Good To Be Back Home....

And I'm going to In-N-Out tonight!

Neil Armstrong Dies at Age 82

A true pioneer, and a fine man.

May he rest in peace........

Further details here.

And here.

And here.

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SoCal Blogshoots?

Are there any out there?

I keep reading on all the other blogs about how much fun all you fine people have going to them, but I've yet to see any mentioned for Southern California.

The local NRA group held a "Fun Shoot" a couple of weeks ago, but alas, I was out bouncing around on the ocean for work.

Hmm.....maybe I should check with the ranges I go to and ask around some more, but I've never seen any gatherings "advertised" as a blogshoot.

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ETA Sunday, About Noon, +/- God Knows How Much.....

We're about 2/3rds of the way back to Long Beach, and should either be at the Pilot Station, or pier, at 10AM/Noonish.

Still a *bit* too early to pin down an exact time, but I sure as H3LL hope it's not 10 freaking PM like it was last time!

I'm going to take my two bonus/incentive days immediately, and an extra day of personal time to go see my Doctor. My leg is getting better, and the Mother Of All Bruises is _starting_ to fade, but I'm still limping, I can't put my right leg over my left to put my shoes and socks on, I still have a big, sore lump where I "hit the deck", and my entire right thigh goes numb if I stand in one place for more than about ten minutes.

And I think I wrenched my left shoulder as I was going down. I didn't black out when I hit, but there's a bit of a timeline gap between realizing my feet were in the air and I was looking at the sky, to when I remember lying on the deck with two of the Russian guys running over to help me get up. I was still holding on to one of the stair rails with my left hand, and my arm was kinda back behind my head.

I'm sure I'll get referrals to Orthopedics, and probably Neurology, and I wonder what, if anything, they find.

For now I'm taking Ibuprofen, staying off my feet as much as I can except when I have to go do things, and trying to get as much sleep as I can.

Talk at y'all later.........

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Case Trimmers?

Well, the Brown Truck of Happiness has delivered my RCBS "Rock Chucker" kit, along with the dies and other goodies I bought, BUT I still need a case trimmer.

Seems like there's quite a few choices out there, and I'd rather go with suggestions from my friends out here that have the experience I still lack.

Since we won't be getting back until Sunday, I still have plenty of time to order one and have it waiting for me.

Recommendations, suggestions, and actual use reports are welcome and greatly appreciated!

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GROAN.....Endless Meetings!

Even though the launch went fine, we still have to do all the debriefs, and go over "Lessons Learned", and play various "What If...." scenarios.

One of the Lessons Learned was something I've been harping about for some time now.

One of our telemetry receivers shut down at about L-3 hours due to an over temp condition. While others were agonizing over "What Do We DO!?!", I grabbed my Surefire G3 and went around to the rear of the rack.

Sure enough, the filter on the cooling fan was PACKED full of crud. After getting approval from the system owner, I pulled the fan, slid the filter out, blew it out with canned air, and put everything back together.

I was finished, and the receiver was back receiving, about 15 minutes before the Official Committee To Find Out What Happened came out of the conference room.

They were stunned I had it "fixed" so fast.

And then I pointed out that I'd been telling TPTB for several years that little things like this will cause a launch abort one of these days. If this had happened an hour or so later in the count, there's a good chance we would have scrubbed the launch, at a rather HUMUNGOUS cost compared to the value of the fan, filter, and whole damn receiver.

At least I wrote down all the information on the label on the fan so we can order some spares. Spare fans like this probably cost $10~$15, and are readily available.

They interesting thing is that we just got these receivers back from a "Full Calibration, CLEANING, and Adjustment" from a factory authorized service center!

And they charged us about $1500 EACH to go through these old codgers and "certify" them.

I'm willing to bet there'll be just a few phone calls made over the next few days.........

Yep, It Worked Again

Successful launch, and I tracked it over the horizon.

Next up is an upper stage burn, then spacecraft separation.

But since my job is done, and I have to go over and tear down and stow equipment tomorrow at 0800, I'm going to bed!

Goodnight, all.........

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L- 2 Hours, 30 Minutes, and Counting.....

And we are GO to begin fueling the launch vehicle!

Launch will be streamed live on USTREAM.

L-8 Hours and Counting.....

Tonight's launch of Intelsat-21 will be available for viewing at the Intelsat website.

I spent 14 hours over on the Launch Platform yesterday getting antennas aligned and working through some "issues" we had.

They've NEVER "problems", even though they are, but rather "issues".

I'm sure you all know the drill!

Enjoy the launch if you're up that late!

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Firefly

Since we've been delayed 24 hours, I've been watching the Blu-Ray discs of "Firefly".

I watched "Serenity" a couple of months ago, and now I wished I would have waited until I'd watched the series.

It was a stunningly good series, and highly underrated while it was being aired.

I just finished the first disc, having watched the first 5 episodes, and I'm up to where River has finally stated speaking to the other crew members. I particularly liked the way she "charmed" Badger.

And sweet little Kaylee has started showing some open signs of her infatuation with Simon.

I've had these discs for a couple of years, and just now got around to watching them.

I don't believe I wated so long to watch such a well-made series.

We've Arrived......

At the launch site, that is.

We're starting L-3 operations so I'll be pretty busy the next few days.

Launch is set for August 17th at 2356PDT.

More info can be found at the Intelsat website.

CUL!

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