A Travel to Canaveral
I promised a number of people, including myself, that I'd give a recount of my trip to Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center for the New Horizons launch upon my return. It's a week later than I had hoped to deliver on that promise, but I'm sure the delay will be soon forgotten.
In summary, it was an amazing experience, and one that has re-energized my enjoyment of the work that I do and given me a great deal of personal satisfaction in the work I have done. Before the launch, everything seemed abstract and escoteric. Who cared the smallest iota about interstellar dust? But now, after all the media attention, I need only mention one thing: "We're going to Pluto!".
I can't thank the SDC group enough for the company during the week down in Cocoa Beach. Nothing beats hanging out with a bunch of like-minded engineers and physicists, especially those who are laid back and fun loving. You made my trip.
So, without further adieu, I offer you the recount of my adventures. You may need to click the "Read more..." link to see the rest.
I set out from Boulder with my typical travel agenda: stuff my small duffel with a week's worth of clothes and head out on public transit to the airport. This procedure was honed during numerous weekend travels to Philadelphia, and had worked quite well for a laid back and inexpensive travel experience. The only difference was that this time the duration was to be six days and not three. Some creative clothes cramming took care of that. I even managed to take two pairs of shoes.
On the plane, I was seated next to an extremely impressive young woman by the name of Sarah Stern, who just happened to be the daughter of the New Horizons principal investigator, Alan Stern. We had a flight nearly full of interesting conversation; about the mission, about Boulder High school, about 311 and concerts, and about her father's insane schedule. She was concerned that she might not get into the journalism program of her first choice school of University of Texas, Austin. By my assessment, this seemed unlikely. She was as articulate and poised as anyone I had met in my college tenure, and I'm sure she has what it takes to rub shoulders with the best of them in Texas.
Upon landing in Orlando, I met up with Chelsey Bryant and Daivd James and headed out to pick up baggage and catch the shuttle to the Enterprise pick-up. The line was huge, because landings had been delayed by strong crosswinds, and everyone landed and headed to the rental agency at the same time. I stood in line for an hour before being handed the keys to a quite acceptable dark gray Nissan Sentra. Took a right on Narcoossee road and jumped onto the 528 on our way to meet Tiffany Finley at the Ron Jon Resort in Cocoa Beach.
The Ron Jon turned out to be an excellent choice of a place to stay. The suite was well equipped and a decent size, with a full kitchen, bedroom, and large bathroom, and decked out with beach-themed art and bright hues of yellow and pink. There was a large hot tub and an even larger heated pool, along with a game room, exercise room, restaurant and bar, and even mini golf. I don't think I heard a complaint about the accomodations over the entire trip.
We went to dinner at a little grill at the end of the Cocoa Beach pier, which happened to be deserted on this Saturday night. The food was just fine, though, perhaps due to my choice of a fish sandwich, not being adventurous enough or confident enough in the establishment to order something that wasn't battered and fried. The Boston-raised waitress played the delicate balance of rudeness and friendliness, and was kind enough to offer up a few suggestions for our nighttime entertainment. We called Andrew Jenkins and Anselm Fernandez, and set out to find Patty Cassidy's, an apparently swingin' little pub with a good selection of fine beers.
Upon finding Patty Cassidy's in the unexpected company of a strip mall, we headed in and proceeded to pull some tables together and order some drinks. I played darts for quite a while while nursing a pint of Murphy's Irish Red, and around midnight, we decided to call it a night and ambled back to the Ron Jon.
Anxiousness got the best of me Sunday morning, with a bit of difficulty sleeping in the company of others, and an overwhelming apprehensiveness about what I was going to eat for breakfast that morning. I managed to stay in bed for an hour or so while contemplating things, but eventually ended up heading out to the nearest Publix to get some muffins, milk, OJ, fruit, and cereal. I enjoyed a muffin while reading my book for a while, when fatigue got the best of me and I headed back to bed to catch up on sleep.
When things finally got rolling, Chelsey, David and I took advantage of the amenities of the resort. We spent some time in the pool area, enjoying the lazy river, water slide, and hot tub. This activity segued into lunch at the poolside, where I once again opted for fried fish. We then headed back to the suite to watch Tiffany's presentation about the instrument on NASA TV. She was quick to hide behind the slides, but she got the only question of the session, and managed to do us all proud. While waiting for Tiffany to return to the resort, we played a few rounds of mini golf, which consisted of the same 2 holes repeated 9 times. I still got spanked by Chelsey and David, spending most of my effort trying to get out from between the rocks at the perimeter of the course.
