May 18, 2006
It was a bright and sunny
morning in Orlando. The crowded neighborhoods which I am used to in California gave way to generous landscaping;
BMWs, Lexi and Porsches gave way to a more American taste in vehicles, and Asian
ladies equipped with welding masks were replaced by friendly senior citizens -
with the notable difference that the latter don't see red traffic lights purely as a
suggestion. But like at home the speed limit is just a recommendation, so I
was at the Kennedy Space Center in no time, where Jay was already waiting for
me. A few short minutes and an elbow in bird poop later, Alan showed up wearing
the blue overall of an astronaut, sporting a happy broad smile on his face. This
ought to be good.
Our guide for the day was Matt, who typically does the rounds with real
dignitaries, not just two nerds. I am sure that had Matt known what was in store
for him with us, he would have been more reluctant to take this job. But it was
too late now - and we were at our first stop, the
OPF, or Orbiter Processing
Facility. Inside was
my favorite orbiter, Atlantis. Oh my god, he has a favorite
orbiter, you now may think. I do, I even named my NeXT computer after it. Now
here I was, less than a foot away from Atlantis, the very orbiter that flew 26
times into space already, and here she stood, being prepared for the next flight
- right in front of me, ready to be petted. But I knew to behave myself.
We got a nice tour of the OPF; not that we could go many places, nor was much of
the orbiter actually visible. It was surrounded by scaffolding and other
apparati, and not much other than the landing gear and the underbelly was
visible. Still, having been standing right under the belly of a Space Shuttle --
seeing a few brand new, black tiles next to old, experienced, grey ones which
have protected the orbiter during re-entry on one or more flights -- gave us a
great feeling of awe for the huge number of complex systems that make out the
orbiter, and which all have to work flawlessly to ensure the safety of the crew
and success of a mission.
Click on the first image
to start a slide show for this day (61 pictures)
Images shown below are a small selection.
In slide show, click on image to return to index.
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Out of the OPF, our next
stop was the
Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) itself, the holy grail if you will. We all took the equipment
that we thought was essential and entered thru the big, inviting main door. This
immense building was something to behold. Segmented into different compartments
it has two bays where a Space Shuttle can sleep at night, and according to Alan,
in a hurricane emergency can even house all three. And for us, it was time to go
visit one:
Space
Shuttle Discovery was being prepared for her roll-out, scheduled for tomorrow
noon.
Just like at the OPF, we relinquished our cell phones and everything else that
was emitting radio waves, as well as a photo ID, and received a hot pink ID
instead. With that in the pocket and cameras around the neck we headed to one of
the many floors of the VAB. There, we got a spectacular view of Discovery; the
view was especially spectacular for those among us who weren't afraid to lean
over a fence and take a peek. That would not be me, though; still, the
experience was simply amazing, and no pictures can do it justice.
Like with everything in life, there's a price of admission even to the VAB. For me,
it was my stupidity of not having sufficient batteries for my Contax 645 and
running out when we got onto the
mobile launch platform, or MLP. The 2nd part of
the price of admission is yet unknown: during a moment of weakness - or rather
inattentiveness - I dropped the rented Contax / Carl Zeiss 45mm lens onto the
VAB floor, and unlike the time when Essan dropped my 28-70L onto concrete a few
years back, this time the VAB floor won: maybe they used better concrete here, or
Canon lenses are superiorly built compared to Zeiss. Who knows. I am sure that one day I'll get
the bill, for now it's off to the shop. [Update: Since Contax is no more, we
agreed that I'll buy out the damaged lens from the rental place. The final
damage was $1055, including CA sales tax. Gulp.]
When Matt first saw us he assured us to take as much time with pictures as we cared to. That was before he saw what it meant to set up a tripod with a 645 on it. So with more than an hour behind schedule, we eventually piled our camera gear into the van and headed for a quick lunch at the cafeteria right by the LCC / VAB. The food was good and incredibly cheap, compared to what we pay here at home in CA (same could be said for gasoline, but I digress). It was interesting to see Alan mingling with all the employees: it seemed like he knew everyone, or at least they knew him. It's good to see someone who's truly enjoying his job.
After lunch we were off to
the next stop, the
Shuttle Landing Facility, SLF. This is a very long and wide
piece of concrete: at 15,000 feet it's one of the longest landing strips in the
world, and at 300 feet wide it's the widest. That's as wide as a football field is
long, people! This gives the shuttle a good place to land - after all, it has
only one shot at it. Instead of the shuttle, today the strip was home to
some
T-38 aircraft which astronauts use as company cars. Among the two planes parked
there was also Alan's; he showed it to us, including the inside of the engine.
Wow, I always wanted to stick my head into an afterburner; just please keep the
engine off. We also got to see the trunk for his personal belongings, right at
the belly of the plane. That way Alan doesn't have to wait for his bags to come
onto the carousel - or not, as was the case later on with my return flight. But
I'm getting way ahead of myself.
At the main gate to the SLF we could also see the interesting steel frame
structure called the
Mate/Demate device which is used to get the shuttle
from
the top of the 747 which is used to get it from California, when it has to land
there due to bad weather in Florida. It has to be quite a sight to see an MD-80
sized plane - the shuttle - be carried on top of a 747. Eat that, A380.
From the SLF we headed to
launch pad 39B, to which Discovery would be rolled
tomorrow. On the way there we stopped at the press site, where we met with
George Shelton, the official NASA KSC photographer. He gave us a cup of nicely
chilled water and numerous helpful tips for tomorrow's roll-out. He also pointed
us to an osprey nest, unfortunately built by not the brightest osprey parents on
a set of low standing loudspeakers right at the parking lot of the press site. This means
that junior was just a few feet away from quite some traffic, and worse,
obsessive photographers who never can get enough. And of course when one of
these crazy bipods gets out of the car - wielding a fat lens - mommy and daddy
leave poor scared junior alone in the nest.
In one of the early emails
to Alan I showed him a picture that I took at STS-93, during the VIP tour, and
asked him if he can get me closer to the launch pad than that. He said that it
should not be a problem. I specifically requested access to the flame trench, if
possible. And that's what I was about to get. The pad looks big, but wait until
you find yourself at the bottom of it, in a deep pit, surrounded by tons of fire
proof bricks. There was not much else to see down there, really, other than bricks
that have been to hell and back. Huge pipes leading water to the
sound
suppression system which unleashes 300,000 gallons of water in 20 seconds, a
system that reduces the force of the sound waves so that it doesn't disassemble
the launch pad.
Above the flame trench stands the 250 foot tall launch tower, topped by an 80
foot tall lightning rod. It's quite a sight, especially if you get to the base
of the launch pad and can see the tower with the rotating service structure
attached. And the four 9 feet wide tracks on which tomorrow the crawler will
bring the shuttle; the tracks are covered with 9x4' plywood - custom made, a
foot longer than usual, as Alan was quick to point out. The dorky hard hats that
one has to wear around here don't take anything away from the experience, even
though they make operating a medium format camera quite difficult. Wearing the
hard hat backwards helps with that a little bit.
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We thanked Matt for his time and excellent guidance, and headed to a steak house in Cocoa Beach where we chatted about the day, the upcoming roll-out, Canon vs. Nikon, lithium batteries in space, and life in general.