Citizens for Space Exploration

I have been actively working with the Florida sector of the Citizens for Space Exploration as the annual Washington D.C trip is approaching at the end of May. The Citizens for Space Exploration is an organization comprised of multi-state taxpayers who support America's investment in space exploration. The organization represents private citizens, small business owners, students, teachers, space and non-space business representatives, and county and municipal officials. Together, our mission is to promote awareness of the benefits of human space exploration and support for NASA and the US Space Exploration Policy. To help out with the trip, I have been gathering the biographies along with the budgeted NASA funding for the 2008 fiscal year. These two pieces of information will be placed in the folders that the groups will take with them to their appointments with the congressional members and staff. I will be sponsored to attend this year by Ensco Inc. and am looking forward to going to the Hill to advocate the importance of supporting the space program.

Discovery rolling out May 3 to Launch Pad 39A!

Discovery rolled into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on Saturday, where it was mated with the external tank and two solid rocket boosters. In this picture, Discovery is being lifted in the vertical position inside the VAB's transfer aisle, lowered into a high bay and joined with the tank and boosters atop the mobile launcher platform (MLP). Currently the Space Shuttle assembly is undergoing final checkouts before rolling out to Launch Pad 39A on May 3. I am actually scheduled to work on Saturday so I just might be able to get some good roll out photos.

I've been selected for SpaceTec's Microgravity Training Program

When I was in college I participated in NASA's Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program. It was an undergraduate team program where a we submitted a proposal to test an experiment in microgravity conditions. For two years in a row, our proposal was accepted and we were selected to perform the experiment in microgravity simulated by the KC-135 aircraft. I have been able to experience a total of 62 parabolas, weightless....AND IT WAS AWESOME!!! It's the closest I've been able to "feel" like an astronaut in space.

So a couple weeks ago, I saw that SpaceTec was accepting applications for their Florida Aerospace Microgravity Training Program. The Microgravity Training Program will include a mix of classroom, web-based, and in-flight training to introduce the selected applicants to the challenges of developing and operating systems in the weightless environment of space. Brevard Community College (BCC), SpaceTEC, a Florida-based national aerospace technical training center and Zero Gravity Corp (Zero-G) will develop and administer the training. I received an acceptance email this week, so expect updates as I receive them!!

Here's a picture of me from my college days in the weightless environment.

Tomorrow is Earth Day!!!

Tomorrow is Earth Day and it is intended to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth's environment. I took the recyclables bin out last night....I recycle paper at work....but I think I am going to start riding my bike around more. Today I started by biking to meet a friend at the park for some basketball instead of driving, but I am going to encourage myself to bike around to other places instead of driving.

The fight for a clean environment continues and you're invited to be a part of this history and a part of Earth Day. Do your part in helping the environment. Recycle! Did you really need that bag for that one item at the grocery store? Do you recycle paper at school or work? Could you ride your bike or walk instead of driving? There are a lot of informative sites to browse through to help you integrate a simple change in your lifestyle with little effort, resulting in a big impact on OUR environment. Here are just a few:

The Consumer's Handbook for Reducing Solid Waste

How to Celebrate Earth Day

Earth Day sites for Kids

Eco-friendly Beauty Products

Here are some quotes from some of our own heroes:

"You change because you see your life differently than when you live on the surface everyday. ... We are so involved in our own little lives and our own little concerns and problems. I don't think the average person realizes the global environment that we really live in. I certainly am more aware of how fragile our Earth is, and, frankly, I think that I care more about our Earth because of the experiences I've had traveling in space.'' -- Eileen Collins, first female Space Shuttle commander.

"If people can see Earth from up here, see it without those borders, see it without any differences in race or religion, they would have a completely different perspective. Because when you see it from that angle, you cannot think of your home or your country. All you can see is one Earth....'' -- Anousheh Ansari, Iranian-American space tourist who flew to the International Space Station.

"It gives you in an instant, just at a position 240,000 miles away from it, (an idea of) how insignificant we are, how fragile we are, and how fortunate we are to have a body that will allow us to enjoy the sky and the trees and the water ... It's something that many people take for granted when they're born and they grow up within the environment. But they don't realize what they have. And I didn't till I left it.'' -- Jim Lovell, Apollo 8 and 13.

Expedition 16 Returns tomorrow!

Expedition 16 comes to an end tonight. Commander Peggy Whitson, Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and South Korean payload specialist So-Yeon Yi will undock from the International Space Station. They will undock with a Soyuz capsule aiming for an early morning landing in Kazakhstan. On top of the six-month mission, Astronaut Whitson is the first woman ISS commander and has remained in space for 377 days! This beats the record so far of any American in space.

St. George's Catholic School in Seattle, WA.

