Well there is a lot of esplainin’ to do Lucy. I miss blogging, I hate my blog’s look, I don’t have time to figure out how to make it pretty and I can’t find someone to pay. So there you have the answer to the mystery of where I have been.
NOW here we go starting back out with a blog series just for this little trip to Florida. Let me tell you how it began. KLT mentioned that @nasa was doing a tweetup for the upcoming launch and that we should register, but they were only taking 150. He said we’d leave it in God’s hands. I saw the tweet from @nasa saying today is the last day and you have 30 minutes to register. So I did what any good woman would do and registered us both. GUESS WHAT? I won. Yeah the first round draft. On the second round KLT won. So now we are going to NASA to watch the final launch of the space shuttle Atlantis.
I am really excited to meet so many cool fellow tweeters that are going. There are 2 ROCKET SCIENTIST who graduated from Purdue. This will be amazing.
So here is what the schedule looks like
Schedule
Tuesday, May 11
3 pm — Tammy departs work and accomplishes the following: get dogs to vet for boarding, pack final clothing and toiletries, pack coolers, pack food and items for inside car, pack car, clean up & straighten house, lock all doors and windows and water the plants as needed.
? until ? – DRIVE towards Florida, the more miles we do tonight the better.
Wednesday, May 12
6 am — the overnight stay and head for KSC!! With any luck we can get there in time to get our visitor pass.
Thursday, May 13/L-1: Day 1
8-9 a.m. — Registration at the Kennedy Space Center Press Accreditation Badging Building
9-10 a.m. — Travel to the press site, set up, meet fellow participants
10 a.m. — Welcome and introductions by @NASA team members John Yembrick and Stephanie Schierholz
10:10 a.m. — Robert D. Braun, NASA chief technologist, NASA Headquarters
10:30 a.m. Jon Cowart (@Rocky_Sci), Orbiter Engineering manager, Space Shuttle Program, KSC
10:50 a.m. — Stephanie Stilson, space shuttle Discovery processing director, Shuttle Processing Office, KSC
11:10 a.m. — Astronaut Janice Voss <PURDUE GRAD!!
11:30 p.m.-12:15 p.m. — Break for lunch
12:30 p.m.-1:15 p.m. — Demonstration of the Advanced Crew Escape Suit (ACES)
1:20 p.m. — Instructions for launch day, board buses
1:30-6:30 p.m. — Tour of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, including visits to the International Space Station Center and Apollo Saturn V Center. Your tour will drive by the Orbiter Processing Facility, Vehicle Assembly Building, Mobile Launcher Platforms and Crawler-Transporter. The last stop on the tour will be Launch Pad 39A to view retraction of the Rotating Service Structure, scheduled for 5:20 p.m. and space shuttle Atlantis. We will have a short break at the press site at about 4:30 p.m. If you need to leave, you may do so at that time. For the tour, you must wear long pants and closed, low-heeled shoes. Tank tops are not permitted. <- This means we are going into an OPERATIONAL Facility!!!!
Friday, May 14/Launch: Day 2
9:30 a.m. — Arrive at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 Press Site.
10 a.m. — Group picture beside the countdown clock.
10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. — Free time and visits from guest speakers, including
- Astronaut Dave Wolf <-PURDUE GRAD!! I met him while working in Alumni Relations @ Purdue
- Lt. Col. Patrick Barrett, weather officer with the Air Force’s 45th Space Wing Weather Squadron
- Chris Meinert, STS-132 Closeout Crew member
- Madi Sengupta (@msengupta), Space Station Robotics instructor at NASA’s Johnson Space Center
- Amiko Kauderer, @NASA_Johnson team member leading STS-132 mission Tweetup
2:20 p.m. — Launch of space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-132 mission <-Our view is from the press site!
~3:30 p.m. — Post-launch news conference on NASA TV
So I say if you run across an opportunity like this DOOOOO EEEEET!
