Launch of STS-129 (from Sci-Fi Laura)

It feels like a lifetime has passed since the Shuttle Launch, but I need to finish telling that story before I can move onto something new. That November the shuttle Atlantis launched flawlessly.

It is all a mosaic of moments: the shuttle astronauts drove past and waved; we all piled out for a group picture; speakers came and went and media came and went and we listened and we didn’t and we were interviewed and we laughed. I paused in the middle to record Astronomy Cast – a 10 minute bit for 365 Days of Astronomy actually – and I paused in the middle to work on a grant. There is no escape from real life even when you stand at the edge of the looking glass.

At about 2:15pm we went out and staked out our places in the grass. We fussed with cameras and we laughed and we got lost in the sun, and the clouds, and the water, and we got lost in the moment.

And then we heard “We have Main Engine Ignition. 6! 5! 4! …”

We’d been sitting, Laura, Mark and I, in the grass in front of the tripods, in front of the crowds, in front of the clock. Nothing was between us and the Shuttle except water and wood. We missed the start of the count down to the noise of the crowd, and as we looked up from our cameras and iPhones, we saw the clouds of steam starting to billow up.

The countdown was counting down, and we screamed out with the NASA announcer, one voice blended from so many.

“3! 2! 1! We have launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis”

There was more he said, but we were lost; Mark and I were lost in our binoculars, and Laura watched and fliked photos with her amazing camera. Through my Nikons, the flames caused pain and I had to look away, but I could only take the lenses away for a moment because I wanted to see everything. We traced the Shuttle’s path skyward, watching it pivot belly up to the sky. It climbed, and through the eyepieces I saw the solid rocket boosters drop away as the Shuttle disappeared into the clouds.

And then it was over, the wind whiping away the clouds created by the engines’ combustion. It was over, and it was another day. But it was a day we’d seen the Shuttle launch.

We had seen something special as we watched those men launch themselves into space. The image is burned into my retinas and rumbled into my chest, not to be forgotten.The world moved on, and we moved on with it, but we were changed.

@MarkSands and I in front of Countdown Clock

We’re here. We’re actually here.

It is launch day for STS-129, the next to last launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. We settled into our seats at T-3 hours and holding, waiting for the crew to head out the vehicle and load up and get locked in (a new meaning for load & lock?)

It is a fair day here in Cape Canaveral, with partial clouds, 4-5 ft seas, and low wind. Chances of launch are currently 70%, but in this room of 101 people from 21 US states, and 4 additional nations (Morocco, New Zealand, UK, and Canada), we are going to keep on believing this-is-happening-right-now until someone makes us stop.

As a little girl, one of my earliest memories is watching the shuttle contrails from landings at Edwards Air Force base. From our California home, we could just make out this white dot in the sky, and I remember running back and force from the TV, where chase jet images showed the shuttle in detail, and the backyard, where I could only imagine what it was so high up in the sky.

Now, an adult who set aside my dreams of being part of NASA HSF (Human Space Flight) to instead focus on my NASA SMD (Space Mission Directorate) reality, it is amazing to still find my way to a launch, and to find myself so close – able to reach out and touch the launch clock. It is an odd way to bookend a life. I was 7-years old when Columbia first flew, and if the last launch goes as planned in September 2010, I’ll be 36 when the program ends.

A lifetime of dreaming of flying on the wings of great white bird must replaced with a reformulation of my parents and grandparents more encapsulated dreams. With Constellation, the next generation of astronauts – my generation turned astronaut – will buckle back in to capsules.

But while Constellation moves NASA in a new direction, the commercial space program is continuing to imagine new things never thought of in the days of Glenn and Aldrain. With SpaceShipTwo and Virgin Galactic, we’re looking at new ways fly white winged birds into the inky black of space.

We are at T minus less than 3 hours and counting. There are two more holds. And there are 101 hearts willing away the clouds and wishing for clear check lists and smooth skies.

We are at T minus less than 3 hours and counting, and if all goes well in 3 real hours we’ll be watching Space Shuttle Atlantis launch into a clear blue sky.

STS-129 Tweetup

It’s morning and none of us have had enough coffee, but the approximately 100 of us in a conference room in the Rocket part are wide awake. Jon Cowart, Ares 1X deputy mission director, is currently going from table to table asking us to identify mystery items in a run morning mixer.

Earlier this morning (which at 8:18am is a scary concept), after checking in and getting badges and goody bags (and taking the goody bags back to the car), we all invaded a large conference room that NASA has tricked out in perfect fashion for a room full of New Media Addicts. Ahead of time they had sent us the SSID and password for the private network. They set up a power strip on each table (with more outlets than chairs per table!). On the screens, they’re displaying the live feed (using the very cool http://www.twitterfall.com) of the #NASAtweetup tag, and slowly we’re trending and we can watch it and the speaker all at once while creating content on our own computers and phones. They got us all the little stuff we needed. And that really does matter. Thanks NASA (and remember – this was all done as a volunteer effort on top of normal job responsibilities. When I say thanks, I mean it!)

