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 | My bag is searched for plutonium. |
 | The next security agent is less accomodating. |
 | Kennedy Rocket Garden. |
 | Authentic-looking tiles adorn the underbelly of a fake (but full-sized) shuttle
mockup at the Kennedy Space Center, a for-profit commercial endeavour run by
Delaware North Companies, Inc.
courtesy of your tax dollars. |
 | Check out that launch vehicle! New Horizons' Atlas V rocket is standing within
the tall white building on the far left. Later in the morning, it's going to move
further to the left, next to the white lightning towers. Note the gator in the
foreground. |
 | The space shuttle's transporter (`crawler'), next to the vehicle assembly
building (VAB). |
 | Ooooo! The launch vehicle rolls out! Check out that swamp-boat in the
foreground. |
 | David Grinspoon. |
 | Jane Spencer. |
 | VAB again. Even right next to it, it seems pretty short & squat. But
apparently it's 50+ stories high, and 4x the volume of the Empire State
Building. Note the discolored wall panels, replaced courtesy of the recent hurricane. |
 | Real people stand in front of a real painting of the Saturn V. |
 | Whoa! It's the actual Saturn V control room, working lights and everything... |
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 | Carter Emmart radiates... |
 | Jeff Moore's mom signs autographs. |
 | Jeff and Pam. |
 | Laura Danly. |
 | Carter and David love their main engines. |
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 | Bill McKinnon and Kate. |
 | Paul Schenk and David. |
 | McKinnon kids check out those space-shuttle main engines. |
 | Jeff Moore's family squeezes tight. |
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 | Nominal launch is Tuesday Jan 17, 13:24 EST. Busses run between KSC and the
launch viewing area at the Saturn V site, ~4 miles west of the launch pad.
(Personnel running the launch are a mile or so closer, but since they're stuck
inside a concrete bunker with no windows, we have a much better view.) |
 | Pad is straight across the water, near the center. |
 | Don and Jeannie Jennings. |
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 | Barbie loves launches! |
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 | Brad Perry's daughter Ashley has spent the last 5 years of her life posing with
this sign. |
 | Check out those packed stands! Bottom: Julie, Peter Tamblyn, Rosaly Lopez,
Jane/John/Fran Spencer. Top: Marteen Versteeg, Diane Miller, Billy Merline,
Normster Heinen, Jeanette Thorn. |
 | Ann Harch! |
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 | Hal Weaver... |
 | Will Grundy's brother Tom, with parents... |
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 | We are waiting for a 6 minute period of sub-33 knot ground winds in order to
launch. Launch has been postponed: 1324 EST, 1344, 1404, 1424, 1444, in
20-minute intervals, corresponding to the cadence time of NASA's weather
balloons. |
 | An unanticipated problem: what to do with the kids of 1400+ people watching the
launch? A game of Red Rover runs until a minor injury is had. |
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 | Launch vehicle waits. Note the plume coming from the middle. The basic idea
with New Horizons is to build the smallest-possible spacecraft and put that on
the largest rocket that money can buy. The Atlas V is 200' high and weighs
1.2M lbs. The spacecraft itself is 480 kg, and the science instruments are <
20 kg of that, so it's a tiny parasite on the tip of the launch vehicle.
Various parts of the vehicle are powered by solid rocket fuel, kerosene (!),
and liquid oxygen (which is what's venting). |
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 | After 2 hours of waiting for calmer winds, the launch window closes. No
launch today. Back on the bus... |
 | On the road back to Cocoa Beach, there are many NASA-related startups. This
one specialized in realistic modeling of the Earth. |
 | Toby's Nose Filters is another
NASA-related technology-transfer company (no joke -- nose protection is serious
stuff in Florida!). |
 | No southern-style breakfasts here! I quote from the Lonely Planet Florida:
Bagels. A bagel is a disk-shaped bread product made from heavy dough that
has been boiled and then baked. The result is a substantial and chewy roll
with a uniquely textured coating -- the closest comparison would be a real
Bavarian Brez'n. They are usually offered in plain, sesame, poppy, onion, and
garlic. They're available in any diner and most restaurants that serve
breakfast.
