So sorry...

I managed to fall out of bed this morning at 3:10 am and was out on the street 15 minutes later, ready to board the bus that was going to the launch of a Soyuz carrying PanAmSat's "Galaxy 14" satellite. The first thing I noticed upon leaving the hotel was that it was cold, which caused me to go back to my room and break out my jacket (the one I almost didn't take with me).

Upon returning outside, I remembered that we were close to the time of the annual Perseid meteor shower (as it turns out, the peak was yesterday, i.e., the night of August 11-12, with most of the action, naturally, occuring in the early morning hours). As I turned my eyes up, a bright meteor lit up the sky starting just about overhead and traveling northward. Over the next several minutes, I counted roughly five or so meteors appearing per minute within my field of vision, which qualifies as a fairly intense display, as meteor showers go. (I wonder what it was like last night?)

The bus arrived and we took off for the same complex from which the Mars Express took off just over two years ago (near the end of my first campaign). The trip took about an hour. This time, however, our group was allowed only to hang out at the periphery of the viewing area, on the side of the road opposite the parking lot. Things were pretty sedate until we all saw the service tower move away from the launch vehicle as the control room chatter - broadcast on loudspeakers - announced five minutes to launch. That kicked the level of excitement in our group up a notch as folks positioned themselves for picture taking. (Some people even used their camera's flash to capture an image of the vehicle on its launch pad, over a kilometer away. Go figure.)

In the end, however, the launch did not occur. At around one minute to liftoff, some system on the rocket showed an improper status indication - or so we gathered from the chatter on the loudspeaker - and so the launch was scrubbed, with about as much fuss as a talking head on a news show announces the night's winning lottery numbers. The only visible reaction was a flurry of motor vehicle traffic out of the parking lot and down a road toward the pad. Our group quickly piled back on the bus for the one-hour ride back. Sleep was not an option.

It was a disappointment for us, as many of the would-be spectators in our group had worked hard at the полтинник until after 2 am to get our satellite out of its container and into the processing room (103A) before knocking off for the night. The effort was not wasted, however, as there is apparently a need to make up the 24 hours the satellite shipment was delayed owing to bad weather in Toulouse.

There's been no news regarding another attempt to launch the Soyuz, or of any possible spectator participation by our group.

In just over an hour, I'll be supporting the loading of the empty satellite container in preparation for its departure for the airport. The container will be loaded onto the cargo plane tomorrow, at which time the Antonov will depart.

* * *Yesterday, as we wound up the satellite offload operation, I noticed my eyes were burning slightly and someone pointed out that various structures visible from the tarmac were obscured by some kind of dust. By the time we got back to our area, it was clear we were in some kind of particulate storm (dust, sand, salt) that noticeably fogged visibility at about 50 yards. Looking out the windows in the back of the hotel, toward other buildings, reminded me of video I'd seen recently of a sandstorm in Baghdad, albeit not as intense.

The weather had cleared before the sun went down and right now, it's sunny and the temperature is quite comfortable outside.

Cheers...