So i’m not going to be able to watch the Space Shuttle launch…

But actually i’m not really that gutted. It would have been an amazing opportunity but it would have only been the icing on the cake of all the amazing opportunities i’ve had this week, mainly like the one below. (note, yes that is Seth Green in the first video).

That’s me in NASA’s massive Vehicle Assembly Building and this is me in front of parts of the next Space Shuttle!

That’s something i never thought i would get the chance to do, and even without the launch pretty much makes the whole trip worth while. I’ll do a full digestion of each part of the tour i got as the weeks go on but as I sit here blogging from the wonderful town of Jacksonville i’m content with the new friends and contacts i’ve made and happy with the experience I got.

#NASATweetup is life changing, make sure you enter the draw for the next one when/if it opens.

Today was just today. Tomorrow will happen again

(sorry for the lateness of this BTW, took a while to put into words)

Annoyed? Worried? Confused? No. with everything that happened today I am… content.

In case you didn’t know we found out the launch was scrubbed by seeing what is in the video below.

Not an easy moment but honestly i’m so lucky to be where I am at the moment, and experiencing all these little moments that are being laid before me I was ok with it. I knew I could reschedule my flights. And i’m hoping my work and uni understand why i’m not going to be back before Thursday. As I said earlier this whole space thing might not be routine, but i didn’t travel half way round the world to miss out on one of the most spectacular human creations ever because I should be sitting in a lecture hall somewhere in Leeds.

I decided to take a picture of the pad at the exact time the shuttle should have taken off…

It’s an image that doesn’t rub salt in my wounds in any way at all, in case you didn’t know NASA had a problem with a fuel line heater meaning they’ve got to drain the tank (an estimated cost of $500,000!) and look at it properly, I would hate for something to have happened if they hadn’t checked it out.

I’ll be back at the press site on monday and in the meantime I do actually have some essays that aren’t going to write themselves. My workspace is a far cry from the Edward Boyle library (Leeds Uni), so what could be better?

P.S. One pretty cool thing today though, Obama swung by the Space Center, and boy did you realise it! Spot the snipers in the picture below!

(answer two on the grey bit under the US flag and two on top of the building above the actual policeman in the forground.)

I stood out by a grassy patch for a little while and watched Marine 1 fly in (the chopper) but then decided there weren’t nearly enough army types to allow the most powerful man in the world to drive past. I did however catch a glimps of the motorcade as he left the Space Center.

Fingers crossed he was actually interested. It’s not my taxpayer’s dollars but there are some amazing people at NASA and they all the time and money they can get.

Updates

A couple of overnight updates for you all and the headline is that the storm has passed. This of cause means that…

https://twitter.com/#!/nasa/status/63786618221379584

and all the tweeps have breathed a sign of relief (again). I suppose we’re all a tiny bit disappointed we aren’t going to be able to see the shuttle up close but hey we’ll be some of the closest people to the pad when it takes off so i’m pretty sure we’ll get over it. And as one of the guys I’m staying with has said…

https://twitter.com/#!/robpegoraro/status/63775733243326464

In other news I got invited to see an ATV launch in February from Germany which would be amazing! Am planning on doing a radio documentary about the UK and European space programmes so will probably roll it into that.

Catch you tomorrow, when that countdown clock gets to zero or if you’re staying up to watch NASA TV tonight give me a tweet to @jackdearlove

T-minus 1 Day

Today was the first day of official tweetup proceedings and it was pretty darn amazing!

We got talked through NASA’s current space suits…

heard about the physics experiment that’s currently in the payload bay of ‘my shuttle’

and got a talk from @astro_clay, who definitely has the ‘right stuff’

But that was just for starters. The real experience came in the afternoon, once the NASATV cameras were switched off. We boarded some VERY hot NASA buses and got what im going to call the enhanced tour of the Space Center. We stopped off by the Shuttle Landing Facility and the ‘mate-demate device.