Two other Lonely Planet attractions that I missed:
Reige's Firearms, Orlando. Foreigners will be aghast at the
ease with which this shooting range rents handguns and semiautomatic weapons to
anyone -- anyone -- over age 21. Children over 10 can play, too, as long as
they're accompanied by an adult. Rent the range for an hour ($6) and a gun
($6). Choose anything from a Glock to a Smith & Wesson .44 magnum.
Semiautomatics cost a bit more. They'll give you a basic training on safety,
and then it's all up to you. Blammity-blam-blam!
Holy Land Experience. Orlando's only Christian theme park!
It's designed to look like Jerusalem circa 33 AD, and staff (most of whom are
Israeli imports) wear flowing Bedouin robes and hawk Middle Eastern treats like
mint tea, tabouli, and the best felafel I have ever eaten. There aren't any
rides, despite obvious Old Testament candidates like teh Parting of the Red
Sea. My favorite part was the Wilderness Tabernacle, which takes you back 3400
years to see the nine different ways Moses' older brother sacrificed sheep to
God, complete with a light-and-sound spectacular reminiscent of Raiders of
the Lost Ark. |
 | Shuttle Bar & Grill... |
 | We repose post-non-launch. Our badges get us a free round courtesy of shuttle
HVAC technician Ron who sees us come in. Note the astronaut shots on the back
wall. |
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 | The Tea Room has had a recent format change, apparently... |
 | Laura Danly at breakfast. |
 | Jane and John. As we are leaving, we get a call: no launch today. It's
raining in DC, power's out, and mission ops at APL is calling in generators. |
 | I hang out and study surfers from the pier. (I did get in the water for some
boogie boarding later on.) |
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 | Check out that rising moon over the tiki bar! |
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 | Too bad New Horizons isn't going toward Orion. Wrong part of the sky. |
 | One of Cocoa Beach's major claims to fame is the 24-hr surf shop. |
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 | Back at the Luna Sea (Lunacy?). "One of Cocoa Beach's Finest Bed &
Breakfasts", according to the web page. |
 | Launch attempt #3 is set for January 19, 1308 EST. We load into the busses
again. This time due to a shift in wind patterns, we are now about 10 miles S
of the pad, at a public beach, very near the highway we drove in on to get here
several hours earlier. A good number of people are on the pier, but due to
safety limitations, a we exceed the maximum weight limit and go to the beach
instead. Of course, the beach has other risks... |
 | Ashley pumps for launch one final (?) time. |
 | Jeff Moore's mom, two days before her 80th. |
 | Note the Orlando cruise ships in the background. |
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 | Kate reflects. |
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 | David aims his binocs at the wrong pad. |
 | Joe Veverka's son is highly foreshortened. |
 | Scot Rafkin. |
 | Several of the 14 busses. We were allowed busses for three launch attempts, so
there's an incentive to get off today. |
 | We experience several weather delays for clouds: 1308, 1318, 1328... |
 | Carter went back to NYC after launch attempt #1, but couldn't keep himself away
and returned just in time for attempt #3. |
 | Leslie amazes the crowd by pulling out plots of the launch vehicle
separation profile from the packet we've all gotten and ignored. |
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 | Stuart McMuldroch missed attempts #1 and #2, but makes it today. |
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 | NASA health & safety officials such as Edward keep us safe. |
 | Two more delays for low-flying clouds... |
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 | Leslie and Paul know how to pass the time. |
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 | Speakers give us an audio feed from NASA TV. 5... |
 | 4... |
 | 3... |
 | 2... |
 | 1... |
 | Yes yes yes yes yes! 2:00 PM EST! We're off! |
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 | A minute or two into flight, the launch vehicle's out of sight. |
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 | Last trail of the plume, over an empty pier and empty beach. |
 | We're corralled back on the bus. But hang on! We're 20 minutes into flight
now, and there's still plenty of action going on. The Centaur needs to burn,
the Star-48 upper stage needs to burn, the spacecraft has to separate... what's
happening? Our bus driver's started playing NASA infomercials about the
Space Sation again... |
 | At this point my sister calls asking me about
the details that she's been hearing from the NASA commentators. She's watching
NASA TV in her lab in Tucson. She offers to prop her phone in front of the
computer, and I talk to our bus driver Earl and ask if I can commandeer the PA
system. I hook in my cell phone to the mic, we turn off the infomercials, and
we drive back to Kennedy while cheering after each event (those we can
understand, at least -- this signal is being transmitted from launch control
Florida -> NASA TV in Houston -> satellite -> ISP -> streaming video ->
Internet -> Heather's lab in Tucson -> phone network -> cell phone towers ->
bus back in Florida). We pull up just as the spacecraft has separated and is
set on its way, coasting to Pluto.