When Tiffany returned, we jumped on the shuttle to the beach. In hindsight, the shuttle was hardly necessary, as the beach was only a few hundred yards away, but we played our part as lazy tourists. We put little more than our toes in the water, tried to bury ourselves in quicksand, marveled at a beached and decaying stingray, and made some small dribble castles. The beach is a nice excursion, even in winter.
About that time, it was time to get ready for the New Horizons launch reception at the Cocoa Beach Marriott. Despite our pleas, Tiffany headed off to the airport to pick up Nick Bunch and Beth Grogan, while we headed out to mingle in a crowded room of only occasionally familiar faces. Surprisingly, I didn't sample much of the smorgasboard of appetizers lining the room, and instead did laps trying to find people I knew among a hot and humid room which was past the capacity of the A/C system. I was bought a glass of wine by Caroline Himes, and greeted Nick and Beth when they arrived with Tiffany. Eventually, we tired of the swamplike conditions, and headed back to the resort as things thinned out.
Back at the Ron Jon, we got a call from Tiffany saying they were returning with a "friend". We briefly speculated exactly what this could have meant, but didn't think much about it until Matt Colgan, Beth, Tiffany, and Nick returned bearing the dolphin ice sculpture which accompanied the chilled meats at the reception. Apparently, they had asked if they could have it as things came to a close, and, well, they got it. We took turns posing with the frozen dolphin in the sink before leaving it alone to its melted death. A portion of the group then headed out to the Ron Jon's game room for pool and Dance Dance Revolution, an offer which I declined, being completely exhausted from lack of sleep.
Another anxious morning, used to getting up with the sunrise, left me up a bit before the rest of the crew. I took the opportunity to hit the exercise room and chill a bit with my book and my iPod. After spying David and Chelsey by the pool, I slipped into my trunks and took advantage of the water for a bit before returning to the suite to get ready for some more "official" activities.
Part of the reason for the extended stay in the area was to assist LASP and NASA with their educational outreach activities. For me, today's activity was to take part in a small SDC presentation for educators and educational policy makers. Fran Bagenal was leading off with an overview of the SDC project, and at the end, Vaughn Hoxie, Beth, and I were to give short descriptions of our contributions to the project.
All of us except for Fran had arrived plenty early, but about 5 minutes before our presentation was slated to start, we began to get a bit worried by her absensce, and began planning contingencies. Should Kate Becker give the presentation in Fran's place? Should we hold off for later and hope she shows up? Then, just as the previous speaker was finishing and people were shifting in their chairs, Fran bursts into the rear of the room, attributing her last minute entrance to some story of the rollout and how absolutely amazing it was. Without missing a beat, she dives into the SDC slides, albiet only breifly before deciding that the slides were far too boring to start off a presentation, instead setting a DVD video in motion. After her part was done, we gave our short speils on the project before fielding questions.
And guess who was in the audience asking questions? Bill Nye, the Science Guy! Taken aback a bit by our initial glimpse of wide-eyed child geek stardom, we answered questions as to the nature and size of dust particles we were to measure, and how these compared to those of the Stardust mission. Afterwards, a bit awestruck, we asked to have our photo taken with the man himself, a certain highlight of the trip.
With a bit of time to kill, Beth and I decided to go to the Kennedy Space Center vistor's center to register for the launch viewing and pick up our loot. There, we met Chelsey, David, and Tiffany, and grabbed some astronaut ice cream before browsing the rocket garden and heading back to the Ron Jon.
We finished off the night with a large group at Rusty's for seafood, accompanied by Mihaly Horanyi and his son Balazs, and Tiffany's parents as well. I had a huge bowl of seafood alfredo, which was a pleasant experience despite the fact (or perhaps, becuase of the fact) that it got the better of me and I resigned before finishing it. We had an early morning the next day involving visits to some local schools before the launch, so we decided to head to sleep earlier than usual back at the Ron Jon.
