Day 4896

It was a beautiful launch this evening. The weather cooperated. There were no serioous problems with the rocket, and the launch took place right on schedule at 5:37 PM. Since the AX-2 Mission was going to the International Space Station, the launch had to take place exactly at 5:37 PM. A delay in the launch was not an option. With an instantaneous launch window and weather deteriorating for the rest of the week, it was a good thing the Axiom team was able to get off the ground today. The weather looks bad tomorrow.

There are always a few dramatic moments in any launch. Today there was a small leak in a nitrogen attitude control system that the first stage booster uses while returning to the landing Zone. There was also a threatening anvil cloud getting close to the three mile exclusion zone surrounding the launch pad. Anvil clouds produce lightning and a lightning strike to a rocket in flight is never a good thing. Fortunately all obstacles were overcome and the Dragon capsule is already on its way to a rendezvous with the international space station.

The day got off to a very early start. I had to pick up my press credentials at 5:45 AM. No breakfast today. The restaurant wasn't even open yet when I left the hotel. After picking up my credentials I joined a group of photographers being bussed out to the launch pad to set remote cameras. I don't set remote cameras myself, but I like taking pictures near the launch site. There was an hour delay when one of the shuttle busses hit a pole in the press site parking lot, knocking one of its rear view mirrors off. The bus seemed fine, but NASA is very strict about its rules. We had to wait for a substitute bus and driver.

I returned to Titusville to get some lunch after our trip to the launch pad. I had to go to Sonny's and get some barbecue, even though the brisket gave me heartburn on my last visit. It's a good thing that I don't take many of these trips. My blood pressure and resting heart rate always go up when I travel. I never sleep well either. My life in Dallas may be boring at times, but it does keep me healthier. 

After lunch I returned to the press site for some interview opportunities before the launch. I'm never very comfortable doing this sort of thing, but the magazine wanted me to try to interview some of the Axiom people. I guess the interviews went reasonably well. I may not be a real journalist, but I'm learning to act like one. I'll be able to incorporate a few quotes from my interviews into the article I'm going to write.

I had no camera problems today. I've been plagued with minor camera problems on recent launch visits, but today everything went perfectly. I think the pictures came out pretty well. Maybe I got lucky, or maybe  I'm finally learning to be more methodical and consistent about launch photography. Hopefully, I'll get a good night's sleep tonight before heading back to Dallas tomorrow. I don't know when I'll be back here again, but I'm glad that these periodic launch visits still give me pleasure. It was a very good day today.

Casey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4871

The rocket didn't go anywhere today. Space X scrubbed tonight's launch due to the potential for severe weather in the area. Since the launch was postponed early in the day, we weren't even able to get our credentials. This was a disapointment to everybody waiting for their badges at the Press Accredation Office. We were hoping that we could at least go visit the Press Site today and get some pictures. I guess Space X didn't want us wandering around unsupervised. The launch has been rescheduled for tomorrow evening. The weather looks better tomorrow, but it's still not a sure thing. Basically, it has been a very rainy week. It's even raining in Dallas today.

I think there was some severe weather near Kennedy Space Center this afternoon, but it was very localized. When I went back to my hotel in Titusville, we didn't even see any rain until very late in the day. I guess this was a good thing because I was able to get my steps. I walked back and forth between the hotel and a Cracker Barrel restaurant at the other end of the street until I got my daily 10,000 steps. My timing was good because shortly after I got 10,000 Fitbit steps and closed all three rings on my Apple Watch it started raining pretty hard.

The rain didn't last very long and I didn't want to spend the entire afternoon in my hotel room, so I drove out to Playlinda Beach. This beach is located in the Canaveral National Seashore and is a place I like to visit. There are some nice views of the launch pad in several areas as well as an abundance of wildlife. The seashore is a protected nature preserve and is the longest stretch of pristine, undeveloped beach in Florida. The area is run by the National Park Service and today I traded my annual pass for a Lifetime Senior Pass. If you save your old yearly passes, they count toward the price of a lifetime pass. I ended up getting my Lifetime Pass for half price.

I did get a few photos of the Falcon Heavy rocket from the top of one of the walkways to the beach. The park service doesn't want you to walk on the dunes surrounding the beach, so they've built wooden walkways over the dunes in selected areas. I saw several other launch photographers I know taking pictures as well. Today, Playlinda Beach was the only game in town. It was a grey day and my pictures weren't spectacular, but at least it wasn't raining. Actually the weather was nice for the entire time I was out at Playlinda Beach and it only started raining again when I returned to Titusville for dinner.

I stopped at my favorite barbecue place for dinner. If I'm in Titusville I've got to have at least one meal at Sonny's. Most of the other launch photographers seem to favor seafood restaurants, but I'm from Texas and I'll take barbecue over fish any day of the week. When I travel I realize that I'd be fat if I made a habit of eating restaurant meals. Janet is a great cook and fixes really healthy meals. I'm lucky that I get to enjoy them.

