Prelaunch

I know that sometimes the Boeing workers refer to their place as the “Lazy B”. Here, the workers call Kennedy “The Rocket Ranch”. We spent the entire today touring it again. We took much the same tour as last year and found it even more meaningful this time. In the evening we gathered in a conference room at Kennedy to meet Tony’s family and share in a preflight celebration. Discovery, the crew, and the families are ready for the launch, hopefully tomorrow at 9:20 pm EDT.

Pictures: Discovery on the launch pad.

Barb, Virginia (Janeen's mom) and Janeen, Tony's wife.

Norm, Barb and "flat" Tony. Tony is in quarantine with the other crewmembers and could not attend the party.

Janeen and son Danny speaking to the gathering. Danny will turn 5 on the day, if all goes as scheduled, his Daddy will help land the shuttle at Kennedy.

Barb and Mike Foreman who has flown one shuttle mission, made 3 space walks, and is scheduled for the next shuttle flight. As is NASA custom, astronauts are assigned to escort the present crewmembers' families during the pre and post launch activities.