Today was the day. An Atlas V-551 was scheduled to lift off from pad 41 of KSC at 1:24PM, and the our crew was going to be there to witness it. The day began, however, with early morning school visits for members of the SDC team. Tiffany, Dave, and myself were to go to Freedom 7 Elementary in Cocoa Beach and give a talk to a group of second and third graders. The school itself was pretty amazing, a public school that appeared to have the demands of many private schools, with a uniformed dress code and very strict standards of behavior. Despite their composure, we could tell the kids were just bursting at the seams with excitement about the mission. After we had given our quick descriptions of ourselves, we turned to the floor for questions, and twenty little hands went up almost instantly. The energy in that small gym was amazing, and I would have gladly stayed there for hours doing projects and fielding questions with the kids. The time to leave came far too soon, however, as we set off to KSC to catch the bus to the visitor's viewing area.
When we got to KSC, a quarter-mile line had formed to board the buses. I think this might be what tourists do in Florida, mostly, stand in line. All joking aside, things actually moved pretty smoothly once we started boarding, and we had nearly 1000 people ferried off to the launch viewing site in under an hour.
Watching the weather that morning, we knew that the biggest threat to the launch was going to be high winds. Stepping off the bus, things really didn't feel all that terrible, although it certainly wasn't calm. As the launch window opened, the voice on the PA system announced that they were going to hold for an extra 20 minutes to see if the winds were going to get any better. These holds were chronic, sometimes 15 minutes, sometimes 20, but each time there was a collective sigh of despair as the launch was pushed back yet closer to the end of the window. The children didn't seem to mind, however, and entertained us with games of red rover and duck duck goose on the grass.
As the launch window drew to a close, the PA system announced that the hold would be released, and that the launch would proceed, barring any "red" alert codes. We held our breath as the counter ticked down from 4 minutes, to 3, then at just under 3 minutes, we got word that the wind gusts had exceeded their 38mph limit, and that the launch would have to happen another day. There were high hopes for a launch tomorrow, but because of our limited stays in the area, we all became a little more uneasy. Our blissful ignorance had finally been disturbed, and we realized that everything might not go off with mechanical precsion.
The bus ride back to KSC almost turned riotous. The bus had been sitting in the sun for over two hours, and when we got on, it was baking inside. To compound this, the A/C system was not working, there were no windows, and the bus was filled to capacity. The humidity and temperature climbed steadily during our lethargic trip, and by the end, people were complaining rather vocally about the issue, though these complaints fell on the deaf ears of the tour guide. Things hit the flash point when we stopped just 50 feet from the unloading zone, and waited there for roughly 15 minutes while some of us were nearly ready to pass out. About then, a charge of 3-4 people headed to the front of the bus, and the tour guide finally let us off in an "unofficial" zone. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but knowing when to disobey the strict interpretation of policy is essential to good customer service, but this guy apparently skipped that course.
We decided to forget our woes with an SDC party, hosted by Gail Tate and Mihaly. We were treated to Subway sandwiches, chips, sodas, cookies, and beer, and assembled the largest collection of SDCers since the delivery of the instrument. Certainly a good time. And when the party thinned a bit, we headed back to our little pub, Patty Cassidy's, for some pool and darts before again calling it a night.
Wednesday was the day I finally hit my rhythm sleep-wise, and I slept in a bit and took an early morning dip in the hot tub. Tiffany and Nick left to get their VIP tours in before the end of their stay, but I passed, because I wasn't too interested and it seemed that they were likely to be too late anyway. Soon after they left, we learned that the day's launch had already been scrubbed, due to a power outage at the operations facility in Maryland. Time for a plan B.
David, Beth, and I decided it was a good time to check out that landmark of Cocoa Beach, the Ron Jon store. It was certainly impressive in size; two stories tall and occupying the area of a football field. It was packed with all manner of beach lifestyle paraphernalia; from surfboards and bodyboards and skateboards, to swimsuits and clothing. If it was a local store, or had I a little extra room in my luggage, I could have seen myself going wild. But as it stood, I was purely an observer, not looking to buy anything, but browsing for a good half-hour to an hour.
From Ron Jon's, we went to Grill's for lunch, where I had an excellent tuna steak, easily the best fish of the trip. The mood was a bit less favorable, however. We were all a bit down, especially since David was leaving that evening, and Beth was leaving the next morning, so as it stood, they wouldn't see the launch. The past few days, we had seen everyone's emotions riding up and down, sometimes swinging between the two in a matter of minutes, and this lunch was undoubtedly a low. We had invested a lot of ourselves in being there and seeing our creation go, and hated to let go of that.
