Sorry for light blogging, but Saturday I drove up to the Cape from West Palm Beach, picked up tickets for the 49th Apollo gala, drove over to Orlando, rented a tux, checked into my hotel room, got cleaned up and put on the rented duds, drove back over to Cocoa Beach, took a bus through heavy rain to KSC with other attendees. About 2300, we took the buses back to the Cocoa Hilton, where there was an after party that lasted long enough for us to go out on the beach to watch the Telsat launch of a Block 5, at 0150. Then I drove back to Orlando, fueled the rental car, got three and a half hours sleep, took the car to the airport for flight back to LAX at 0750. After I got home, I did a two-hour stint of The Space Show at 1200 PDT on Evoloterra and the Apollo anniversary, including the fact that next year will be a half century since humans first stepped on the moon (and 46 years since they last did; (only) one of those four remaining men, Harrison Schmitt, was in attendance at the gala).
Then, yesterday afternoon, I had to unpack and repack, and make final changes on my poster for this week’s ISS R&D conference in San Francisco. This morning, I had to go rent another car, and I’ll have to go pick up the poster at Staples on my way out of town, then drive up to Berkeley to stay with friends, to be at the conference tomorrow.
IOW, blogging may be light this week.
[Update a while later, before hitting the road]
Ken Kremer has the story on the Falcon Telstar launch that much of the media ignored.
I hope we get a look at your presentation at some point.
I drove from FL to VA this weekend and timed my departure to see the Telstar 19 Vantage launch, but almost cut it too close. I arrived at the 401 North / Port Canaveral viewing area 90 seconds before launch, leaving just enough time to hop out of the car and jog over to where the trees weren’t obstructing the view.
The clouds had been so thick earlier in the day I half expected a scrub, but they cleared during the early evening and by launch time it was almost totally clear. I was surprised how little traffic there was all the way from I-95 to the viewing area, and while there was a fair turnout of spectators, it wasn’t at all crowded. I suppose that being “only a launch” without an RTLS booster landing helps account for that.
Ars Technica has some great photos of the launch, particularly a series showing the flame-illuminate shock collar as the Falcon 9 went transonic. (See photos 12 – 18 in the gallery.) https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/07/now-witness-the-firepower-of-this-fully-operational-falcon-9-rocket/