I am going to view a launch again…

Columbus Control Center in GermanyWell, almost… ;) I don’t make it to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. Of course, I’d love to see Atlantis rocket off the ground and head into space. See that, hear that, small that. But … I got another great opportunity. I’ll view the launch from ESA’s control center for the Columbus module. In some ways, it’s even cooler than standing on the Causeway…

I have written a few articles for a German online portal called raumfahrer.net. It’s a cool site and it is, believe it or not, about astronomy and space flight. I joined it when I wrote about the Cassini mission. I had not much time to do a lot of work, but I kept subscribed to their mailing list.

Last week, a mail arrived looking for folks interested in attending ESA‘s (the European space organisation) launch event in the Columbus Control Center in Munich, Germany. Of course, that drew my attention. But having not done much work… I stood by and waited. Nobody asked for the job, so I finally stepped out and offered to go over (a day before the press accreditation deadline). And, believe it or not, the nice guys from raumfahrer.net agreed.

Reporting on the launch event has now even become a team effort, with me being at one frontline in the control center and someone else being in a local ESA center. We also have some backoffice writers, who will consolidate all our information plus NASA and ESA streams into nice launch update articles. This in itself is a great experience and I am proud to be part of it.

Imagine it: me attending the official launch event as a member of the press and being right at that very place where the Columbus module will be controlled. I think I am a really lucky guy ;)

Columbus module attached the the International Space Station (Artits' view)

Even though the center is located in Germany, it is an European effort. The project leader is ESA. Columbus mission control will work closely with US and Russian mission controllers. In fact, the Columbus Control Center will go live as soon as the Columbus module is attached to the international space station. This is scheduled to happen on December, 10th, the day after EVA-1.

Now I am back again at finger crossing. The Columbus Control Center is close to Munic, which is around 300km (roughly 140 miles) away from my place. I can afford to spent one day going to there, but I can not stay for any other launch attempts. So I sincerely hope all will go well on December, 6th. Thankfully, things look quite good. But: keep you fingers crossed. If all goes well, I’ll provide some nice stories and pictures from the other end of the world ;)

being back in Germany

I arrived yesterday afternoon back in Germany. I gradually begin to adopt to the cold unpleasant weather over here. Also, it takes some time to do all the things that need attention after being away three weeks (plus the jetlag…). Please bear with me, real posts follow ;)

Tropical Storm Noel and STS-120

Tropical Storm Noel on its way to the Florida East CostI headed to Seaworld Orlando today in an effort the move away from the effects of tropical storm Noel. Even in Orlando, the morning had lots of rain and high winds. But the day at Seaworld turned out to be a good one. When I came back to Cape Canaveral this evening, I noticed the strong winds (especially on the bridges). I am staying in a beach codo here, and I can really feel the wind on the window (and I have to admit I do not like such weather ;)).

I thought how lucky we were to have Discovery launch last week. Since then, most days had thick cloud cover, definitely a no-go for launch. Only yesterday was quite well, but I am not sure if clouds would still have prevented the launch. And the forecast for the next five days or so is strong winds plus ample of rain due to Noel. The Pic shows its current location, and it is heading to the Florida east cost now. Titusville, Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach and Kennedy Space Center are among the most-affected areas.

So in short words, I think if Discovery hadn’t launched last week, the launch would probably have been delayed for at least two weeks. That would have brought it close to the end of the launch window and would also have affected, if not prevented, Atlantis’ STS-122 launch.

I just can’t say how grateful I am everything worked right on the first launch attempt! A bit of luck is quite helpful from time to time… I thought this is worth noting and so I blog it;)

thanks to all I have met!

I am still trying to keep up with personal notes. But, hey, there is so much to do in Florida and my family is taking its time. I have also to update a German blog, care a bit about my day job (I need to be available by mail, a small price for the ability to view the launch), try to gather more information on STS-120 and some other things. So the personal notes receive somewhat less time.

