Launch Photo

Orbital put out a press release of my launch and included this awesome launch photo that I just had to share with everyone. http://www.orbital.com/NewsInfo/release.asp?prid=732

This should be the last rocket post before we inundate you with house posts!

Rocket Launch, and scenic California

OrbTM is GO...

For Launch!

OrbTM is my call sign when I am in the launch control room. It stands for Orbital Telemetry, and I am responsible for all the telemetry from our rocket. On Thursday the weather was just good enough for us to launch.

Michelle came out to watch the launch; I got her a pass onto Vandenburg Air Force Base, so she could hear the countdown and watch the launch. The launch was scheduled to go at Noon, but we had to delay until 4:00 PM. Michelle took some scenic pictures while she waited.

The launch vehicle performed as expected, but the payload was lost after around 9 minutes. Here is a link to a news story about the launch with more info: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1004/23minotaur/.

Michelle took the following shots of the rocket.

Sadly, she watched from about 20 miles away, so they aren't the best....but not bad for the distance and the haze.

I had to stay to work a little bit this weekend, but we had a few hours to go and check things out in the area. We got some decent pictures as we drove around. Here is windmill in the town of Solvang. It is a little Denmark town.

One of our favorite things to take pictures of is old farm buildings and equipment. Luckily for us there are a bunch of old barns in the farms and vineyards in this area!

Rocket Science!

Ever since I started working at Orbital Sciences 6 years ago, Michelle has introduced me as a Rocket Scientist even though my official title is Electrical Engineer. Now she has visual proof that I'm wrong:
We are getting ready to launch the very first Minotaur IV rocket. I have been working towards this launch since I started working at Orbital and I am very excited for it. Our launch window opens April 20th for seven days. Because of weather and a few other concerns the launch has already been pushed for a first opportunity on April 21st. Michelle is travelling out to California tonight to watch the launch, and we are both super excited for this big milestone in my career.

P.S. We closed on our house earlier today, so we are officially home owners! We will have more details to follow.

Tennessee

For work I am in Tennessee to do a static fire. This weekend I have had some time to do some sightseeing and other fun things. After work one day last week my coworkers and I went to the Jack Daniels distillery. It is a really interesting tour; it was fun seeing how whiskey is made and what makes Jack Daniels different than other whiskey. Saturday the Red Wings were visiting the Nashville Predators. Two of my coworkers and I were able to get tickets and go to the game. The Wings ended up winning after a 11 round shootout following a 0-0 tie. It was a lot of fun and one of the highlights was eating at Jack's Barbecue before the game. I had some ribs and they were some of the best I have ever had.

Today I visited the Stone River Battlefield from the civil war. It was very interesting to see the site were over 24,000 people died! Below is the oldest civil war monument built in 1863.

This is the cemetery where the union soldiers were buried.

This is the Stone River were the Union soldiers held off the advancing Confederate army to win and important victory for the North.

It is amazing to think about how this peaceful and beautiful site was the place of so much suffering and death.

Traveling...

When I started working for Orbital Sciences I knew I would need to travel on occasion. The last three years I have made trips to Utah, Tennessee, and California working on static fires and preparing for my first rocket launch. On Sunday I am going to Tennessee for two weeks to help with a static fire on March 31st. Here is a cool article about the importance of the static fire: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1003/17minotaur/.

I then come home for Easter weekend before going to California from April 5th to April 27th for the first launch of the Minotaur IV launch vehicle. We are launching a FALCON test vehicle for DARPA. http://www.darpa.mil/tto/programs/falcon/index.html

While these trips are exciting from my work perspective, Michelle is sad I will be gone so much. Especially since we are closing on our house while I am gone! She is the best!!!

Auction for Africa

Loyal Blog readers, one of our friends is doing and auction for Africa. Specifically to raise money for the Heart of Africa (http://heartforafrica.org/). The auction is here: http://auctionforafrica.blogspot.com/.

Michelle donated two of the items:

A box of children's books: http://auctionforafrica.blogspot.com/2010/03/box-of-new-books.html

A bundle of burpies (she makes the best burpies ever!!! And I help by cutting the fabric!!!!!): http://auctionforafrica.blogspot.com/2010/03/burpies-boys-and-girls.html

Everyone please visit and link to it, so we can all help out.

Final House?

In case some of you haven't read the comments from our last post, we found out last week that there was multiple offers on house #3. We submitted our best and final and were supposed to hear back a week ago. Over the weekend the bank (it's bank owned) asked some questions, but we still haven't heard yet if they are accepting our offer or not.

But don't worry too much. Monday we found House #4. We really like this house, in fact maybe more than all the rest of them. The floor plan is really nice, with a big great room downstairs and a huge loft upstairs. It has a lot of great windows and natural light. After we looked at it Michelle made the comment that the house made her happy. It is a corner lot and has a big backyard (well by AZ standards).

After viewing it we made an offer on it. The seller made a counter offer yesterday and we are accepting it. We are under contract and now have to go through the inspection and closing, but with luck in mid-April we will be in our first home! We are very excited. Below are some pictures pulled from the listing.


Front of the House.

Master Bath.

Kitchen

Backyard.