L minus 15 hours, 30 minutes...
Feb. 2nd, 2005 03:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpThe launch is just 15 hours, 30 minutes away.
The day started for me with a session in the control room, helping verify communications links between there and the satellite sitting on top of the launch vehicle. I finished barely in time to get to my scheduled 9:30 am gig at the Polyot hotel, which is where Teleport Luch (an audio/video company that's another of Khrunichev's subsidiaries) has an office.
There, I did a voiceover of a segment filmed yesterday at the pad, of Dr. Vladimir B., who is the lead on the Khrunichev side. The dry runs went well. Dr. B's remarks went on for 50 seconds and my voiceover was bang-on-the-money during the dry runs, but I kept going about one second over in the first two takes. Finally, we settled on having the tech do an extended-finger countdown of the final five seconds, and I managed to time my words to end exactly at the finish mark on the third try.
Upon returning to the hotel, I had lunch and retired to my room for about 20 minutes of quiet time. While listening to radio traffic on our group's net, I decided it would be a good idea to go along on the bus taking campaign participants out to the launch pad for the fairing signing activity. Maya was already there with some VIPs, and despite the cold, I figured my services might be required (they were, briefly) and frankly, I was curious to see the blessing of the launch vehicle by the Russian Orthodox priest, an activity that apparently has become a tradition since the successful launch of AMC-9.
By the time the group got together, the priest had come and gone, but we pressed on anyway. The wind at the fairing level on the service tower was clocked at 45 knots that, when added to the approximately -23°C air temperature, made for a fairly impressive wind chill factor and caused the Russian military that runs the launch complex to shut down the elevators on the tower for safety reasons. This meant that anyone who wanted to scrawl some kind of message on the fairing risked turning themselves into a human Popsicle while walking up and down about a dozen flights of open stairs (not to mention standing on open grillwork on the fairing level).
A few brave souls elected to make the trip; the rest of us assembled near the flame trench outlet and took photos. The military seemed positively bubbly today in all regards, allowing non-badge holders to snap photos (albeit under supervision), and even didn't require everyone to quit the bus at the access point.
While off the bus, I kept one eye on the propellant vent about 200 yards directly upwind of us. Although the safety engineer assured me there was no cause for concern, my eye kept wandering back to that vent pipe. I still recall a little "burp" of fuel that occurred downwind of me during a previous campaign from such a vent. The event concluded without incident and we boarded the bus to go back to the Fili.
I've continued to support various pick-up assignments while I practice the script for the live coverage of the launch. That coverage will be web cast live (click here); the scheduled launch time is 7:27 pm Mountain Time (8:27 pm Central Time) on February 2.
Gotta go work. Ciao.
Cheers...
The day started for me with a session in the control room, helping verify communications links between there and the satellite sitting on top of the launch vehicle. I finished barely in time to get to my scheduled 9:30 am gig at the Polyot hotel, which is where Teleport Luch (an audio/video company that's another of Khrunichev's subsidiaries) has an office.
There, I did a voiceover of a segment filmed yesterday at the pad, of Dr. Vladimir B., who is the lead on the Khrunichev side. The dry runs went well. Dr. B's remarks went on for 50 seconds and my voiceover was bang-on-the-money during the dry runs, but I kept going about one second over in the first two takes. Finally, we settled on having the tech do an extended-finger countdown of the final five seconds, and I managed to time my words to end exactly at the finish mark on the third try.
Upon returning to the hotel, I had lunch and retired to my room for about 20 minutes of quiet time. While listening to radio traffic on our group's net, I decided it would be a good idea to go along on the bus taking campaign participants out to the launch pad for the fairing signing activity. Maya was already there with some VIPs, and despite the cold, I figured my services might be required (they were, briefly) and frankly, I was curious to see the blessing of the launch vehicle by the Russian Orthodox priest, an activity that apparently has become a tradition since the successful launch of AMC-9.
By the time the group got together, the priest had come and gone, but we pressed on anyway. The wind at the fairing level on the service tower was clocked at 45 knots that, when added to the approximately -23°C air temperature, made for a fairly impressive wind chill factor and caused the Russian military that runs the launch complex to shut down the elevators on the tower for safety reasons. This meant that anyone who wanted to scrawl some kind of message on the fairing risked turning themselves into a human Popsicle while walking up and down about a dozen flights of open stairs (not to mention standing on open grillwork on the fairing level).
A few brave souls elected to make the trip; the rest of us assembled near the flame trench outlet and took photos. The military seemed positively bubbly today in all regards, allowing non-badge holders to snap photos (albeit under supervision), and even didn't require everyone to quit the bus at the access point.
While off the bus, I kept one eye on the propellant vent about 200 yards directly upwind of us. Although the safety engineer assured me there was no cause for concern, my eye kept wandering back to that vent pipe. I still recall a little "burp" of fuel that occurred downwind of me during a previous campaign from such a vent. The event concluded without incident and we boarded the bus to go back to the Fili.
I've continued to support various pick-up assignments while I practice the script for the live coverage of the launch. That coverage will be web cast live (click here); the scheduled launch time is 7:27 pm Mountain Time (8:27 pm Central Time) on February 2.
Gotta go work. Ciao.
Cheers...