It's too bad Space X didn't go ahead and have the launch today. The storms are gone and it's clear outside right now. I'm sure they had their reasons. I did see lightning several time times during the afternoon. The weather forecast said there was a possibility of large hail, but I didn't see any. I hope there is no rain tomorrow. At one point when I was driving through a short patch of heavy rain, my rental car had an electrical problem. The headlights went out and the GPS display went dark. Everything returned to normal a few minutes later, but this would be bad news if it happened at night.

I've changed all my reservations and will be staying another day in hopes that the Viasat-3 launch will take place tomorrow evening. Lets hope the weather improves. This isn't the first launch delay I've experienced and it won't be the last. When you are chasing rockets you've just got to expect these things.

Brady is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4709

I'm back at Kennedy Space Center for another Artemis launch attempt. The launch is technically tomorrow morning, but it's going to seem like late tonight to me. If all goes well, liftoff will be a little after 1 AM. Everything looks good so far. The countdown is proceeding and there doesn't seem to be any weather problems.

The day got off to a very early start. My flight departed at 6 AM, so I had to be at the airport a lot earlier for all the TSA stuff. I must be getting slower because I cut it pretty close this time, arriving at the gate just fifteen minutes before boarding. I've been to Kennedy Space Center so many time by now that this trip is getting to seem very routine. I don't even need a car with GPS anymore. Titusville is a small town and it's starting to feel very familiar. 

I had to pick up my credentials before noon today, so that left me with a lot of free time. I went out to the Press Site to see what was going on and was surprised that the place seemed relatively empty. There were definitely a lot fewer people than were at the first launch attempt. I'm sure there will be a more folks arriving later tonight, but so far this launch seems a little subdued. All the scrubbed launches probably just wore everyone out. 

I got my Fitbit steps walking around the Press Site parking lot and then went to the space center Sonny's BBQ for a smoked pork sandwich. Sonny's has some great bartbecue and I always enjoy eating there. Before I left the Press Site to check in at my hotel I heard that the Artemis launch team had completed their final pre-launch meeting and had given the go ahead to begin fueling the rocket. 

My hotel isn't as bad as I thought. It's not the place I would have picked, but it's clean and relatively convenient. There must be a lot of people who are planning to show up at the Press Site later tonight because all the hotels in town are completely booked. I was actually lucky to get a room here. 

I've been told that the journalists covering the launch should plan to arrive that the Press Site by 7 PM tonight. That leaves a lot of time to sit around doing nothing. I guess I could go later, but there's no point in staying at the hotel. There's not a lot of point in going our for dinner either. After my big lunch, I couldn't eat another thing. I didn't run into anyone I knew this afternoon, but I'll probably see a few familiar faces tonight. I hope my camera works. I've been having problems with this camera lately. Actually the problems are mostly with me. It's hard for me to adjust the camera and focus properly in the dark. I always forget something on these trips. This time it was a flashlight.

I hope the furnace is getting fixed back in Dallas. Janet said the repairman was coming back this afternoon with the new blower motor. There will still be problems when this is fixed, but at least I'll be warm. One one the problems reoccured last night while I was finishing packing. Another roof leak. I was surprised. We haven't had to deal with a leak in months. Oh, well. It's always something.

I really hope that Artemis is successful this time. I'm sure the launch team learned some things from the first two attempts. It probably didn't hurt to have a chance to completely inspect the rocket while it was inside the VAB as well. So far, people seem optimistic. There's only a few hours left until launch time. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow.

Honey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4695

What a weird day. When I left the hotel this morning to go to the launch, it was so foggy outside that I could barely see the car. What a surprise. I kept thinking that the fog would lift quickly, but the closer I got to the ocean, the thicker the fog got. Visability was terrible on the roads and by the time I arrived at the KSC Press Site, you couldn't see anything. Nobody knew where to point their cameras because you couldn't even see the launch pads. Fog was quickly enveloping the 45 story tall Vertical Assembly Building and as it got closer to launch time, you couldn't even see the sun. Instead of burning off as the sun rose, the fog was blowing in from offshore and it just kept getting thicker.

None of this seemed to bother Space X. The countdown proceeded right on schedule and at 9:41 AM the Falcon Heavy lifted off. We could hear the launch, but we couldn't see a thing. This seemed impossible to me. The Falcon Heavy is a huge rocket with 27 Merlin engines. I was expecting an immense flame from this thing. I didn't even see an orange glow through the fog. If it wasn't for the roar the rocket made, you wouldn't have known there was a launch at all. 

