They called it at 2:30 p.m. just 7 hours before the scheduled launch. Hydrogen leak. It could be minor (few hour repair job) or major (weeks). Thus, our chance to see the launch hangs in the balance tonight.
It has been a special 24 hours. This morning we met with the Steves (pilot inlaws) family and
friends for breakfast. Jim, Janeen’s brother , related how Janeen had called him Monday night and asked him to be at the NASA center by 10 a.m. Tuesday. There he was given a medical check up to make sure he was not carrying any infections, and was, with his brother, transported to the “Beach House” to spend the afternoon grilling hamburgers and playing on the beach with the crew. The brother in laws of the pilot and other screened family visitors offered diversion to the crew as they awaited the next day’s launch.
After the gathering last night, the immediate family was loaded into buses and taken to the launch site. There, in the seemingly daylight of the pad’s illumination, and at 1 a.m., they were able to view the processes of the last stages of preparation and they received detailed explanations from the accompanying astronauts.
Today, we arrived at Kennedy (KSC) around 2 pm. The Center was bustling with the normal influx of tourists but this time it included school kids on field trips, families and friends of the crew dressed in team-like matching colors, and hoards of space zealots gathering for the launch. The air of expectation rose with each minute. Then it deflated as the “scrubbed” announcement was made.
The leak, external to the craft, will take at least two days to repair. Sunday, the day we were to fly home, is the nearest launch date. We have some decisions to make but right now Barb and I linger toward what was written on a coffee cup we saw at KSC today, "Let's do Launch". Are we close? We can't say yes. Until the launch is permenantly scrubbed we are resolved to be here.
It has been a special 24 hours. This morning we met with the Steves (pilot inlaws) family and
friends for breakfast. Jim, Janeen’s brother , related how Janeen had called him Monday night and asked him to be at the NASA center by 10 a.m. Tuesday. There he was given a medical check up to make sure he was not carrying any infections, and was, with his brother, transported to the “Beach House” to spend the afternoon grilling hamburgers and playing on the beach with the crew. The brother in laws of the pilot and other screened family visitors offered diversion to the crew as they awaited the next day’s launch.After the gathering last night, the immediate family was loaded into buses and taken to the launch site. There, in the seemingly daylight of the pad’s illumination, and at 1 a.m., they were able to view the processes of the last stages of preparation and they received detailed explanations from the accompanying astronauts.
Today, we arrived at Kennedy (KSC) around 2 pm. The Center was bustling with the normal influx of tourists but this time it included school kids on field trips, families and friends of the crew dressed in team-like matching colors, and hoards of space zealots gathering for the launch. The air of expectation rose with each minute. Then it deflated as the “scrubbed” announcement was made.
The leak, external to the craft, will take at least two days to repair. Sunday, the day we were to fly home, is the nearest launch date. We have some decisions to make but right now Barb and I linger toward what was written on a coffee cup we saw at KSC today, "Let's do Launch". Are we close? We can't say yes. Until the launch is permenantly scrubbed we are resolved to be here.
Pictures: rocket garden last night and today; and the space shuttle mock up at KSC.
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