We'll see. Take care until next time.