So, the time came to bid David a temporary adieu, as he headed off to the airport to catch his flight back to Colorado. Beth and I then went off to meet up with the remaining travelers to catch the IMAX movie with our free KSC guest passes. While waiting for the others to arrive, the movie's start came and went, at which point they closed the doors until the next showing began. When everyone else finally did arrive, we did a mini tour of the visitor's complex, remarking at how unremarkable it was. The exhibits were fairly dumbed down, and only occasionally captured the depth and nuance of space exploration. Still, we managed to climb inside a mock space shuttle, visit the astronaut's memorial, and most importantly, have our photo taken as if we were real astronauts.
As the time for the next IMAX show rolled in, I passed and took a quick tour of the rocket garden before making my way to my rental car, as I really wanted to get back before Tiffany left so I could offer some parting words. We chatted a little while before she, too, had to leave for the airport, almost certain to be another casualty of our delayed launch. I sent her off, then grabbed my iPod and engaged in some serious tunes-listening action while I waited for the others to return from KSC.
At that point, the mood brightened just a bit. The weather report looked really good for Thursday, and calls were made to the airlines to inquire about the cost of changing tickets. It turns out that getting your flight changed to another on the same day had gotten easier and less expensive recently, and Nick and Beth resolved to call in the morning to finalize plans for a departure that would allow one more opportunity to see the launch. Previous days may have claimed the launch windows of two of our comrades, but we were hopeful to save the rest.
For dinner, we headed out with Chelsey's clan to Fish Lips, a seafood bar and grill with inexpensive seafood and an excellent atmosphere. The primary draw that night was karaoke, a mixed bag of brief highlights and extreme lowlights. The beginning acts were promising, including Chelsey's sister and anonymous members of a group of older patrons. As the night wore on and further drinks were imbibed, however, things got a bit ugly. My advice to karaoke patrons everywhere: if the alcohol's flowing steadily, know when to cut your losses and head home. Because what starts off as mildly entertaining can quickly turn to downright repulsive. We waited a bit too long, and that's all I'll say.
And with that thought still fresh in our minds, we went to sleep, hoping that it would soon be displaced by memories of a Pluto launch the next day.
My last day in Florida, Thursday was the day I had my fingers crossed that everything would finally go off without a hitch. Nick and Beth had their tickets changed so that they returned home later in the day, leaving us time to see (most of) the launch window. By our quick calculations, we had to leave Cocoa Beach around 2:30pm to return the car and catch our flights, which left us most of the available launch window between 1:08pm to 3:07pm. The launch was more likely to happen near the beginning of the window, anyway.
The three of us killed some time at the Cocoa Beach pier, taking our shoes off and walking the beach, enjoying the surf, drawing figures in the sand, and scheming about possible analogies for an SDC themed episode of South Park. We then dropped in on the Ron Jon again, this time armed with 15% discount cards from our stay at the resort. I got a shirt and a Ron Jon hat, which brought me up just shy of the $30 minimum needed to use the discount. So I added a stick of lip balm to my booty to meet the minimum. It ended up costing me a negative dollar, discount applied.
We weren't inclined to use the official KSC viewing area, because doing so would leave our departure time for the airport in the hands of the KSC bus drivers. The clerk at the Ron Jon said that Jetty Park was one of the better offsite viewing areas, and it happened to be right next to the Ron Jon Resort. We headed one last time back to the Ron Jon, and walked the 10 minutes to the park viewing area itself to avoid parking fees. Taking a seat on the rocks of the jetty, we speculated a bit about where the actual launch pad was, seeing as there are about 10 pads constructed on the east edge of the cape for the various rockets launched. Not that any of them were directly visible from our location, everything on the ground was obscured by trees, leaving only a smattering of towers peeking above the horizon. Even the best launch viewing areas keep you well away from the launch pad itself for safety reasons. Once everything got going, though, there wouldn't be any doubt where the rocket was.
TNT may make the claim quite often, but we were beginning to think that launch operators might be better able to own the slogan, "we know drama". Today's problem was low hanging clouds. The launch vehicle needed to be visible to an altitude of 6000 feet from the ground, so that the launch could be aborted if anything happened in those first few seconds. An east wind was bringing a string of patchy clouds off the ocean, and again we were holding 15 or 20 minutes at a time to see if things cleared, our anxiousness increasing steadily with each delay. Simultaneously, we were keeping an eye on our watches, knowing that we had to give our own "abort" when the hands reached 2:30. David James was our umbilical cord to NASA TV, keeping us updated on launch status as we sat on the jetty watching the Coast Guard helicopters and patrol boats keeping the area clear.
