Rocket Man

It's just my job five days a week.

Sweet Home Californie

Back to the log cabin in California. Florida is already a mirage. Total days in Cocoa Beach this year totaled 146. Oi. As far as I know the hangar queen is progressing nominally. Sha-weet. I got numerous calls and txts while stuck in FL. Mostly from the wif, but also from my most wonderful nieces.

However, I did receive a special note, with pictures, addressed specifically to me and hand delivered by Mrs. LK from my numba one nephew. Maraming salamat sa pamagkin ko. I love you Justin.


For anyone that gives a poop the following pictures describe what I have spent the last 6 years of my life making sure worked and were ready to be catapulted into space. The satellite on the left is a depiction of the three satellites I had a hand in launching in the past two years. The satellite on the right, though similar, is what I hopefully will be working on for the next 5 to 6 years. Go Wideband!

Calm Yourself

Another action packed day at the Hilton in Cocoa Beach for me. Had to be at work at 10AM for a couple hours of work. It went well and I headed back to Cocoa Beach around 12:30. Grabbed one of the many remaining Presidentes left in my room fridge and sat back down with this.


I bought this jacket back in Oct. of 2006 and really wasn't all that impressed with the Cobra patch on it. The jacket itself is definitely vintage, but the patches on it were definitely not. Kinda disappointing, but par for the course with eBay stuff. So I wore it a few times, but for the most part it's been in the closet.

With this current launch campaign I'll have participated in all three birds of the Block I group and now have a complete collection of all the patches. The patches are cool all by themselves, but I kinda wanted to figure something out to do with them. I decided to put them on the jacket after removing the Cobra patch. I didn't have time to do this or have it done before I left for Florida so I brought the jacket and patches with me. A week or so ago I went down to a Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft in West Melbourne to pick up some supplies to do the job myself.


Here are some close up pictures of my work. The American flag patch was on there already and I'm going to take it off and re-sew it since the hack that put it on there did it wrong. All of mine look way better and aren't sewn through both the outer layer and lining like the flag patch is and the Cobra patch was. My work isn't perfect, but I learned alot and next time it will be perfect.




And yes. Those are platypi on each of the patches. It was chosen because it's a critter that combines many different types of "technology" kinda like the WGS communication satellites. Go Wideband!

D. Lay.

No earlier than December 2. Oi. That'll get me up to 60 days or so. Still two weeks short of last time, but still. Shuttle is still scheduled to go off on Monday as planned so that's good. Intellsat didn't go last night and depending on when they fix what they need to fix they could impact us as well. Again, oi. Gotta love launching really expensive things into space. Heh.

Ida Know If I Like This

Yeah. I know. It's all you get though.

Just Not Much Going On

Well I've been here in Florida for 35 days now. It's been mostly hot. Unseasonably so according to the locals. There were a few cool days a couple weeks back, but it's been mostly sweat inducing weather.

Mrs. LK came out, well, I guess it would be two weekends back now. That was nice. We went out with my work folks one night and just like the Hilton staff they were way more impressed with her than me. Oh well. Just more confirmation that I picked a winner and luckily was able to trick her into sticking with me. So far. Woohoo!

Work didn't interfere too much except on the last day. I ended up having to go to work at 10 PM on Tuesday, then not actually work until 1 AM, pause, resume at 7 AM, bail out back to Cocoa Beach to pick-up the wife at 9:30 AM, drive back out to Orlando airport, hug, kiss, say goodbye, drive back to Titusville to pick up my stuff that I had left earlier, get back to Cocoa Beach about 12:30, eat something, try to stay up to at least a normal time, fail, fall asleep, wake up way early. Drag ass through the next few days. Oh well.

In general in regards to work it has been going relatively smoothly. Nothing show stopping at this point. We've officially been delayed, but at this point it's only a day so I don't even really think that counts as a delay. Who knows though with both the shuttle and another private satellite on the range at just about the exact same time we'll just have to wait and see. I've learned over the last two previous campaigns not to rely on any date to stay fixed while here. No matter what, something will change. Or a bunch of things. Just kinda go with it and come home when it's all done.

Well I guess that's it.

Lima Kilo out.

Way Behind

Man, I'm updating about as often as Rosanna at this point. Oh well. So I've got some pictures of the air show that was going on outside the window of my original room at the Hilton Cocoa Beach a couple weekends back. Scott, one of the bartenders, down at the pool bar had mentioned that an F22 was supposed to make an appearance that day so when I saw, and heard, this sucker fly by the first time I thought that's what it was. After a closer look it turned out to be an F/A18. Still really cool.








Kinda glad I didn't get the room upgrade until after that show. With that said a few days later a small suite opened up on the 7th floor and they moved me into it. Nothing fancy, but it's nice at least having the option to spread out a bit even if I don't. First things first. Fill the fridge with the essentials. Beer. Soda. Water.


