Boeing Delta II Rocket launch!

The Boeing Delta 2 rocket carrying the STEREO spacecraft just launched! The spacecraft will study solar eruptions. Here's the view from my house. Not very exciting, but at least i saw a little glow in the sky.

University of Central Florida Engineering & Computer Science Leadership Institute

This Friday I have been chosen to be one of three mentors chosen within Boeing at Kennedy Space Center to participate in a University of Central Florida Partnership program. Through April 2007, I will serve as a mentor to a UCF student who has been chosen to particiate in the UCF Engineering & Computer Science Leadership Institute. It is a leadership developmental institute that is sponsored by Progress Energy. I am excited as this will be the first time I will be mentoring a student persuing an advanced degree. However, I'm excited and hope my student will enjoy the advice and guidance I provide.

USS Trident hosts me as a guest speaker to homeschooled students!

Something I enjoy the most is going out and talking to highschool students to encourage them and entertain them with science, engage them in behind-the-scenes of space shuttle processing, and act as a mentor through the critical years for these students. On Tuesday October 17, 2006, USS Trident, a local Treasure Coast Chapter of Starfleet International, hosted a "Science Night" meeting for local homeschooled students in Port St. Lucie, Florida and I was the guest speaker. It was a great group and I know they enjoyed my talk. Here are some pictures from that night.....

Our crew made it home.

Well I got home at 3am because this week I have been working 2nd shift.. I go into work at 2pm and don't get out till about midnight or later. It messes up your whole sleep pattern and I have found it difficult to sleep during the day when planes are passing by low and neighbors are doing yard work. As I was getting ready to leave, some of my co-workers were getting into work to head out to the Shuttle Landing Facility. They are there at the runway to witness landing and then to walk-down the orbiter to document discrepancies before it is rolled into the bay. Regardless of difficulties in sleeping, after getting home at 3am, i put my alarm for 6:10 because I wanted to hear the sonic boom. I left the TV on tuned to the NASA channel so I wouldn't miss a thing. At exactly 6:18 I heard the sonic boom. It's amazing hearing it. It's like some let a shot gun go off right outside your window, but just enough to make a tiny shake to your windows. I continued watching the landing and when I knew they were safely home, I went back to sleep. I experienced another mission with a great team, and great teamwork!

I'm back, and Atlantis coming home soon...

I'm back from houston and it was a great trip. The team was able to resolve all of the Thermal Protection System issues and approved Atlantis safe to fly home. Landing will happen on Wed. Sept 20th at 6:00 am. Should be nice to wake up to a sonic boom. The NASA photographer got some shots of me working while I was supporting the mission imagery team.

Successful launch for Atlantis!!

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I hope those of you in central FL. were able to see the launch. It was a little cloudy, but still a beautiful site. Now, to houston I go to inspect the thermal protection system. Be sure to keep up with the live updates during the mission. Long days awaits our inspection team, but i have a feeling that we won't be seeing much tile damage. Hopefully no protruding gap fillers either!!

Let's try this launch again!!!

Sept.6 at 12:28:48 pm. EDT. will be the next launch attempt for Space Shuttle Atlantis. Tropical Storm Ernesto did not effect us like we though, but we still took the hurricane percautions. I helped my mom put shutters up in her home since she lives in south florida, and then we had a day off incase the weather became worse. But to me, it was just like any other rainy day in florida. However, with a few afternoon squalls of rain you just wouldn't want to drive through. I think it's a good idea too that the launch is scheduled to be at 12:28 pm because usually the scattered thunderstorms occur later in the afternoon.

Other major news....Lockheed Martin won the contract to build the CEV spacecraft. They won this contract over Northrop Grumman and Boeing. You can read all about it here.

Hope everyone has a great long weekend. My birthday is on Monday (I'll be 25) and I get to enjoy a holiday.

Atlantis Mission Status...

STS-115 Mission Status Center

Below is a picture of Atlantis heading back to the launchpad.

Shuttle Altantis Status

Today, efforts for rolling back shuttle atlantis were halted when the shuttle was one mile from the VAB. So Atlantis is back at the launch pad. Depending how tropical storm Ernesto makes out, we could be looking to resuming the launch countdown and launching on September 6th or 7th. We have suspended operations tomorrow...(meaning i get to sleep in and not go to work) and we resume work on Thursday. Let's cross our fingers for a launch next week.

-Damaris

Go STS-115!!!

I think this has been the longest i have not written. I completed my 2 graduate courses and got A's. (yey) Tomorrow I register for another course.

Here are some pictures of Space Shuttle Atlantis at the launch pad. The launch is scheduled for Sunday Aug. 27th at 4:30pm. I really hope that the weather will permit us to launch. Today it was rainy in the afternoon I just hope the weather doesn't follow the pattern as it was with STS-121.

Lately at work i have been working on some process improvements and performing thermal blanket inspections with some co-workers on Space Shuttle Discovery. If you recall from STS-114, there was a thermal blanket patch whose stitches became detached next to Commander Eileen Collin's window. We are basically inspecting all the blankets to look for missing stitches exceeding the criteria or for fabric degradation. On top of the blanket inspections, a lot of paper is being kicked out for repairing degraded previous tile repairs. It's amazing how busy everyone is at work.

I am leaving the day after launch to go out to Houston to support JSC during the imagery inspection. This is when the team looks at the high-res pictures taken from the international space station to determine if there are any damages to the thermal protection system (tiles, thermal blankets, RCC).

