MISSION DAY!

T-minus 1 hour and 35 minutes to launch window.

Up at 3 am, the SpaceX crew have been filling the rocket with LOX (liquid oxygen). The Pad-Crew leave the island just before the LOX gets filled and retreat to an island three miles away. The Control Room is 26 miles from Omelek, the Rocket Island.

That's where I am. I feel like that Farside Cartoon where the dork leopard goes up to the other leopards as they stalk a deer. The dork leopard goes up to them and says: "What's up guys?"

A thank you to Gary Larson for teaching me when to keep my mouth shut.

LOX being filled into the rocket

The Control Room on Mission Day

The way that a launch day works is that SpaceX is given a window by the military of 6 hours in which to launch. In our case, we've been given 9am to 3pm Kwaj time (1pm to 7pm CA time).

If everything is a go at 9am, then we launch at 9am. Right now the only thing that might hold us up is winds. They are varying from 14-25 knots this morning. We would prefer to launch in lower winds.

Elon getting Psyched!

Me in the Secondary Control Room

It's now T-minus 52 minutes.

I'll update as things change.

Kimbal

Digg It!