Day 4694 - Halloween

It was a long hot day in the sun. I'm glad it's the end of October instead of the middle of July though. I think I'm just getting old. I found myself growing tired more quickly than I used to on these trips out to the launch pad. That being said, it was a beautiful day and it doesn't look like there will be any weather problems tomorrow. I enjoyed talking with the other launch photographers, although I didn't get the pictures I had hoped for. There were two busses and the first bus I was on was a little too early for the roll out to the pad. I got a few shots of the Falcon Heavy emerging from the hanger but that was about it. I hope I do better tomorrow.

I asked everyone whether they were going to the Press Site or the ITL Causeway tomorrow. There was no clear consensus about which location was best. The Press Site has a slightly better view of the launch, while the ITL Causeway has a better view of the side boosters return. I still can't decide where to go. I guess I'll sleep on it and decide in the morning.

I'm always amazed at the launch photographers who regularly set remote cameras. They will take a $4000 camera and tie a plastic garbage bag around it to protect it. Sometimes the cameras sit out near the pad for days before they can be retrieved. We even saw an alligator near one of the remote camera sites today. There is no danger of theft at the space center, but there is plenty of danger from the weather or rocket fuel. There are lots of stories about cameras and lenses being damaged or destroyed. Lots of folks buy used lenses on eBay and some don't even put a protective glass filter in front of the lens. They think it will cause reflections. I doubt that I will ever set remote cameras myself. I'm very risk adverse and fabricating a protective cage for the camera makes flying from Dallas a lot more difficult. I still like to travel light.

Although I've been down here quite a few times, I'm definitely not one of the regulars. Some of these folks cover every single launch. There are a few launch photographers from major news outlets, but many just have their own podcast or take pictures for a website. A lot have full time jobs outside the space industry. I have no idea how they have the time or money to do this. If I lived nearby, I"d probably come to every launch as well. There's something mesmerizing about chasing rockets.

I'm really hoping for a successful launch tomorrow morning. I don't really want to extend my stay this time. The hotel said there are vacancies tomorrow night, but the flight back home will definitely be more expensive. I will get an article published about this launch, but I'm not sure what to say at this point. The mission is classified and just about everything about the payload is secret.

It doesn't seem much like Halloween. One of the bartenders was in costume where I ate dinner, but there certainly aren't any trick-or-treaters at the hotel.

Roxy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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Day 4573

When I went out to water the lawn early this morning I could already tell that it was going to be too hot for a walk in the park. Dawn and I have our morning routine down pretty well now. When I get up, I make the bed while she is still sitting on it. It's not that hard because I only use a small corner of the bed. I fill her water bowls with fresh water and fix her breakfast. When I return to the kitchen to fix my own breakfast, I can hear her eating in the bedroom. After I finish eating, I take Dawn down to the meadow behind our house so she can poop and pee. It would be nice if she felt like walking further, but so far she wants to go straight back to the house. I give her morning meds with a little cream cheese and then I do the breakfast dishes. I still haven't used the dishwasher. Why bother for one or two plates.

I thought I'd combine grocery shopping with a trip to the gym this morning. I went to the gym first so the groceries wouldn't spoil in the hot car. The gym is pretty empty on a Saturday morning. The roads were pretty empty too. Maybe everyone is traveling during this holiday long weekend. I shot some baskets on the basketball court and walked three miles on the indoor track. That was enough for me.

The grocery store was out of shredded wheat. How can you be out of something so basic? My list was very small today. I needed milk, orange juice, and strawberries. The fresh squeezed orange juice I get was a dollar more than the same bottle was last week. I wasn't really surprised. Everything seems to get more expensive on a weekly basis.

Dawn typically likes to lie out in the sun for a while in the afternoon. Not these days. It's just too hot. When I took her out to pee after I returned home, she did her business quickly and then ran straight to the back door. She's a smart dog. Nobody needs to be outside in this type of weather.

Maybe Dawn likes Janet better because she finds me boring. I certainly haven't found much to get her excited this week. She's fine with me napping on the bed now though. She seems relaxed and mostly just ignores me. We both seem to have the ability to nap for a long time.

I watched the Artemis-1 rollback to the VAB on a NASA livestream for a while this afternoon. This was kind of like watching paint dry because the huge mobile launcher moves at a maximum speed of one mile per hour. I saw a few of my photographer friends on the video feed taking pictures of the rollback. These guys seem to never tire of photographing rockets. It is an interesting little community. I wouldn't mind being a part of it. Unfortunately Florida is just as hot and humid as Texas right now. Winter launches are much more pleasant.