And a few pics of the room.





That's about all I've got at this point. I had a couple of days off during the first two weeks and the schedule is looking to loosen up a bit. We'll see.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

So once again off to the land of infinite humidity and heat. Oh and rocket launches. Heading over to LAX to board the C5 once again bound for Florida. Scheduled to return November 20th, but we'll see how that goes. Last time it turned from 50 days to 75 almost without blinking. Hopefully good luck is coming with me.

Cheers everyone.

~lk

Final Pics

Keeping In Touch

So below is what Mrs. LK sent me every few days or so on my phone.

I'm Back!!

Do you know who these two are? I do and they flew home on the same flight from Orlando. People were totally hitting them up for pictures. I just kinda stood back and watched.



Still recovering. Everything that came back with me on the plane is unpacked and hung up. Still have stuff coming back on the truck from Florida so I'll have a bit more when that gets here. Right now I'm just enjoying being in my own house with my own cat and my own car. Have to wait until Thursday to be able to hang out with my wife.

Gone! Baby! Gone!

The rocket has left the building. Woohoo! Coming home on Monday and I can't wait. Yesterdays were NOT smooth leading up to that awesome climax. The actual trip into orbit went extremely well. The satellite separated from the rocket with no issues. It's signal was picked up at tracking stations successfully. Lastly they were able to talk back at it. Only time will tell, but for now it's been a trying yet successful mission.

Can't wait to see all of you that I haven't seen in forever.

I'm on my way!

April 1st Was Just Foolin'

Those greys in the beard are all from this campaign. Yay. Now not launching any earlier than next Friday. I'm just going to stop coming in to work since every time I do the launch date moves further to the right.

The Latest

Spent the past week just maintaining things waiting for our launch date. As it stands right now we are scheduled to launch on the 31st which is Tuesday. That is what we're working towards until told otherwise.

And yes Rosanna, stupid shuttle, but stupid my rocket too.

And I'm missing sold out roller derby tonight in HiFi with the Fight Crew skating for the first time in their new uniforms. Awesome. Go Fight Crew!!!!!

66 days as of today. 66 fucking days.

Update: Well after getting to work I found out the launch has pushed to the next day at the earliest. That would be April 1st. Yay.

Scrubbed!

Totally weak.

Update: Well when I left work tonight it was rescheduled for no sooner than Friday. I get to the scrub party (this is the party where all the booze and food that was already purchased to celebrate a successful launch is instead consumed, because well it's already been purchased) and it's announced that we will NOT launch any earlier than the 26th.

Even more weak. I'm starting to really dislike Florida.

Update #2: Based on what is coming up that is out of our control, other launches, the Shuttle coming home, etc., it is looking less and less likely that the 26th is a good date. This just gets worse and worse.

T-20 Hours

We got to go out to the launch pad again this time for pictures with the rocket. The satellite is enclosed in the fairing at the top. Wish us luck. We'll need it. It's currently pouring rain outside. Hopefully the storm will blow out by tomorrow night.

Gone! Gone! Gone!

A successful and beautiful Shuttle launch tonight while we were at work about 10 miles away. The old bucket of bolts is finally out of our way. Think good thoughts for the weather for us on Tuesday.

Please.

Stupid Shuttle

Well the shuttle has now officially bumped us out of the way. The earliest we will launch is next Tuesday and even that is iffy due to weather concerns next week. Great.

Also, stole this from Tara. I will abide.

More Of Not Much

Still hesitant to declare anything until my feet are firmly planted back in California.

BUT, I was told to reschedule my ticket home for the 16th of March.

Please keep your fingers crossed. I miss home. :)

Keeping My Mouth Shut

Still here in Florida. The Mrs. came and visited last weekend. That was nice. She'll be back again this Thursday and that's nice too.

Other than that I'm not talking about work. Theoretically we're getting close though.

Maybe.

Still Taking It Easy

Haven't looked at my phone so I don't know if there are any messages there. Don't wanna know. If you've left a message and I haven't gotten back to you well then call the hotel. :)

In other news this was the scene outside my window this morning. Velly nize.



It's essentially the same right now with the sun to the right instead of to the left. Still velly nize. Until I noticed what some darn avian critter left for me. Been here a month with nothing and now that right in the middle of the window. Heh.


Not quite so nize.

Since I've been here I've had a few Presidentes, but down at the bar the selection is limited and I've been mixing it up between Sam Adams and Stella Artois. All very satisfactory. Last Thursday while at the Pubix grocery store with a coworker I noticed they had this for sale in six packs. So I grabbed some.


Oh man! I finally popped one open today and to quote Cinderella, yes Cinderella, the band, "You don't know what you've got until it's gone." Oh baby was it nice to put down some nice hoppy IPA. Ahhhhhhhhh.

Viva le hops!