On Tuesday, I visited St. George's Catholic School in Seattle, Wa. I first spoke with the preschool and then presented to the Kinder - 4th, and 5th through 8th graders. I was only able to get photos with the preschoolers because I was really pressed for time with the other assemblies. The kids were fascinated with the launch video from the camera mounted on one of the solid rocket boosters. The video I showed was similar to the one at the following link: click here for video. At the end of the presentation, I passed out mission decals and a launch photos which they were so excited about!

Back from Seattle!!

I just returned from Seattle from my niece's first birthday and baptism. Everything went well and I stayed very busy with my family. The last time I saw my niece Haley, she was 3 months old. Her baby fat hasn't stretched out yet so one side of my back still hurts from carrying her around.

I did however manage to break away and go to Crystal Mountain on Monday. The slopes were absolutely AWESOME and playing the snow was so fulfilling for me. Since I went on a Monday and not not during the peak season, it was not very crowded so I felt like I had the mountain all to myself. I took my niece, Ashley, skiing for the first time. For a 4-year old she really enjoyed the snow and did great on the slopes with her "pizza" and "french fry" ski positions. It was great!

The next day, even though my legs were quite sore, I visited St. George's Catholic School for three presentations. I'll post some pictures on my visit to the school in a bit. On the plane ride home, I took this picture. It's a beautiful shot of Mt. Rainier. I miss Seattle and the snow already.

STS-124

May 31st is the next targeted launch date for space shuttle Discovery's STS-124 mission. We were supposed to launch on May 25th, but due to weather issues delaying the delivery of the External Tank and to prevent having employees to work through Memorial Day weekend. Last week the External Tank was delivered and it is currently in the Vehicle Assembly Building to be mated with the Solid Rocket Boosters.

I am officially a PADI Open Water Diver!

Sunday, my diving group and I went just off the coast of Pompano Beach to complete our last open water dive. We dove down to 60 feet to the Sea Emperor and Turtle Ledge Reef.

The Sea Emperor is a 171-foot barge that rests upside down in 72 feet of water. The Sea Emperor was formerly a hopper barge that was donated as part of a fine levied on a dredging company that destroyed some reef habitat of Palm Beach County. She was filled with large concrete culverts and sunk off Boca Raton. When the barge sank it flipped, scattering the culverts on the sand and landing upside down.

I was able to see a multitude of beautiful fish and got a chance to see a huge Southern Stingray and a Green Moray Eel. Click on this link (link) to see a very awesome video of the resident Eel that we saw named "Baby". Her jaw is offset because there was a hook that got caught in her mouth. The owner of our dive shop told us that she was hand fed for a while by another dive owner until she recovered. She is very welcoming to divers. The second dive was a drift dive to Turtle Ledge Reef. I was able to see a sea turtle sleeping at the bottom!

I think I am really going to LOVE my new hobby. :)

Working in the Payload Bay

A "bunny suit" is required when I have to look at certain documented discrepancies within the Payload Bay. It's a clean environment to make sure nothing is dropped or contaminated within the payload bay. In this picture I was reviewing the document on a tile along the door hingeline.

Welcome home Endeavour!!!

Going down 60 feet on Sunday! Yikes!

I'm feeling quite relieved. Last night....LATE last night, I turned in my research to my professor to look over. My term ends April 22nd and by then, I will have completed my first Masters. It was just such a relief to complete the main content of the research. Now I should have a little more time to devote to my astronaut application. :)

On Saturday, I went with my SCUBA class to De Leon Springs to complete our first open water dive. We only went about 24 feet deep. However, this Sunday, we'll be traveling to dive off the coast of West Palm Beach and will be going about 60 feet under water! I'm really enjoying SCUBA and it's just a whole different world underwater with sounds and I think the coolest thing is looking up at the surface of the water. I can't wait to see all types of aquatic life on Sunday. Here are a couple of shots from Saturday. SCUBA gear is not quite flattering, but let me tell you, that cap kept me really warm. Even in our classes in the pool, I've been shivering. As we lose 70% of our body heat through our head, the cap keeps me warm in the cold water.


Endeavour will be landing at KSC on Wednesday. There will be two landing attempts. One at 7:05pm and the other at 8:39pm. It's going to be a little difficult to get some good shots as it's a night landing, but I'm hoping to get some photos once the orbiter is on the runway.

I am looking forward to my Seattle trip coming up in April. There is still snow on Crystal Mountain. I'm so excited I want to start packing my ski stuff now! It's my niece's 1st birthday and baptism so I figured I'd sneak in a little skiing while I was up there and enroll my 4-year old niece, Ashley, in a class too. I've promised Ashley I would talk to her school, St. George Parish Catholic School. I hear the pre-school through eighth-graders are looking forward to my presentation.

SCUBA and Flying....