Since we couldn't see the launch, we couldn't see the return of the two side boosters either. Once again it was the sound that reminded us that this launch was actually taking place. As the side boosters began their landing burns, we heard a double sonic boom from each booster. The sonic booms were so loud that we also heard a strange high pitched sound as the sonic booms ricocheted off the VAB. The sound pressure levels had caused the entire building to vibrate. As cool as these sounds were, it was still a huge disappointment not to see the launch. 

I initially thought I might have picked the wrong location. I decided to go to the NASA Press Site at the last minute when I remembered that I got eaten alive by mosquitos the last time I was at the ITL Causeway. It wouldn't have made any difference where I went today. The Causeway was completely fogged in as well. Even though they were closer to the landing site, they still couldn't see anything either.

The launch was a success even though it was a total bust for all the launch photographers. I wasn't the only one who'd been waiting a long time to see the Falcon Heavy's twin side boosters return to land at Cape Canaveral. I was lucky to see the Falcon Heavy SPT-2 Mission launch in 2019. It was spectacular and I really wanted to see another one. Oh, well. You win some and you lose some.

Since the launch was over by 10 AM and my flight home didn't leave Orlando until 6 PM, I had a lot of time to kill. I stayed at the hotel until noon and then went into Titusville and had lunch at Sonny's. I didn't get any good pictures today, but I did have some good barbecue. 

Even though I tried my best to kill time in Titusville, I still arrived at the airport hours before my flight was scheduled to leave. This proved to be a good time to get my steps and I walked back and forth on the concourse until I met my goals. 

The flight home was late getting started because people were so slow getting on the plane. The flight was completely full of little kids returning from a trip to Disneyworld, overweight people who were having trouble navigating the narrow aisle, and way too much carry-on luggage. We were so late getting off the ground in Orlando that we lost our gate when we arrived in Dallas. We had to wait on the plane until they found a new gate for us. All in all it was a long and somewhat frustrating day.

Dawn seemed glad to see me when I got home though. At least the day ended well.

Jeda is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4488

It was a beautiful day for a launch. The temperature was 70 degrees with clear skies and no mosquitos. You couldn't ask for more in Florida. It's amazing how routine Space X has managed to make these launches seem. There are rarely any delays or problems these days. Lift off occurred right on schedule. The Falcon 9 booster, which has already flown four time before, landed safely on the drone ship again and the Axiom-1 astronauts are on their way to the space station.

It felt good to be back at Kennedy Space Center. I reconnected with some of the other launch photographers and met a few new NASA media relations contacts. The guy who had his camera set up next to mine was shooting footage for an iMax movie. He had two assistants and $50,000 worth of equipment. My little camera and tripod looked pretty humble by comparison. I did manage to get some good pictures though. Launch photography is weird. You spend several hours setting up your equipment and making sure it all works correctly. Then the launch itself is over in just a few minutes. 

This was the first daytime launch I've seen in quite a while. Night launches are more dramatic. You can see the rockets exhaust a lot longer at night. Often you can see stage separation and watch the second stage ignite. Daytime launches have their advantages as well. One of the biggest advantages is that you can actually get some sleep after the launch.

I wish Southwest Airlines had more flights to and from Orlando. Even though the launch was over before noon, the first flight home didn't leave Orlando until 7:30 PM. That's a long time to wait for a plane. It's a long time to wear a mask as well. I wasn't in any hurry to leave the space center, so I went and had barbecue at the NASA cafeteria. The cafeteria was being remodeled, but they set up tables where you could eat outside. It was a perfect day to have a brisket sandwich at an outdoor table and watch the eagles fly around the Press Site. There was actually an eagle's nest with a young eaglet inside right next to where I parked my car. 

When I did get to the airport is was an absolute zoo. There was a huge line at the TSA checkpoint. For a little while I thought I might be late for my plane, even though I arrived with hours to spare. When I eventually got to my gate I discovered that my flight had been delayed. It wasn't just my flight either. I noticed that there were many delayed or canceled flights at the other gates as well. I think almost half of today's Southwest flights had some sort of delay.

With so much time to spare, it seemed like a good time to take a long walk. I walked up and down the concourse, stopping to read the menus at a variety of different restaurants. Eating is a good way to kill time, but I wasn't really hungry. The Sonny's barbecue I had for lunch really filled me up. I managed to get 20,000 steps today. I'm surprised that I didn't get more. When we were finally ready to board our delayed flight, there was an announcement that we would have to wait a little longer because the pilot hadn't arrived yet.

Dawn wasn't nearly as eager to see me when I returned home as she was to see Janet after her recent trip. I kind of expected this, but it would have been nice to see a wagging tail. I did finally get Dawn to take a cookie from me, but she still seems a little nervous. We're going to have to work on building trust again.

Cooper is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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