So, a couple of days to catch up on here-
Thursday- Lots of press around today. We had a press conference & photo op. We can usually anticipate the questions we will be asked at press conference but this time we had one unique question. A reporter wanted to know what the sequence of events are if we have to do a return back to KSC abort. That made us all wake up!
Next was a walk around the tower at 195 feet. That is the level where the gangway is from which we enter into the shuttle. It is good to know this area well in case you have to do an emergency evacuation due to a fire for instance- which leads me to the next thing we did- a fire escape practice from the tower. There is a big basket that we jump into and release it from the tower and go down a big long zip line to a bunker. Then from the bunker we take the armoured vehicle away from the pad. Up on the tower there are 7 baskets which can hold 2 to 3 people per basket as there might be other staff up there at the time too. The actual line is between 1/4 & 1/2 mile long- a zipline one steroids.
Had dinner with some friends and crew- nice evening.
Friday- Did the whole countdown sequence. We do everything, from getting into our orange suits, getting strapped in and going through the countdown sequence. Only thing missing is fueling up the tanks and going up! Then we flew back to Houston in our T-38′s. A long but interesting day. It’s getting close.
