Third Trip to Florida in a Month

It has been a very busy couple of months at work. There's way too much to do in the time allotted but that doesn't mean we're not going to give it all we've got. Over the past two weeks I traveled back-and-forth to Cape Canaveral twice for the pre-launch vehicle walkdowns of the Delta IV vehicle for the WGS-3 mission (scheduled to launch 12/2). Both were hectic trips since we're working a lot of last minute changes/fixes on the fly that were installed by the already over-taxed launch site crew. I almost didn't make it home in time for Thanksgiving but it all turned out well. It helped to be down there with another propulsion guy who is a lot of fun to hang out with.

One of the cool things that I got to see while down there on the last trip was the launch of an Atlas V (my other rocket) late Sunday night. The launch was for a commercial communications satellite called Intelsat 14 (not related to the chip company). We were able to get pretty close to the launch since my CCAFS badge is good for the entire base.

Here is a picture of the rocket on the pad the night before the launch. The high intensity spotlights really light up the rocket to a dazzling display that can be seen crystal clear for miles. You can tell how humid it is since the beams are illuminated. They usually go the extra mile making the commercial missions look good.







The next night we drove back on base about a half hour before the T-Zero time and setup shop on the causeway between CCAFS and KSC. The count was delayed about an hour due to upper level winds but eventually the count resumed and we were treated to a very cool experience. Here is a picture of the rocket shortly after liftoff taken by the other propulsion guy I was down there with.







And here is a low quality video that I took with my ancient digital camera. The audio doesn't begin to do the roar justice. You can tell we're a few miles away since it takes a little while for the initial sound waves to travel the distance across the water.

Thankfully I'll get to work the Delta IV WGS-3 launch from Denver since I've already traveled to the Cape three times in the last month. The next Delta IV mission will be a NASA weather satellite in March so I'll probably be back there again in February. Our group is actively working to spread out the launch support travel so that the family impacts are minimized as much as possible. This will be especially helpful once Eiko returns to work!