Then, we got word that the hold was going to be released at 2pm. A hole in the clouds was drifting towards the launch site, the wind was calm, and all the systems on the rocket were checking out nominal. We bit our nails in anticipation as David gave one last call, putting us on a LASP speakerphone so we could hear the countdown. Shortly after we heard, "liftoff", we saw a plume of white vapor leading upwards, led by a small scepter of orange and white. It trailed up, arcing gently outward over the ocean, and accelerating deliberately as it went to the heavens. The sound met us well after the rocket had left the ground. In volume, it was quite similar to a jet aircraft at takeoff, but the pitch was a deep roar opposed to a turbine's whine. Just as the Atlas V was disappearing from view, we saw a brief flash as the five solid rocket boosters separated. The plume itself then lingered and writhed and twisted in the winds, and was eventually the only reminder of the event that just occurred.
The three of us marveled a bit in awe, speechless, before we collected our senses and began our journey back to Orlando airport. I have mentioned before how our emotions rose and fell with the successes and failures of each day, and at this point, we were soaring high. Through the instrument we built, we had developed a bond with so many people with a keen vested interest in the success of this project. I simply cannot describe the satisfaction of being part of something so positive. I was happy not just for myself, but for all my team members, and for Alan Stern, who worked tirelessly for over 12 years to bring this moment to reality. But this comaraderie extended past the people who worked on the project, to include everyone who dreams of space and gets excited about pushing the envelope. I saw it in the eyes of the third grade class, and I realized, more intensely than any other time during my three year tenure on the project, that what I do is not important just to me, but to millions of Americans as well.
Back at the Orlando airport, I bid adieu to Nick, who was heading back to Dartmouth for his graduate classes after a brief stop in Boston to see a friend at M.I.T. On the plane, I sat next to another launch visitor, a Mr. Harold Wick, a Lockheed employee and friend of Alan Stern who had come down on his own accord to view the launch. To say I was restless was an understatement, thoughts were racing around my head about how this changed, just a little bit, my view of the work that I do. I think that the launch was the point where I realized, once again, that this wasn't *just* another job. This was worthwhile.
Our flight landed in Denver to overcast and snow, a stark contrast to the moderate temperatures and clear skies of Florida. I spent 45 minutes in below freezing weather waiting for my bus to arrive, and on the ride home, I saw at least two cars that had spun off the side of the road and rolled over. Ahh, Colorado. The trip was amazing, but it was good to be home.
In summary, it was an amazing experience, and one that has re-energized my enjoyment of the work that I do and given me a great deal of personal satisfaction in the work I have done. Before the launch, everything seemed abstract and escoteric. Who cared the smallest iota about interstellar dust? But now, after all the media attention, I need only mention one thing: "We're going to Pluto!".
I can't thank the SDC group enough for the company during the week down in Cocoa Beach. Nothing beats hanging out with a bunch of like-minded engineers and physicists, especially those who are laid back and fun loving. You made my trip.
So, without further adieu, I offer you the recount of my adventures. You may need to click the "Read more..." link to see the rest.
Day 1: Saturday, January 14, 2006
I set out from Boulder with my typical travel agenda: stuff my small duffel with a week's worth of clothes and head out on public transit to the airport. This procedure was honed during numerous weekend travels to Philadelphia, and had worked quite well for a laid back and inexpensive travel experience. The only difference was that this time the duration was to be six days and not three. Some creative clothes cramming took care of that. I even managed to take two pairs of shoes.
On the plane, I was seated next to an extremely impressive young woman by the name of Sarah Stern, who just happened to be the daughter of the New Horizons principal investigator, Alan Stern. We had a flight nearly full of interesting conversation; about the mission, about Boulder High school, about 311 and concerts, and about her father's insane schedule. She was concerned that she might not get into the journalism program of her first choice school of University of Texas, Austin. By my assessment, this seemed unlikely. She was as articulate and poised as anyone I had met in my college tenure, and I'm sure she has what it takes to rub shoulders with the best of them in Texas.
