analyze – i has it

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Well folks, some aspects of this Florida trip are seeming to be an exact duplicate of our last trip.

But never fear, we’ve managed to  have a great time despite some of the negative similarities.

The weather shaped up real fine this morning for a launch this afternoon.  The winds were forecast to be a bit high, but the forecasts were getting better with each time around.

We headed out to the Kmart pick up point for our tour company at about 6 am this morning.  The tour company was very unorganized and we sat around until about 9 am before we finally got moving.  The poor tour guide that was on our bus was actually not a part of the tour company at all, and was about as frustrated as we were about all the waiting around and lack or organization.  He even told us he thought he was going to get to see the launch as a bystander, and then showed up at 3:30AM to find that he was actually going to be a guide.

They started fueling the shuttle around 8:30 I think while we were still sitting at KMart.  They start filling real slow and then once everything looks good they kick it into fast fill mode.  Filling the tank builds up pressure in the tank because they start with the output vent closed.  As the pressure builds they cycle the vent value open and closed to keep the pressure in the range that they like.  As they cycled the valve open and closed a “significant” leak appeared at the vent valve.  After cycling the value a few times and seeing no improvement of the leak they decided that they needed to scrub the launch for today.

Now all this happened before we made it to the space center since we were being disorganized at KMart.  Turns out to be a bit of a blessing that we sat around for so long because they scrubbed the launch before we used any of our tickets so they’re still good.

Then they also found a large crack in the foam on the tank next to the orbiter.  This would have probably caused a scrub even if they hadn’t had the leak because a large chunk of cracked foam could come off during ascent and strike the orbiter, which is a very bad thing indeed.

So we didn’t have a launch today.  We sat behind some Canadians on the bus and they were very upset indeed and the wife kept telling her husband to stop “badgering” him.  I might need to start using the word badger.

Because this wasn’t a weather delay, but a mechanical issue that involves draining the tank completely, the delay forced a 72 hour delay.  This of course means that the next opportunity was on Monday which is after the window closes.  There was some talk about whether the window could be extended to Monday, and early this morning Nasa had decided that Monday was an option for launch.  We were planning on leaving Sunday, so this posed a large dilemma.  Should we change our plans and stay until Monday?  This means canceling the flight (or extending it to Thursday) finding another way home, getting another couple of days for the rental car and finding another hotel.

Laura and I went to McDonald’s to get some quality food to help us think.  I grabbed the laptop so we could see if any final decisions had been made by Nasa.  We were having some troubles connecting to the wifi when a man about Grandpa’s age (but obviously not with Grandpa’s technical skills) looked over my shoulder.  He asked if I was having any luck getting on the network.  He had an iPad and was trying to find out information about the launch as well.  However he couldn’t get on McDonald’s network.  We troubleshooted the network issues and finally got both our computers up and running.  Turns out he and his wife had come down with another couple to see the launch and they were having the same troublesome week we were (as far as the launch goes).

We chatted with them for a while and tried to figure out whether Nasa really was going to try for Monday or not.  We finally parted ways and wished each other luck.  Laura and I headed to StarBucks and watched the 1 PM news conference.

Finally Nasa made the decision to wave the Monday launch attempt and move the next launch attempt to November 30th.  This was due to the amount of work required to get ready for Monday, only to have one day to launch.  This means we will not see a space shuttle launch this time around in Florida.

I am disappointed, yes, but we still had an excellent vacation which was very relaxing and enjoyable.  I’ll post some more highlights from the 2nd half of the trip later.

Right now we need to get some dinner soon.  We watched this show on the food channel with real good looking grilled food so I need some grilled meat real bad.

We’ll put pictures up once we get home.

Thanks for all your prayers.  God will answer them all, just maybe not how we expect.

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