Day 4630

I ended up seeing the Space X Starlink launch last night. It was still raining when I drove to the Press Site. There weren't a lot of people setting up cameras and most of them thought that the launch would get scrubbed. It did get delayed, but eventually the skies started to clear and the launch took place around 11:41 PM. I'm glad I stayed optimistic and didn't drive back to town. It was another spectacular launch. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures. The remote shutter release I use locked up just before the launch and I didn't have time to reboot everything. It's no great loss though. I already have plenty of pictures of Falcon 9 rockets launching at night.

I spent a lot of time today trying to figure out what went wrong so it won't happen again when the Artemis rocket launches tomorrow morning. I suspect the problem was user error. It's really hard to see the camera controls in the dark and sometimes I press the wrong buttons by mistake. At least tomorrow morning the skies will be getting brighter as we approach launch time.

My interviews didn't go well today. Basically, I didn't get any interviews. The Italian astronaut had a flight delay and couldn't make his Sunday morning interviews. The German astronaut decided at the last minute to skip his last interviews of the day and go on a tour of a NASA clean room facility instead. It's just as well. I never look forward to interviews because I don't think I'm very good at it. I do much better as a fly on the wall, just quietly observing things and sharing my thoughts.

The journalists who were doing interviews were having a feeding frenzy. On air media people seem pretty aggressive. They all have deadlines to meet or are on the air live and don't have time for slow moving people like me. I saw some of them even filming other people's interviews. I actually learned a lot by just wandering around and listening to other journalists interview people. I don't think I'm cut out to be a broadcast journalist. I forgot to pack two of journalism's most important tools: a pen and a notebook. I didn't even take a recorder, although I guess I could have used my phone to record an interview. Before my astronauts canceled out on me, I was looking everywhere for a ballpoint pen. There were lots of free hats, but no pens. 

I've been eating at my Airbnb instead of going to restaurants. Every day I stop at a grocery store on my way back from the space center and pick up a few things. I've discovered single serve cereal packages where you just pour milk in the little plastic cup the cereal is packaged in. I thought about getting single serve beer and soft drinks but they are much more expensive than getting a six pack. Anything with organic on the label is more expensive too. I don't want a lot of food left over when I leave, but I still don't know how long I'm going to stay. It all depends on what happens tomorrow morning.

I think I like staying at an Airbnb. The house I'm staying at is located in a nice quiet residential neighborhood. I took my daily walk through the neighborhood this afternoon and kept thinking that this would be a nice place to live. Titusville is a pleasant little town. There are lots of retired people and many of the younger ones work for NASA. Actually my Airbnb host is an engineer on the Orion program. I met he and his wife today and it looks like we'll both be heading to the space center in the middle of the night for tomorrow's launch.

I really hope that this launch goes off on schedule. This mission is so complicated that it seems like a miracle to me if everything works as planned. Ill just be watching tomorrow, but some of the people I've met down here have spent their entire careers working on Artemis or the Orion capsule. Good luck guys.  I hope your efforts are successful.

Mandy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4620

It rained again last night and it was a lot cooler this morning. Ten degrees can make a big difference. We had an enjoyable early morning walk with Dawn and since the skies were overcast it looked like it might stay cooler all day. I ate my breakfast and checked the temperature again. Finally, it was cool enough for a long walk in the park.

I enjoy walking outdoors more than on the indoor track at the gym. I don't enjoy the heat though, so I need to take advantage of days like this. It didn't even get up to 90 degrees today and for most of my walk it was in the 70's. The only thing I don't like about walking outdoors is the continual drone of leaf blowers from the landscaping crews in the neighborhood and the frequent police and fire sirens. Add in all the planes on final approach to Love Field and it's not a very quiet place. Our park is a beautiful wooded area but it is located inside a large city. You really can't avoid the noise.

Since it was cooler today I decided it was finally time to mow the grass. We've been letting it grow because the taller the grass, the deeper the roots. Even though it has been a dry summer, I think the lawn is going to survive. I'm not sure how long the mower is going to survive though. I definitely need new batteries. I used to be able to mow both the front and back yards on a single charge. Today the mower died before I finished the back yard. I hesitate to buy another mower though. I think the next step is to join the other neighbors and just get a landscaping service to do the mowing for me. I'm definitely not getting any younger. Mowing the yard tires me out now.

I managed to find another ESA astronaut to interview while I'm down at Kennedy Space center. Maybe I can turn the two interviews into a separate article. Both astronauts have interesting stories. The Italian astronaut had a close call when a faulty spacesuit caused his helmet to fill up with water while he was outside the space station doing repairs. The German astronaut is a musician and joined a live Kraftwerk concert while he was on the space station and may be the only person to play a synthesizer in space.

I'm still a little apprehensive about my upcoming trip. Everything important happens early in the morning and I'm not a morning person. My flight leaves at 6 AM and the launch itself takes place at 6:30 AM. Different days though. I've been told to arrive at the press site five hours ahead of the launch. Yikes. That means I'll be getting up in the middle of the night. I'm not so sure about staying at an Airbnb either. The place I selected got great reviews but I've never stayed at an Airbnb before. I've stayed at the Titusville Holiday Inn so many times that I feel like family there. Oh, well. You know what they say about old dogs and new tricks. It might be good for me to try something new.

I briefly thought about getting out the star tracker and seeing if I could duplicate yesterday's test session. It seemed like too much trouble though and I ended up doing a load of laundry instead. Even though I mowed the lawn today, it still seemed like a slow day. Hey, there's nothing wrong with slow days. I've taken this weeks trash out to the curb and I'm read to start all over again tomorrow.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day