It may have become apparent that I am a crazy space nut, that I will
never turn down an opportunity for anything spacy, and that my wish list of
things to see in the space program is very long. As a matter of fact, in
early November 2008 I shared my "wish list" with a number of friends who
work in or around the space program. At the very top of the list was seeing
the
Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and the Mate-Demate Device in action, which statistically were to happen 0-2
times before the Shuttle program ends. It's also an item for which my friend
Peter called me crazy: "And you thought that the crawler was slow! This
would be like watching paint dry!"
Be it as it may, on November 30, at 13:25 Pacific time, Endeavour landed
in Edwards due to bad weather in Florida. As fate may have it I was with my
family in the park, with Rachel launching her air rockets, when my phone
rang and a friendly voice at the other end of the line flat out asked: "wanna
go to Florida?" and laughed.
The departure of Endeavour on top of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a
modified 747, was scheduled for Sunday, December 7. In order to hook up with
my escort at Kennedy I had to leave around the same time. So it came that
once again I abandoned my wife and this time two kids and sat on a redeye
flight to Orlando, on a full fare 50k mile ticket. I was definitely getting
my share for the ticket price - the plane was almost empty.
By the time I arrived in Orlando it was clear that I was in for another
typical NASA experience: I was here, but the SCA was still at Edwards. While
the weather was great, they could not fit the tail cone onto Endeavour.
Still in upbeat spirits I dragged my four bags (including "foot stool") to
the rental car place, where I was confronted by the friendly "pick any from
this row": featuring countless
Chevy HHRs, one Prius and one
Dodge Avenger.
Normally, given these choices I'd pick the Prius, but this time I was
traveling with north of $20k in camera gear and really didn't want to get a
hatchback, one that doesn't fit into the landscape at that. So I picked the
Avenger, factory fresh and even with Sirius radio. Instead of Cocoa Beach I
headed west to Sarasota to visit my friend Lee Hayes. On the way I quickly
learned what's wrong with the American car industry: this 2009 model car,
not truck but car, combines the handling of a Hummer, the inside space of a
Corolla with the outside dimensions of a tennis court; the gas mileage of my
S4 with the performance of a Yugo. It did have two redeeming qualities - the
aforementioned Sirius radio, particularly helpful in Florida; and the
"single tap for three blinker flashes" feature, that puts it almost in the
same league as its European counterparts. At the same time that I was on the
freeway in my Avenger, paying toll every quarter mile, Chrysler and GM and
Ford were begging for a bailout in DC. You have to be kidding; remember, I
spent a week in a Corolla earlier this year, and right now was yearning for
the Prius. To rub salt into the wounds, on my way I managed to see a
McLaren
SLR, all the way from California. I am sure that drive sucked.
I spent the day with Lee Hayes and Steven, and in the morning was back on
my way to the cape, where I was supposed to pick up my badge and meet with
Glen, my guide. On the way back I was entertaining myself with the accuracy
of a 3rd party speedometer application for the iPhone. It was showing quite
some absurd results, and I was almost willing to blame a bug on our end for
it, until the application showed actually negative speed. No matter what
idiotic results the iPhone API may be returning, going back in time is not a
viable result.
Click on the first image
to start a slide show for this day (21 pictures)
Images shown below are a small selection.
In slide show, click on image to return to index.
Once at KSC, Glen and I briefly visited the Mate-Demate device (MDD) and scouted
out a strategic place for my automated camera. With that out of the way, I
headed to my motel where I scored the same room as last year - and was
delighted to see that the faucet was still just as broken as before. Then I
headed to
Coconuts On The Beach, which by now has become a
tradition: exactly a year ago, I was sitting in the same spot, at the same
table. Back then, Paul was here with me, the weather was much better and
there were roughly two more babes at the beach - for a total of two. Last
year, we waited for
STS-122 to take off, with Dex in the driver's seat, but
it was being grounded by a faulty $1 connector. In the end after waiting for a
week we never got to see it fly (Paul did return for the 2nd attempt in
February, but I was too busy having a fresh kid). This time, I was waiting for the weather
to improve (just
like at STS-59, 101, and a few more which I suppressed): Even though by now
they had the tail cone fitted, they were behind a bad weather front. The SCA
doesn't fly through as much as a cloud, forget about a storm. So I'd have to
wait, until Wednesday they said.
The following few days could be summed up with: Coconuts, Motel 6, more
Coconuts. Free wireless at Coconuts! And more Motel 6. I have filled out
some long overdue forms, fixed some long overdue bugs in my favorite pet
application, calibrated my lenses, and spent more time at Coconuts. I did
get the occasional strange looks at Coconuts, since I was squatting there
for hours on end, with three iPhones and spare laptop batteries. But it's
not like I was taking away any valuable seating place: the whole place was
empty. Did I
mention there were no babes? And that the SCA was further delayed?
But there was progress: On Wednesday I got a number of emails from Dex, Jay
and Peter from Houston, all of them emailing me pictures of the SCA with
Endeavour, which did a very nice flyover over the NASA Johnson Space Center.
We were halfway there.
Good things will come to
those who wait. So, on Friday, the big moment had finally come... See Part
II -->
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