Tweetup Geekery

As we came in and plugged in, NASA folks walked around leaving random mission bits on every table. Our table has external tank foam (woohoo? Maybe, woohoo? Ok, not so much. It’s foam). Other tables have hydrazine sensors, compressor valves, aerogel, mysterious chunky substances, what look like vibration dampeners, and all sorts of wonderful random stuff which encouraged us to get out of our nice safe seats, and get out from behind our nice safe keyboards, and to wander around looking at the weird and wonderful bits on other tables.

And, they got the day going by talking about these random items, and using them to transition into a discussion by John Cowart (@Rocky_Sci) STS assembly, moving the Shuttle to the pad, and the moments leading up to the launch of the shuttle.

A lot of what was said is the standard schpell that anyone can read, but he peppered his story with pieces that aren’t usually mentioned and that center around Kennedy Space Center being a nature giant nature preserve. There are nests of Bald Eagles (I think he said 5 nests). Roughly 1/3 of Florida’s manatees live here at Kennedy. There are 4000-6000 alligators scattered around the facility (and I really want to see one). This last bit I had actually known because I went to Space Camp / Space Academy in high school, and back in the late 80′s / early 90s, the end of the simulation showed an alligator on the run way. In real life, NASA has a crew responsible for clearing the runway of sunning reptiles.

There are many weird jobs at NASA: There is the guy who drives the porta potty behind the crawler to the launch pad, their are gator wranglers, and for today at least their are twitter herders.

From @Rocky_Sci, the podium was handed over to Wayne Hale (strategic program planning manager), who explained a lot of the technical details in analogies suited for non-technical types. One thing that seriously surprised me is how this is clearly a room full of people who live online, but who aren’t in careers related to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Wayne had us do a quick show of hands – “Who works in…?” and my guess is less than 30% of the hands went up.

It was evidence that today’s world requires everyone to be techno literate.

From Wayne we transitioned to Mike Massimino (@Astro_Mike). It is all going to fast to type, so I’m going to sit back and enjoy.

And soon they’re releasing us to go play… (Join me on twitter @starstryder for picts in real time).

Kennedy Space Flight Center

A few weeks ago one of my students pointed out, OMG THE NASA TWEETUP PAGE WENT UP EARLY! While most of us in the room had alarms set off to go off at noon to register for this special event, it wasn’t yet noon, and in a rush of adrenaline and typing we went to the sign in page and used are various autocomplete software to fill out the sign up page as soon as possible. We were all chasing one thing: The chance to attend one of the last 6 scheduled space shuttle launches.

Now, I have to admit, I signed up without checking the launch date, without checking the cost of going, without checking with my husband (my poor husband). I just registered on instinct.

And now I’m here, sitting in a Holiday Inn, waiting to attend a special 2-day event NASA is hosting for folks who interact with NASA via twitter.

Originally, a whole group of us were selected for what was supposed to be a Sunday launch, but with a one day delay and exam season upon, in the end it turned out only Mark Sands and I could come. And I have to give massive Kudos (with a capital K) to the dean of engineering at SIUE for funding all of Mark’s trip. As some of you may have seen, our university (along with all other Illinois state schools) is experiencing a massive funding crisis. With all accounts frozen, approval for this trip had to come from the vice chancellor, and the chair of computer science and dean of engineering went to bat for us to make this happen.

We left Edwardsville this morning on separate flights (just how we kept costs down, oddly) and I spent my day flying (and working on grant – bleh) and then driving with Mark out to the Cape. We reached Cape Canaveral just as sunset hit on a glorious Florida fall day. It was an odd and wonderful experience.

Evacuate through the KSC?

Flamingos fly in Formation

Did you know the hurricane evacuation route goes past the visitor center?

And did you know Flamingoes fly in V shaped formations?

These were just two of the things I learned today.

Tomorrow I expect to learn more substantial information. The mission we are here to see lift off, STS-129, is the next to last flight of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. This is a bit stressful in the same way that starting a really long car ride 5000 miles after you should have had your oil changed is stressful. The Atlantis was due several years ago for a complete overhaul, and was scheduled to be pulled from service pulled from service in 2008. It’s now 2009 and the shuttle should get them there and back again, but it is showing its age. Specifically, the Composite Overwrap Pressure Vesselswere designed to last 10 years, recertified after the fact as good for 20 years, but have actually been in service for 22 years and there is concern they may randomly opt to leak or explode while under full pressure (see this Space.com story). Just like I have successfully driven the 5 hours to and from Chicago in a 10 year old car well past due for an oil change and been fine, I fully expect everything to go great this weekend, and I suspect that NASA will tell us about how they have learned to retrofit the shuttles and redesign around these age issues.

I also expect to learn more about the missions goals. This is one of the rare construction missions that also carries science. One of the experiments it is carrying, MISSE, will be exposing a bunch of different “building” materials to the rigors of space – UV radiation, cosmic radiation, x-rays, extremes of temperature, etc, etc – to see what of today’s new materials are best suited to construct tomorrow’s space vehicles and bases.

Also carried up are spare parts (otherwise known as ExPRESS Logistics Carriers 1 & 2), and two communications systems (S-Band Antenna Sub-Assembly (SASA) package and COTS UHF communication unit). The later of these two will be needed when SpaceX takes over carrying US supplies to the ISS after the shuttle retires.

For now though, it’s off to bed.

More to come from Kennedy Space Center.