Moving along smoothly...
Dec. 15th, 2000 06:45 amWednesday was a pretty slow day, up until about ten to 5, when the mailbox of the RPE I work with began to overflow with radiograms from Russia. RPE (pronounced "rippie") stands for "real-time planning engineer, who proceeded, in real time, to give me all of these files and ask, "Can you stay and translate the important ones?"
Well, one of the things I've noticed about working at NASA (and in the rest of the world, come to think of it), is that short of some earth-shatteringly important previous engagement that everyone (including people like the RPE) knows about, the only proper answer is "Sure!" Additional comments noting how, technically, your work day ends at 5 pm are optional, and not repeatable.
At any rate, I got out of there at 7 pm on Wednesday. Yesterday, it took basically the whole day to catch up, and I was able to quit the MCC at about a quarter to 5. When some additional files were e-mailed over to the MCC at around 4:10 pm, the RPE made jolly well sure that they would be translated in Moscow, and not by me (resulting in another late night). What he did, by the way, is called Looking Out For Your People, and is a good indication in anyone you work for (and a good talent to develop if others work for you, but I digress...).
The Execute Package work is not terribly stressful most of the time, and nobody hangs over your shoulder waiting for things to come off your computer. Or at least, I've demonstrated a work style that causes translations to be completed effectively and in a timely manner. The only thing that bothered me yesterday was that I really didn't have the time to do a thorough job checking the translations after I was finished with them, although I did review them for obvious goofs.
I continue working with the ops planners on the Execute Package today, and then tomorrow, I'll be working the air-to-ground channel to provide a simultaneous interpretation of what the heck is being said between the control center in Moscow and the ISS. Fortunately, I will have a leg up on the proceedings, having worked with the documents that (in theory) describe exactly what the crew ought to be doing.
In practice, however, things do not always go exactly as planned, which is what all the chatter between the station and the ground is all about, but as I said, knowing what's supposed to happen is a help.
Cheers...
Well, one of the things I've noticed about working at NASA (and in the rest of the world, come to think of it), is that short of some earth-shatteringly important previous engagement that everyone (including people like the RPE) knows about, the only proper answer is "Sure!" Additional comments noting how, technically, your work day ends at 5 pm are optional, and not repeatable.
At any rate, I got out of there at 7 pm on Wednesday. Yesterday, it took basically the whole day to catch up, and I was able to quit the MCC at about a quarter to 5. When some additional files were e-mailed over to the MCC at around 4:10 pm, the RPE made jolly well sure that they would be translated in Moscow, and not by me (resulting in another late night). What he did, by the way, is called Looking Out For Your People, and is a good indication in anyone you work for (and a good talent to develop if others work for you, but I digress...).
The Execute Package work is not terribly stressful most of the time, and nobody hangs over your shoulder waiting for things to come off your computer. Or at least, I've demonstrated a work style that causes translations to be completed effectively and in a timely manner. The only thing that bothered me yesterday was that I really didn't have the time to do a thorough job checking the translations after I was finished with them, although I did review them for obvious goofs.
I continue working with the ops planners on the Execute Package today, and then tomorrow, I'll be working the air-to-ground channel to provide a simultaneous interpretation of what the heck is being said between the control center in Moscow and the ISS. Fortunately, I will have a leg up on the proceedings, having worked with the documents that (in theory) describe exactly what the crew ought to be doing.
In practice, however, things do not always go exactly as planned, which is what all the chatter between the station and the ground is all about, but as I said, knowing what's supposed to happen is a help.
Cheers...