Vapor check...
Aug. 22nd, 2005 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpThe fuel loading has been over for some time, but as is the case with many endeavors in life, it's not the doing that takes the time, it's the preparation and cleanup.
There's a marvelous phrase for cleanup work in the space business: closeout operations. (It sounds so much more impressive than "wiping up after yourself," no?) In fact, we're so far along, Valery has just walked in the door, an hour early. (Or 45 minutes early, depending on if we count time from when he actually relieved me or should have relieved me, respectively, the last time we swapped places.)
The safety engineers are in the hall with the spacecraft with some vapor testing gear to make sure there are no pockets of fuel vapor literally hanging around. I cannot imagine there being too many more things to accomplish before going back to the hotel area, but I have been known to be wrong before. The original estimate this morning for knock-off time was somewhere approaching 9 pm, or almost 3 hours from now.
I think I will go check to see if I can make myself useful and accelerate the process of finishing the job.
Cheers...
There's a marvelous phrase for cleanup work in the space business: closeout operations. (It sounds so much more impressive than "wiping up after yourself," no?) In fact, we're so far along, Valery has just walked in the door, an hour early. (Or 45 minutes early, depending on if we count time from when he actually relieved me or should have relieved me, respectively, the last time we swapped places.)
The safety engineers are in the hall with the spacecraft with some vapor testing gear to make sure there are no pockets of fuel vapor literally hanging around. I cannot imagine there being too many more things to accomplish before going back to the hotel area, but I have been known to be wrong before. The original estimate this morning for knock-off time was somewhere approaching 9 pm, or almost 3 hours from now.
I think I will go check to see if I can make myself useful and accelerate the process of finishing the job.
Cheers...