This is the structure used to attach the shuttle to an Boeing 474 in case they need to transport it somewhere (other than space). and then we went somewhere i never thought i’d get the chance to go…

This thing place is huge and will probably get a blog post on it’s own once i’m back on UK soil and putting together individual galleries. The most amazing part was the brief glimpse of Shuttle Atlantis’ Solid Rocket Boosters and External tank, i literally leapt with excitement when I caught this view!

And the day isn’t over. I’m currently blogging from the press conference room here at the Space Center while we keep out of the way of a pretty big storm that’s making it’s way over this part of the world if you want to hear what it’s sounding like click below

https://twitter.com/#!/Jackdearlove/status/63741459899219968

Once this has past we’ll watch the Rotating Service Structure move back and we’ll actually be able to see the Shuttle for the first time (i’ll blog this later). In the meantime we’re happy to stay here all night and in less than 24 hours the Shuttle programme should be once step closer to retirement.

Update: we’ve just heard the Rotating Service Structure movement has been pushed back too late for us to stay. So I’ll catch you tomorrow for launch!

Join the #NASATweetup!

If you want to see what i’m seeing, check the Nasa UStream here

And it begins…

Early blog from the Tweetup tent (twent) and the pictures that will probably be my Facebook profile picture for months have already been taken. Here’s a couple

If you want to join the fun be back here at 12 (EST), 1700 (BST) and i’ll embed the stream from the talks

#NASATweetup (unofficial) Day 1

So some sort of proper digestion of what happened today. Today was day 1, although the unofficial Day 1. I handed over my fingerprints to the US government for the second time in two days to get the badge that’s above and then made use of our complimentary entrance to the Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor’s Complex. Essentially we pretended to be tourists for the day.

I went to Kennedy about 6 years ago so knew what to expect. The Rocket Garden is as wonderful as ever, holding a couple of extra relics from missions gone by. The food was as expensive as any other Florida based theme park. And there’s been a new addition in the past 6 years. The Shuttle Launch simulator ride.

The highlights of the day though mainly centred around the less ‘theme parky’ stuff. We bumped into the person that looks after this nasa_ames twitter account and also bumped into some of the people testing and building NASA’s Orion crew module.

He was talking about the testing of the launch abort system that’s still going on, even of the research and production of the rocket to go with it isn’t happening.

The other highlight was the standard NASA bus tour. We’re getting one that’s a little more in-depth tomorrow but it was still good to get as close as the public can to the pad less than 24 hours after arriving in the US.

There was a small fire going on while we were driving along pretty close to the press site by the looks of it…

https://twitter.com/#!/cfnews13_space/status/63344096089096192

and there were some interesting helicopters flying around chucking water at it, so I’m hoping the tweetup tent (or twent) is still in one piece for tomorrow’s activities.

If you want to follow along yourself loads of it is being streamed here from 12PM EST (about 17PM BST) feel free to tweet me if you can see me in the crowd. If you do tune in you’ll see some interesting chats from astronaut Clay Anderson (@astro_clay), Dana Hutcherson, Endeavour’s Flow Director and Tara Ruttley who works on some of the science for the Space Station.

I took loads more pictures today but I’ve decided to hold them back and post them as galleries in the days after the launch. Like i said earlier if you listen to either BBC York or BBC Norfolk’s breakfast shows you’ll hear me in the morning from my wonderful beach house here in Cape Canaveral. And if you listen to their drive shows I might be able to do a couple of interviews into their Drive programmes live from the press site itself.

That all depends on NASA WIFI though, they might be able to launch a rocket but they might not be able to handle 150 people excitedly using their internet.

Catch you tomorrow

Quick day 1 blog, more later

A quick blog to satisfy my blogging needs (will post more later). Today was amazing! And it’s only day 1! We did the tourism thing round the visitor’s centre.

I’ll grab some food then download pictures and do a proper blog. Then I’ve got two interviews to do this evening. If you listen to either BBC York or BBC Norfolk’s breakfast show you’ll hear me tomorrow

Oh and look who I bumped into!