One thing I would like to do right now is to thank all those folks that greeted my at Kennedy Space Center! I was quite surprised that a number of you not only followed my blog, but recognized me at the center (the “bag question” picture seems to have done wonders ;)). Wow – a new experience: strangers (now friends) approached me based on this little blogging site. That really touched me. So to all of you once a again a warm thanks — and keep reading and posting. It really makes a difference!

Launch Day Notes …

As i can not send anything online, i’ll probably cover the rest in one post. Today’s previous posts and events can be found here:

8:10 astronauts arrived at the pad and inspect shuttle. We are watching nasa tv from inside ksc.

8:30 countdown status briefing: weather has improved (and, yes, it is sunny)

9:00 in the bus line, ready to board the next one. Many astronaut invited guests also on these busses

9:10 boarding the bus, let’s see when we go off to the causeway. Its really sunny now, but the still seem to be some clouds over the sea. I think I would be quite disappointed now if the launch is really scrubbed. And, by the way we have handed over our LTTs, so if it scrubbed, we have lost (except if we could get new ones) – the bus driver is right now explaining this once again.

More explanations: there is a roped area which we are not allowed to leave. After launch, there may be some harmless drops from the exhaust, which causes irritation at most. We are recommended to go back to the bus quickly. This happens only occasionally (probably depending on the wind). You always stay with your assigned bus. There seems to be a one-to-one mapping, and that is probably because of safety reasons. The bus leaves back 1 hour after launch.

9:20 off we go to the causeway

10:05 we are on the causeway for quite a while now and i have set up my camera and taken some shots from the shuttle as it sits in the launch pad. There is some commentary via public speaker system. The still talk about the weather and a potential scrub. Oh man, am I excited. I hope sooo bad that Discovery will launch.

10:25 more clouds move in … Nasa continues launch preparations. We are currently in the t-20 hold.

10:50 still clouds. Lots of clouds.. Lots and lots of clouds … Nasa is still proceding, now at the t-9 hold. I guess they will scrub, if needed, within the last 10 minutes or so. I still hope we get away without a scrub. And if it is scrubbed, I hope we’ll manage to get new tickets. Oh man, this is so cool here, I woukd really not like to give that up. But lets keep optimistic.

11:03 the public announce system has very bad quality. Especially for me non-native speaker its hard to grasp what’s going on. We get shadedue to the clouds. Doesn’t look promising. Discovery is in shade now too. The crowds get bigger and bigger and more and more cameras appear…

11:07 right now low clouds are directly above the shuttle — or are they not? Maybe its a question of perspective. Btw… Did I mention that I had forgotten to turn off my vide camera? Thankfully, it turned itself off, so I hope to be able to take some shots if the shuttle launces (well, as it looks I seem to be positive about that….)

11:15 still low clouds, shuttle still in shade. We are at t-9 and holding. Less than half an hour now…

11:17 now it looks like it starts raining close to the shuttle. If so, that’s it…

11:21 ice buildup on the shuttele (if I got the announcement right). Still go for launch…

11:26 still go! Cloud moves away, discovery is in the sun again – as we are, becsuse the clouds clear up. Ist probably a question of how fast they move (out)

11:28 still go! Announcement that booster droplets should be avoided

11:30 T-9 and counting! I am crossing my fingers…

11:57 I still can’t believe it – we had a liftoff! What an excitment. And all that sound. Hat surprised me the most was how bright the exhaust was. I nearly couldn’t look without hurting me eyes.I even managed to take some pictures without distracting me too much. Oh man, am I happy! I whish the crew an excellent mission and I am extremely grateful that I could witness the launch! We are now waiting inside thebus (as advised). It probably takes around an hour to go back to the main complex. The next thing I do is save my pictures, as I definitely do not want to loose them!

Also, my deepest thanks to all who helped me make my trip. Special thanks to Armando for the launch photography link, which enabled me to take pictures without being detracted.