Yesterday I did some night flying with a friend and he actually let me help with takeoff and do a couple of turns. We flew a Piper PA-28-161 Warrior around the coast and performed a couple of landings. It was exciting just to control the aircraft for the time I did. The only drawback to this plane was that I am short and could barely see over the cockpit. So...I had to use a pillow to boost me up. :(

SCUBA has been going great! On Tuesday I got to go in the pool and do certain things like assembling my gear, taking my mask off underwater for a minute, taking the regulator out and putting it back in, some emergency procedures, etc. It's alot of fun! I was a little nervous at first, but I think I have the hang of it now. Tonight we'll be going over chapters 3 and 4 and then I have to take some quizzes. Tuesdays are in-pool days and Thursday's are lecture days. I can't wait for our open water dives. We're supposed to do a spring dive and then a drift dive off the coast of West Palm Beach. But that's not until the end of the month.

...and LIFT-OFF of Space Shuttle Endeavour!

The launch lit up the sky as if it was a 7am sunrise. We had such a flawless launch! I put my alarm to wake me up at 12:30am and then drove out to work to see the launch at 2:28am. You could imagine I'm a bit tired this morning. But it was SO worth it. The night launch was such an amazing view and experience.

Endeavour launches at 2:28am!!!

What a week!

Endeavour sits on the pad awaiting a launch on March 11th and the crew is ready! Launch is set for 2:28am


I've been quite busy as the work is starting to roll in from Atlantis returning. I've also been working some of the issues related to the in-flight anomalies we had. For example, we have to do some testing on the blanket that lifted up in the corner and assess the situation. Certain issues had to be cleared before we could say Endeavor was ok to fly.

I start scuba diving classes this week!!!! Tonight I have to read a couple of chapters in the book and complete the tests at the end of the chapter. I am very excited for scuba and I have all my gear ready. I'm new to scuba and was so excited when my instructor said we'd be able to see ship wrecks on our open water dives. That's too AWESOME!

I took a day off of work on Friday because I had the GRE test on Saturday. On Friday, a prototype of the Orion heat shield was actually at Kennedy Space Center! I had a co-worker take a snap shot of the heat shield. Here's a good site that gives a quick overview: http://www.itwire.com/content/view/16925/1066/


Now that I have completed my GRE tests, I plan on filling out graduate school applications to some universities in Materials Engineering and hope to start another Master's degree in the Summer or Fall. I'm also in the process of completing my research for my current Master's. I told my professor I would have a draft of the final report to him by March 15th as my term ends on April 22. I still plan on submitting my astronaut application in April as well. :)

A shot from tonight's lunar eclipse!

I'm sure others will have better shots of tonight's lunar eclipse, but this is what we were able to get out of the camera. :)

Atlantis lands at KSC!!!

Today Atlantis landed at runway 15 at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility. I was out at the runway when the Orbiter landed to perform an overall quick-look inspection of the Thermal Protection System (TPS). The orbiter's TPS was a good condition aside from the minor issues we detected in orbit. Luckily we had awesome weather to be performing this inspection out on the runway.

As a side note, I made it to the Picture Of The Day site on the Lower Merion School District Site: http://www.lmsd.org/pod/

Atlantis lands today!!!

It's 4:00am and I'm about to head in for landing preparations. I'll be out on the runway when Atlantis lands and perform an inspection of the overall condition of the Thermal Protection System with the team. This is an exciting day as I anticipate the crew's return!

FIRST LEGO League State Competition

If you love LEGOs then you would have wanted to be where I was on Sunday. The FIRST LEGO League (FLL) State Competition was held at Florida Institute of Technology. FLL is a competition for teams of up to 10 students ages 9-14 years old. The competition consists of table matches (where their lego robot runs) and judging on the design and construction of the robot and software as well as how effective they operate as a team. In addition, they are required to conduct research on a topic related to the theme designated for the year and are judged on a presentation of their research. They receive a new "challenge" each year consisting of a set of missions to be accomplished on a 4' x 8' table with a mat a field set up to simulate some scenario.

The robot match is 2 1/2 minutes long. Each team runs their robot three times. Robots are constructed from LEGO Robotics kits and are programmed using either the LEGO Mindstorms software or Robolab software which is based on Labview. Both software programs are graphic and have fairly simple constructs. The teams bring their robot and either a printout of their programs or a laptop for viewing the programs to the judging area. Hardware judges have the teams demonstrate how their robot accomplishes the mission objectives and talk with the team members about how their robot is designed, why they made specific design decisions, etc. Software judges have the teams walk through their software and have them talk about the design and how effective their software is.

Well, I was a software judge for the robots and was extremely impressed how these young students were proficient and understood programming. They were accurately able to answer the questions I asked them related to the program they created. Each team had a team name such as the Hammerheads, Storm Cats, RoboGeeks, Legooners, and Lego Monkeys. Clothing or costumes related to their team name were also a hit as they showed off their enthusiasm for this fun competition.