(Sub)urban deer...

The casual daytime visitor to JSC will likely not encounter any of the herd of deer that calls the Center's territory its home. In fact, having been informed of the existence of these animals, said visitor may reasonably conclude that there is some leg-pulling going on. After all, JSC is situated in a thriving suburban area, bounded by four-lane roads and surrounded by housing developments, malls, schools, shopping centers, and recreational facilities.

But, against all odds, the deer are there. Personally, I have no idea where they could hide during the day, but a few nights ago, as I was on my way to work, I spied a number of deer grazing off to my right, between a parking lot and a group of buildings. Here's the shot:



Flash would not have helped in this situation, as the deer were too far away and anyway, even if they were up close, I'd feel kind of bad spooking these poor creatures with a strobe. I was hoping to get some silhouettes, but apparently, the exposure was too short. Anyway, after playing around with Jasc's version 7 of Paint Shop Pro, I was able to enhance the image to show the following:



While this is not high-grade photojournalism, two deer should be visible in the image (certainly discernible on a laptop's LCD screen). The deer are very skittish, despite living so close to civilization. They are also very thin, in my estimation, at least as compared to their country brethren.

* * *After yesterday afternoon's post, my attention shifted toward getting enough sleep for the last shift of the assignment. I hit the sack around 1:40 pm or so and slept fitfully until about 5 pm, when I regained consciousness to the sound of a neighboring canine vociferously vocalizing its displeasure with some essential aspect of its life. This grievance process seemed to go on forever, punctuated by loud truck noises and some idiot driving past with the bass on his sound system pumped up so loud that seismographs in California must certainly have been able to track his movements.

With one mighty toss, I mashed my pillow into a new position under my head and attempted to bury myself further into my mattress, willing myself to sleep. To my utter later amazement, the tactic worked. My alarm woke me at 10 pm, at which point I fell into my routine for my "morning" ablutions, etc.

The shift itself was one of those rare sessions where the ISS crew was actually left alone (they're supposed to have a day off, punctuated by so-called family conferences in which they get to speak privately with their loved ones, but typically talk turns to work during such days anyway). The "upstairs" control room at the Moscow MCC, on the other hand, had a busy morning as they put a Soyuz vehicle into orbit from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The launch went off flawlessly, and the vehicle is expected to dock with the ISS in about a day and a half.

Cheers...

In case you missed it...

In the hour counting down to the Soyuz launch (which occurred at 0859 GMT, or about 4 am Central time), the control room in Houston was able to get a feed from the Moscow TsUP (what everyone calls the mission control center there; pronounced "tsoup"). That feed had, in turn, had been provided to the Russians by the French space agency (CNES).

The French are taking an interest in this flight because astronaut Claudie Haigneré - who became the first Frenchwoman in space in 1996 - is flying on board the TM-33 as a flight engineer, the first time (say the newsies) a non-Russian woman has served in that capacity.

(Does anyone really care about such distinctions? Thinking back to some baseball color commentary I've heard, I wonder if we'll eventually be treated to such choice distinctions as: "X is the first left-handed, red-headed Uruguayan who has a Ph.D. in cognitive science from the Sorbonne to fly as a payload specialist on an odd-numbered Shuttle mission." But I digress...)

In case you happened to be sound asleep at 4 am Central time, or didn't have your television tuned to whatever channel was broadcasting round-the-clock coverage of space-related events, here's what the Soyuz looked like on my TV monitor a few minutes prior to launch:



This next shot, taken a few sections prior to liftoff, shows the gantries retracted (this occurs in the last minute of the countdown) and a glow coming from the launch vehicle's ignited engines:



A few seconds after launch, the vehicle is all but lost to view (and staring at a diminishing point of light is no fun at all), so the television feed transferred to the interior of the Soyuz. In this next image, we see Haigneré at the top of the screen and pilot Konstantin Kozeiev at the bottom of the screen. (The third crew member, vehicle commander Viktor Afanasiev - call sign "Derbent" - is seated to Kozeiev's right, "below" the screen.) The red and green smudge in the middle is one of those doodads with an oversize red die and green thingamajingle that some people like to hang from the rear-view mirror of their car (and others, from some handy hook in their space vehicle).



We now return you to your regularly scheduled LiveJournal...

Cheers...

P.S. This would've been posted last night, but the database upgrade got in the way. Bleah.

All over but...

I celebrated the end of the assignment by having breakfast at the Einstein Bros bagel place on Bay Area Boulevard. I had their lox and cream cheese sandwich, which includes sliced tomato, red onion and capers. A cup of their Euro-French roast coffee put a nice cap on that repast.

Coming home, I quickly hit the sack (coffee does not keep me awake, unless it's poured hot into my lap) and slept for four hours. 'Twas not a sound sleep, but it was enough to keep me refreshed until I go to bed for real around 10 or 11 tonight.

I've agreed to meet Feht and his wife Maria at 6 pm at the Starbucks next to the Barnes & Noble at Bay Area and I-45. (There are really no good places to eat in Pearland. Believe me.) From there, I think we will travel to Kemah and sushi ourselves silly at the Ichiban restaurant.

For now, though, I think I will have some green tea, a tin of sardines, and then start the work of cleaning the house in preparation for departure. While I'm at it, I'll be collecting the items that will go with me in the van back to Colorado.

Cheers...