We went to dinner at a little grill at the end of the Cocoa Beach pier, which happened to be deserted on this Saturday night. The food was just fine, though, perhaps due to my choice of a fish sandwich, not being adventurous enough or confident enough in the establishment to order something that wasn't battered and fried. The Boston-raised waitress played the delicate balance of rudeness and friendliness, and was kind enough to offer up a few suggestions for our nighttime entertainment. We called Andrew Jenkins and Anselm Fernandez, and set out to find Patty Cassidy's, an apparently swingin' little pub with a good selection of fine beers.
Day 2: Sunday, January 15, 2006
Anxiousness got the best of me Sunday morning, with a bit of difficulty sleeping in the company of others, and an overwhelming apprehensiveness about what I was going to eat for breakfast that morning. I managed to stay in bed for an hour or so while contemplating things, but eventually ended up heading out to the nearest Publix to get some muffins, milk, OJ, fruit, and cereal. I enjoyed a muffin while reading my book for a while, when fatigue got the best of me and I headed back to bed to catch up on sleep.
When things finally got rolling, Chelsey, David and I took advantage of the amenities of the resort. We spent some time in the pool area, enjoying the lazy river, water slide, and hot tub. This activity segued into lunch at the poolside, where I once again opted for fried fish. We then headed back to the suite to watch Tiffany's presentation about the instrument on NASA TV. She was quick to hide behind the slides, but she got the only question of the session, and managed to do us all proud. While waiting for Tiffany to return to the resort, we played a few rounds of mini golf, which consisted of the same 2 holes repeated 9 times. I still got spanked by Chelsey and David, spending most of my effort trying to get out from between the rocks at the perimeter of the course.
Day 3: Monday, January 16, 2006
Another anxious morning, used to getting up with the sunrise, left me up a bit before the rest of the crew. I took the opportunity to hit the exercise room and chill a bit with my book and my iPod. After spying David and Chelsey by the pool, I slipped into my trunks and took advantage of the water for a bit before returning to the suite to get ready for some more "official" activities.
Part of the reason for the extended stay in the area was to assist LASP and NASA with their educational outreach activities. For me, today's activity was to take part in a small SDC presentation for educators and educational policy makers. Fran Bagenal was leading off with an overview of the SDC project, and at the end, Vaughn Hoxie, Beth, and I were to give short descriptions of our contributions to the project.
All of us except for Fran had arrived plenty early, but about 5 minutes before our presentation was slated to start, we began to get a bit worried by her absensce, and began planning contingencies. Should Kate Becker give the presentation in Fran's place? Should we hold off for later and hope she shows up? Then, just as the previous speaker was finishing and people were shifting in their chairs, Fran bursts into the rear of the room, attributing her last minute entrance to some story of the rollout and how absolutely amazing it was. Without missing a beat, she dives into the SDC slides, albiet only breifly before deciding that the slides were far too boring to start off a presentation, instead setting a DVD video in motion. After her part was done, we gave our short speils on the project before fielding questions.
We finished off the night with a large group at Rusty's for seafood, accompanied by Mihaly Horanyi and his son Balazs, and Tiffany's parents as well. I had a huge bowl of seafood alfredo, which was a pleasant experience despite the fact (or perhaps, becuase of the fact) that it got the better of me and I resigned before finishing it. We had an early morning the next day involving visits to some local schools before the launch, so we decided to head to sleep earlier than usual back at the Ron Jon.
Day 4: Tuesday, January 17, 2006
The bus ride back to KSC almost turned riotous. The bus had been sitting in the sun for over two hours, and when we got on, it was baking inside. To compound this, the A/C system was not working, there were no windows, and the bus was filled to capacity. The humidity and temperature climbed steadily during our lethargic trip, and by the end, people were complaining rather vocally about the issue, though these complaints fell on the deaf ears of the tour guide. Things hit the flash point when we stopped just 50 feet from the unloading zone, and waited there for roughly 15 minutes while some of us were nearly ready to pass out. About then, a charge of 3-4 people headed to the front of the bus, and the tour guide finally let us off in an "unofficial" zone. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but knowing when to disobey the strict interpretation of policy is essential to good customer service, but this guy apparently skipped that course.
Day 5: Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Wednesday was the day I finally hit my rhythm sleep-wise, and I slept in a bit and took an early morning dip in the hot tub. Tiffany and Nick left to get their VIP tours in before the end of their stay, but I passed, because I wasn't too interested and it seemed that they were likely to be too late anyway. Soon after they left, we learned that the day's launch had already been scrubbed, due to a power outage at the operations facility in Maryland. Time for a plan B.
