Moving along smoothly...

Well, a Progress-M1 cargo vehicle took off "yesterday" at 4:32 am (Moscow time) [about 7:30 pm on the 15th here in Houston], headed for the ISS and a docking in about...15 hours or so.

Everything seems to be moving along toward that event...at any rate, the docking appears to be the focus of the comm passes I've handled tonight, though other routine matters have also been discussed.

Segue.

I think I'm finally getting used to this routine. The idea I toyed with a few days ago - breaking my sleep time into two periods, one immediately after the shift and the other immediately before the shift - is on hold. Having done it, I know it works, but I doubt it's a good long-term strategy.

For the past couple of days, I've avoided the post-shift drowsies and have had no problem staying awake until 2-3 pm or so and then getting a pretty solid "night's" sleep until 9:30 pm or so. Actually, if I do have a problem, it's that I keep getting offered work, which I keep accepting. I need to learn to say "no" from time to time, to retain my sanity, and I have to make sure I reserve some time to rest and "sharpen my saw."

I'm thinking maybe a visit to Colorado is overdue.

Next pass is in about 24 minutes or so...I'm up.

Cheers...

Progress docks!

Now that I've more or less settled into a routine with my waking and sleep times, it only made sense (kind of) when I got word today that today's shift (which should have started at 11 pm local time) had been moved up to 4 pm local time.

As a result, I am working on about 2 hours of sleep, and will have spent 16 hours of this day in the MCC. My mind is pretty much at the point of being fried medium-to-well-done; during the pass prior to the docking attempt, my mind went on vacation, and I signaled to the other interpreter to take over. This kind of thing happens from time to time, I am told (it's a first for me), and is one of the reasons that simultaneous interpreters work in pairs.

On the plus side, I basically had a ringside seat for today's docking of the Progress cargo vehicle to the station.

The whole thing was planned to take place while the station and cargo vehicle were over Russian ground sites. The procedure basically called for the Progress to utilize an automatic docking system - called "Kurs" - but when it became clear that the vehicle was not locking onto the signal, the crew went over to manual control.

What this meant was that the pilot on the crew, Yuri Gidzenko, got set up to guide the Progress into its docking port remotely by using a set of joystick controls, while looking at an image that was being transmitted from the cargo vehicle.

Unfortunately, at first the video camera on board the Progress was blinded by sunlght, and then the image being transmitted seemed to develop a kind of fog in the center of the field of view that became apparent only when Gidzenko switched the lens to a wide-angle view. Everything around the center of the lens was in focus; the center was a white blotch.

The comm pass came to an end with the Progress still undocked, at which point folks on the ground pretty much starting holding their breath, not because there was any particular danger, but because you have to start reviewing the so-called "off-nominal" situations that were considered in the preparation for this mission, and planning for alternatives (shall we try again later tonight? tomorrow? what about propellant? will we have enough? how will this delay impact the crew's schedule?).

At the start of the next pass, the crew reported that the spot on the lens (which may have been ice) seemed to clear up somewhat, to the point where they were able to bring the Progress in to dock properly. The rest of the pass was spent doing all the things one does after docking a cargo vehicle to a space station (closing the docking hooks, firing up control systems, etc.).

In the meantime, I'm sitting there interpreting all of this, and realize only after the fact that my voice is going out to the world (and the media) on NASA television. I realize this only when the fellow staffing the PAO console tells me I did a great job and conveyed regards from the media who were listening.

Words like that make it all worth while.

Two more hours to the end of the shift.

Cheers...