Hopefully Janet won't have any problems with her flight home tomorrow. Every time I turn on the news there's another story about flight delays and cancelations. I don't think it's been this bad for quite a while. Planes are full. Pilots are unhappy and are picketing in front of airports. TSA lines are ridiculous. On top of all this, airfares are more expensive than ever. I'm glad we did a lot of traveling back when flying was easy and cheap.

It looks like I'll have to walk outdoors tomorrow because my gym isn't open on Sunday. I'd better get an early start. I asked the receptionist if they were ever going to open on Sundays again and she said they were having trouble hiring people. Nobody wants to work anymore. I have mixed feelings about working. I always enjoyed writing for a living, but hated having people tell me what to do. I've had a lot of dumb assignments in my time.

Bud 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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Day 3979

The Crew-1 launch was amazing. I was apprehensive about the weather at first, but the chances of rain gradually decreased as the day progressed. By the time the launch took place at 7:27 PM, the skies were clear enough to see a bit of the Milky Way between patches of broken clouds. It really was a beautiful night for a historic launch. The Resilience capsule held four astronauts instead of the usual three. The trip to the International Space Station will be the longest any astronaut has ever taken due to the nature of the orbit. This was also the first time a private company had contracted with NASA to take a crew into space. A lot was riding on this launch to say the least.

Since NASA no longer takes the  press to launch events like this in busses, the media folks gathered at Patrick Air Force Base to form a convoy that would travel to the viewing location using our own cars. There were quite a few people in our group and our convoy looked like a parade. We were all flashing our blinkers behind a lead Air Force car. Our host found us a perfect viewing location directly across the water from Pad 39A. There's usually a lot of waiting prior to a launch, which is kind of ironic because the launch itself is over in a matter of minutes. We typically arrive at the designated location at least an hour or two before the launch. This leaves plenty of time for photographers to fret about their cameras and tell war stories about launches where none of the equipment worked. 

I'm always worried that I'll do something wrong and all my photos will be out of focus. It's harder than you think to focus on something in the dark. I take a lot of practice shots as the rocket is fueling but this doesn't even get you close to the exposure you need for the launch itself. The flame from the engines is so bright that if you expose for the flame, you can't see the rocket and if you expose for the rocket, the bright flame overexposes your entire shot. There is a lot of guesswork involved and I learn new techniques from the other photographers very time I visit the Space Center. I'm beginning to feel like a regular now. This is the fourth launch I've attended at Kennedy Space Center. I've been to an additional launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base too. That being said, I've still got a long way to go. Many of the other photographers have photographed hundreds of launches and a few of the older guys have photographed thousands.

While I was waiting to leave for Patrick Air Force Base this morning, I started writing my article for the magazine in my hotel room. I made good progress and probably have about a third of the article completed. It's probably a good thing that I did this. I forget things quickly and I promised my editor a first draft by the end of the day on Monday anyway. It's rare to meet another writer at these events. Most of the media people I've encountered are either photographers or videographers. Some of the writers work for space oriented websites. I'm old school. I'm pleased to have the opportunity to write for a real magazine that you can hold in your hand. Probably the people who do podcasts get ten times the exposure that I do. Who cares. I still like magazines. Sky and Telescope is a real magazine too. I used to read it when I was in high school.

I was hungry when I returned from the launch, but the restaurant in the hotel was closed. The manager at the front desk said most restaurants close early on Sunday. I'm sure there were still restaurants open somewhere in Titusville but I didn't feel like driving any more. I had a bag of chips for dinner. I was surprised at how many cars were on the road while I was driving back to my hotel. There was bumper-to-bumper traffic for at least thirty miles. Evidently 250,000 people watched this launch and a lot of them were aparently still on the road. 

My coach turns back into a pumpkin tomorrow. As soon as I finish writing this, I've got to start packing my bags. I actually don't mind living out of a hotel room. It's simple and relatively painless. Nobody makes up your room anymore because of Covid, but I know how to make my own bed. I also feel safer leaving my electronic gear in the room, knowing that it will be untouched until I leave. The only thing bad about this new normal is that I'm a bit of a hypochondriac. Every time I end up talking to someone without a mask, I feel like the end is near. My waitress at breakfast this morning wasn't wearing a mask and was handling food and talking to everybody. I don't think I'll have to worry for the rest of the year though. I can't afford to go anywhere else.

Honey is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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