Check out the mission status page
at spaceflightnow.com for play-by-play details of the launch and
separation.
And also check out the Where is New Horizons
Now? page at APL for an up-to-the-second mission trajectory. |
 | Thank you Earl! |
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 | Back at Kennedy, Ann has been in touch with Alice Bowman at mission ops and
gives us more updates. Spacecraft has spun up and we've gotten telemetry! |
 | Hal Levison poses with his kids while waiting for the post-launch press
conference. |
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 | Hal takes a picture of his boss. Note the small Pluto-the-dog cut off by the
NASA camera on Alan's left. |
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 | Check out that pencil! David G. apparently loves it too. |
 | Laura, Dave, & I drive back. Note the rocket. |
 | From 10 miles away, an empty launch pad... |
 | Deputy Project Scientist Leslie Young pulls out her Pluto albedo map and gets
to work on the real science here. |
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 | "Alan -- you asked me if I could dress up as Pluto for the reception? I didn't
know if you meant Pluto-the-dog, or Pluto-the-planet..." (And that's Charon in
front of me.) |
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 | Wow! OK, on the right is Patsy Tombaugh, widow of 1930 Pluto discoverer Clyde
Tombaugh. On the left is Jim Christy, discoverer in 1978 of Charon. Note that
although Charon is historically and deically a very appropriate name for the
moon, it also happened to alliterate with his wife, Charlene... |
 | This is the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me! The real-life
Charlene has just gone into orbit around me! |
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 | Ralph instrument scientist Dennis Reuter searches for spectral features. |
 | I can't believe this! Now in addition to having Charlene/Charon orbit me, I
have Carol/Carulon, and Debbie/Debulon also orbit me! Carol Stern and Debbie
Weaver are closely related to the discoverers of the new Pluto moons,
tentatively named P1 and P2. |
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 | Jeanette can finally (?) relax. Almost. |
 | Rocket women from Boeing at a post-launch party. |
 | Alan orbits his favorite moon. |
 | David talks to his favorite moon, Tory. |
 | Laura, David, and I on the beach at 2 AM, T+12 hours. |
 | The next day, I head to Crystal River on the W side of FL for some manatees.
The deal is that in 99% of the state, manatees are regulated by the Florida
Department of Fish & Wildlife, and no people are allowed in the water at
the same time. However, in a small fraction of the state, the Federal
regulations take precedence, and these are somewhat more lax in that one can be
in the water at the same time as a manatee. Follow the rules:
- No chasing the manatees
- No feeding the manatees
- No grabbing the manatees (one hand behind your back at all times!)
- Don't go into the manatees' sanctuary (denoted by buoys)
- No one in the water 7PM - 7AM
- Don't go up to them, but let them come to you
Photos are stills from a video taken by divemaster Mike. |
 | I drove across the state in time for a 6 AM dive call on this particular boat. |
 | A manatee considers approaching me. For scale, they're about 1000 lbs and most
of the length of a Subaru. |
 | We are in a spring (a good mile or two across) which feeds into the ocean.
It's freshwater, millions of gallons a day. During the winter, the manatees
congregate at the spring to keep warm. During the summer, they go out into the
ocean and do whatever they like. This one likes eating seagrass. |
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 | Manatees love power-boat propellers. Hmm -- is this a problem? (NB: Our
driver is manatee-certified and we did not put any manatees at risk during our
ultra-low-speed cruise.) |
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