David, Beth, and I decided it was a good time to check out that landmark of Cocoa Beach, the Ron Jon store. It was certainly impressive in size; two stories tall and occupying the area of a football field. It was packed with all manner of beach lifestyle paraphernalia; from surfboards and bodyboards and skateboards, to swimsuits and clothing. If it was a local store, or had I a little extra room in my luggage, I could have seen myself going wild. But as it stood, I was purely an observer, not looking to buy anything, but browsing for a good half-hour to an hour.
From Ron Jon's, we went to Grill's for lunch, where I had an excellent tuna steak, easily the best fish of the trip. The mood was a bit less favorable, however. We were all a bit down, especially since David was leaving that evening, and Beth was leaving the next morning, so as it stood, they wouldn't see the launch. The past few days, we had seen everyone's emotions riding up and down, sometimes swinging between the two in a matter of minutes, and this lunch was undoubtedly a low. We had invested a lot of ourselves in being there and seeing our creation go, and hated to let go of that.
At that point, the mood brightened just a bit. The weather report looked really good for Thursday, and calls were made to the airlines to inquire about the cost of changing tickets. It turns out that getting your flight changed to another on the same day had gotten easier and less expensive recently, and Nick and Beth resolved to call in the morning to finalize plans for a departure that would allow one more opportunity to see the launch. Previous days may have claimed the launch windows of two of our comrades, but we were hopeful to save the rest.
For dinner, we headed out with Chelsey's clan to Fish Lips, a seafood bar and grill with inexpensive seafood and an excellent atmosphere. The primary draw that night was karaoke, a mixed bag of brief highlights and extreme lowlights. The beginning acts were promising, including Chelsey's sister and anonymous members of a group of older patrons. As the night wore on and further drinks were imbibed, however, things got a bit ugly. My advice to karaoke patrons everywhere: if the alcohol's flowing steadily, know when to cut your losses and head home. Because what starts off as mildly entertaining can quickly turn to downright repulsive. We waited a bit too long, and that's all I'll say.
And with that thought still fresh in our minds, we went to sleep, hoping that it would soon be displaced by memories of a Pluto launch the next day.
Day 6: Thursday, January 19, 2006
The three of us marveled a bit in awe, speechless, before we collected our senses and began our journey back to Orlando airport. I have mentioned before how our emotions rose and fell with the successes and failures of each day, and at this point, we were soaring high. Through the instrument we built, we had developed a bond with so many people with a keen vested interest in the success of this project. I simply cannot describe the satisfaction of being part of something so positive. I was happy not just for myself, but for all my team members, and for Alan Stern, who worked tirelessly for over 12 years to bring this moment to reality. But this comaraderie extended past the people who worked on the project, to include everyone who dreams of space and gets excited about pushing the envelope. I saw it in the eyes of the third grade class, and I realized, more intensely than any other time during my three year tenure on the project, that what I do is not important just to me, but to millions of Americans as well.
Back at the Orlando airport, I bid adieu to Nick, who was heading back to Dartmouth for his graduate classes after a brief stop in Boston to see a friend at M.I.T. On the plane, I sat next to another launch visitor, a Mr. Harold Wick, a Lockheed employee and friend of Alan Stern who had come down on his own accord to view the launch. To say I was restless was an understatement, thoughts were racing around my head about how this changed, just a little bit, my view of the work that I do. I think that the launch was the point where I realized, once again, that this wasn't *just* another job. This was worthwhile.
Our flight landed in Denver to overcast and snow, a stark contrast to the moderate temperatures and clear skies of Florida. I spent 45 minutes in below freezing weather waiting for my bus to arrive, and on the ride home, I saw at least two cars that had spun off the side of the road and rolled over. Ahh, Colorado. The trip was amazing, but it was good to be home.
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Thank you James! A great read. Spacecrafts that explore the outer reaches of our solar system are among the best things that mankind is doing these days. What a tribute to the curiousity and engineering of humans. And to top it off, they launch with a whole lot of noise. I'm so glad you got to see and hear it!
James, you never cease to amaze me. I am so proud of you. Try something other than the fish next time.
Glad you enjoyed Brevard County. Now you know where to invest extra money. In about five to ten years it will double (the real estate market), if you invest now. I'm not a realtor, but a smart guy like you.
So, was Bill Nye friendly?
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