Man, and what do you guys think about the 3 new planets? Crazy huh? There goes the rhyme I went by to memorize my planets when i was younger: My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas. Here's an attempt to a new one from a website I read: Many Verses, Each May Change, Just Stick Under New Planet Called UB313

Hope everyone has a good week!!

Shuttle Atlantis STS-115

Rollout to the launch pad of shuttle atlantis was delayed due to weather issues out here. Aside from that, we are still looking at Aug 27th, 2006 launch! I've been working long hours lately and we've been very busy at work with all three orbiters.

My status...

I've been really busy lately. I am going through finals, wrapping up one research paper only to start another, and turning in projects. Aside from school Space Shuttle Atlantis rolled over to the Vehicle Assembly Building. This will be our continuation flight in assembling the International Space Station. Atlantis is going to carry the second set of solar arrays to attach to the ISS. The last solar arrays were in place in 2000, so it's been a while.

They're back!!!

This was the first time I've ever heard the sonic boom. It was amazing! Our friends are home!

Astronauts doing their spacewalk....

While the astronauts are doing their spacewalk, I am helping to quickly prepare the briefing charts to include analysis and recommendations.

Working Hard!

Here's a picture someone took of my co-worker and I while we were looking at the imagery files downlinked from the space station. I just got home and I am exhausted!! If you watch the NASA channel, they are showing the highlights of flight day 4. There are briefings that they're showing from the press release which was exactly what i helped prepare today. We had the crew take better images of the areas we had marked down as damages. There are still some areas that we are evaluating for heating scenarios, some were eliminated or acceptable by criteria; for example, the nose cap. There was a white spot on the nose cap that was thought to be a damage. However, with a better image from the crew today, it was determined it was a bird dropping. Yup. We're all glad it is not a damage. Tomorrow is saturday and I will be at work at 7am to continue to help working on charts with the results of the analysis/recommendations.

Imagery complete...Next, analysis and decision making

Today, with the imagery team, we looked at images downlinked from the space station. There were a couple thermal blankets that had a small tear. However, this is not something that is a threat to the re-entry of the vehicle. There was a small damage in between the commander and pilot's window. Again, the damage is small and is not a threat.

I am extremley impressed as to how "clean" the tiles were. There were damages, but not of them fell out of the criteria we have for size in specific zones of the orbiter. We did have a couple of protruding gap fillers that are undergoing analysis at the moment. The analysis is to be done by the aeroheating group to see what the effects are on the boundary layer. So if the analysis shows it will be a threat upon re-entry, managers will need to decide if an EVA is required to pull the gap filler on a spacewalk, just as in the last flight (STS-114). Today was a long day. I went in at 8:30am and didn't get out till about 8:00pm. And this is that I left early because I have a paper for school that I want to work on. However, there were others that have been there longer, and stayed there longer today. Tomorrow will be an even longer day as meetings will be held and charts for briefings will need to be prepared based on the analysis for these in-flight anomalies. I go in at 7am and i may be working more than 12 hrs tomorrow.

It was a great day though. I have got to say that being part of the mission is the biggest pay-off in my job. I couldn't ask for anything better. I am surrounded by great co-workers and they are all team-players. I was watching the NASA tv downlink and waited for the orbiter to dock to the space station. when it did, it was so great to see the crew come to the space station. My biggest fan right now is Mike Fossum (also a graduate from Texas A&M University!!!). It's his first flight and he just has the biggest smile on him all the time. But it was just so cool how i was just sitting there at work, watching the astronauts downlink the images, and then an hour later, i am looking at them for damages. It's all amazing to me and just makes me want to hop on the next shuttle (Haha...too bad it's not that easy to do)!!


If you want to see pictures of the damages, you can visit this site: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/cat.asp?cid=4

I've arrived in houston

I'm in Houston now. It's late and I should be in bed because I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. I will be looking at the imagery downlink images that the space station crew will be taking of the orbiter's belly. We will look for any damages or discrepancies on tiles, blankets, or regarding gap fillers. I'll update everyone more later. I just checked in to my hotel and need to iron (yuck..not a fan of ironing..)

-Damaris

Today's Successful Launch

We have ACCEPTABLE launch conditions. "Go" for STS-121!!!

We are go for launch everyone!!! Here are some pictures of the foam that was evaluated. A borescope was used to inspect the crack and they have evaluated and run further analysis to determine that we can proceed with the launch tomorrow! (yey!)










I did want to mention this: NASA has public phone numbers in the case that if you're unable to listen to NASA TV when they have the press conferences even during the launch countdown, these lines are available at "monitor only". you can call it and just listen in. Its exactly whats being said during on the television. Now there isn't something being said every minute, so if you don't hear something then try back because they may just have the cameras on the shuttle and not be saying anything. 321/867-1220, 321/867-1240, or 321/867-1260



Almost forgot to share some pictures of discovery on the launch pad!!!! Enjoy!

Even tomorrow's launch may not happen.

Yesterday after the scrub, there is an inspecting crew that inspected the external tank for ice buildup and looked for any cracks or missing foam. Well, a crack was found. It's in discussion right now, whether it needs to be repaired and what the options are. The crack was found on the foam insulation near one of the holding brackets that hold the oxygen feed line. It's about 4-5 inches in length.

Read more about the External Tank foam crack here...