One note: I’ve written this on my pda, there are for sure some typos in it. However, I refrain from editing the post as it covers my excitment and fears as things progressed. I don’t want to destroy that by editing. Even typos may convey my excitment level ;)

13:05 we are back at the main complex for roughly 20 minutes now. The space center is so full of people – even though there already is big traffic jam going out. Getting something to eat is extra challenging. But does that matter after such a great launch? ;) Interestingly, all the temporary facilitiesat ksc are already being taken down. On the causeway, they dismantled everything even while we waited in the bus. These guys seem to do everything highly efficient. Through the public speaker system, I listen to shuttle ground communication. From what I grasp, everything went well, not just the launch.

EDIT: you can now view my space shuttle launch day pictures. I have uploaded them into my gallery. They contain comments, and I think give a good impression of the overall experience.

And here is the picture that probably shares the most enjoyment:

space shuttle launch

to launch … or not to launch ;)

Today was a quite good day. The weather was OK, with lots of clouds in the morning and only very few ones in the evening. No rain at KSC, but there would have been too many clouds if it were a launch day.

The Internet connectivity in the Super 8 Titusville where I managed to stay is even worse than expected, my room seems to be too far away from the wi-fi hotspot. So I’ll be brief with this post.

The bad thing this morning was that the Up Close tour was sold out, so we had to go for the regular program. But not that bad at all.

The cool thing of the days was that I actually met Armando (a frequent commenter on this blog) in person. Out of the sudden, he spotted my at Saturn V center. Armando, it was really great talking to you!

NASA so far sticks with tomorrows launch date. The constraint is still the weather. NASA officially says that there is a 60 percent chance that the launch will be scrubbed. On spaceflightnow.com, however, a knowledgeable meteorologist just said that he’d give a 80 percent chance for a launch. His data was probably more current, so I stick to his point of view.

I’ll need to get up by 3a tomorrow (yeah, that’s in roughly 6 hours) as we booked “Breakfast with an Astronaut” and the breakfast is scheduled for 5:30a. So don’t expect an early morning post from me. I’ll try to post via my cell phone from KSC, but I do not know if I get coverage (at the hotel, it looked bad).

Stay tuned … and cross your fingers, please ;)

only the weather seems to be the constraint

I was to Orlando’ attractions today, so I think I just quote NASA’s shuttle home page for now:

At the STS-120 Launch Readiness News Conference Sunday morning, LeRoy Cain, launch integration manager, pointed to the weather as the only question mark for the launch week ahead. He reported all is “ready to move forward to launch on Tuesday.”

Weather officer Kathy Winters called Tuesday’s weather “promising” at 60 percent favorable. She explained that they continue tracking a frontal boundary that may now arrive on Wednesday, earlier than previously predicted. The front should be out in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, but the timing of the front’s arrival could cause problems for a Wednesday launch attempt should Tuesday’s launch not occur. Weather should improve once the front passes through the area. There is still only a 10 percent chance that weather could prohibit tanking for Tuesday’s liftoff.

That’s excellent news. The weather, however, seems to be a problem. Again, we had rain over here in Orlando and so it looks like viewing the launch becomes a betting game. We’ll see.

I’ll drive over to Titusville tomorrow and try to catch Kennedy Space Center’s “up close” tour. I hope the weather is well enough so that we can really see something.

countdown started

As scheduled, the countdown for STS-120 started today at 2pm EDT in Kennedy Space Center. All systems are still go and it looks like we have an on-time launch — weather permitting.

I visited Seaworld Orlando today and have booked a trip to Discovery Cove tomorrow. So I am currently not following STS-120 in depth. That’ll change Monday, when I drive over to Kennedy Space Center.

Today, we had big clouds over Orlando. I hope the weather in Kennedy Space Center will be better on launch day. Else we probably have a scrub. Anyhow, let’s see how it evolves…

arrived well…

Just a quick note: we arrived well yesterday and are currently staying in the Orlando Residence Inn. We just got up (struggeling with the jet lag) and will have breakfast. More news probably this evening.