Last week was an amazing week. As you know, I was one of 150 selected by NASA to attend the GRAIL launch and Tweetup. First of all, I have to apologize for not being able to update the blog with my experiences before today: it was the first chance I’ve had to sit down and formulate an entry for you. So without further ado: my NASA Tweetup experience. Parts One and Two, I told you about the Tweetup and the first launch attempt. In this entry, the actual launch.
Part 3: Sometimes it Pays to be Lucky
I arrived home late in the day Thursday September 8th. I was tired and disappointed that I wasn’t going to get to see the launch, but quite pleased to have participated in the Tweetup.
Friday September 9th. I got up Friday morning and went through my usual routine of checking emails and the web for news before getting ready for work. I was surprised to learn that the Friday launch for GRAIL had already been scrubbed so that the engineering team could investigate an anomaly that popped up as they were taking fuel off the rocket Thursday evening. The NASATweetup people let us know that, since the busses wouldn’t go Friday that they *would* take the group out to a viewing site Saturday, if we could make it. So it looked like I would have one more chance to see the launch. Woo hoo!
So Friday afternoon after work (ok, I left a little early…with permission) I headed home, threw my things back in my bags (I had pretty much unpacked Thursday night when I got home) and I headed back north to Titusville, this time with my wife Monica in tow.
Saturday, September 10th. Once again we all gathered at the parking area to be bused to the launch viewing area. We had a bit smaller group since not everyone was able to stay over to Saturday, but several of the in-state people had come back for the Saturday morning attempt. We were told that we wouldn’t be going back out to the causeway on Saturday, since the prevailing winds might blow noxious fumes that way from the launch (or from a malfunctioning, exploding rocket if it came to that). So we went off to a different site: KARS park, about 5 miles directly west of the launch complex. To me, it seemed like it was slightly further away than the causeway viewing site for Thursday, but the view was better (fewer buildings in the way). There were also far fewer people in the park Saturday morning than on the causeway Thursday. Our viewing area was right next to a small harbor with a boat ramp, and in between jockeying for the best viewing spots we soon discovered that there was a small herd of manatees bobbing about in the water right next to us (and yes I looked it up: a group of manatees is actually called a “herd”). Most of the non-Florida contingent of Tweeps hadn’t ever seen manatees up close, so everyone was thrilled with the bonus attraction offered from our viewing site.
As with Thursday, the first few weather reports weren’t promising. There was a 60% chance of favorable launch weather (as opposed to 40% Thursday) and two windows for launch at 8:29 and 9:08, but we were all hopeful. We kept track of the latest weather reports and tried to listen to the audio feed, although the speakers in the park were pretty mushy). Once again, the weather balloon close to the 8:29am attempt came back red, so the 8:29 attempt was scrubbed.
Several people with tight connections had to leave, so they jumped in their rental cars and headed out. Meanwhile the NASA weather people sent up a couple more balloons and tweeted that they “may have misinterpreted” the data from the last ones. (How does one misinterpret wind data?) Best tweet of the morning: “Hey NASA, stop sending up Red balloons…Send Green ones.” At 9am we got the final weather report: the next to last balloon indicated that the winds were 40% over allowable limits, but the last balloon indicated that the winds were 16% in the green. The 9:08 launch was a go!
The Delta Heavy rocket carrying the GRAIL spacecraft finally lifted off at 9:08:52am to the cheers of everyone in the park. It headed pretty much straight up from our vantage point (since it was taking off slightly south of due east). The rocket rose silently for the first 30 seconds or so until the rumble of the engines finally reached us. It then pierced a high level of clouds, leaving a shadow of the rocket’s contrail forking off to the west. The first six solid rocket boosters strapped to the bottom of the rocket burned out and dropped off slightly more than a minute into the launch, and the three remaining SRB’s lit as planned. As the rocket trailed off in the distance, the GRAIL Tweetup group burst into applause. You can see the video I recorded of the event here.
No one wanted to the experience to be over, but it was. No one wanted to leave, but we did. We piled back into the busses and were dropped off back at the parking lot. I met my wife (who got to watch the launch from Jetty Park in Port Canaveral--actually almost 2 miles closer to the launch than I was) and we headed back to Naples and the real world.
It was a wonderful experience. If you ever get the chance to go to a NASA Tweetup, I can tell you it’s well worth the time and investment. Thanks to NASA, thanks to JPL, and thanks to all the people that made the Tweetup happen. Thanks to all my fellow Tweeps that made the experience so enjoyable. And finally, a special thanks to my boss Christine Richards for allowing me to attend the Tweetup (and for calling me Thursday afternoon to offer to let me stay over for Friday).
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