life, coding, technology, outdoors, photography
This past Friday, we saw Beats Antique play at the Fox Theater in Oakland.
In fact, I've written about them before, 2 years ago! It was a fantastic show -- featuring a combination of electronic / world music and belly dancing.
Here are few photos from around Fox Theater before the show (taken with iPhone 4 and Hipstamatic).
I've been checking out the progress of the Pier 36 teardown the last few weeks along Embarcadero as I walk home from work each day. The pier is being torn down in preparation for the next America's Cup regatta, to be held in San Francisco in 2013. It's been a pretty fascinating process to see!
Earlier today, I snapped a few photos with my iPhone using the Hipstamatic photo app. Black and white make for some pretty dramatic photos of a construction site!
Updated: New photos added April 12, 2012.
Or something like that. It sure is raining a lot though!
Taken at 5th and Mission.
I've been having a lot of fun with Hipstamatic's new update (which includes Instagram integration).
It's almost time for baseball to start! I can't wait. (Photo taken from the outside of right field at AT&T Park.)
Last summer, Kerry and I moved into the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland. For one reason or another, life has been pretty busy over the past 6 months, leaving us little time to explore our "new" city.
Well, that ended today! We set out to Jack London Square and the Warehouse District for some good eats at Chop Bar. It was pretty good! According to various tips on Foursquare, they serve the "best hamburgers in all of the East Bay." It's definitely on my todo list for next time.
Walking around Jack London Square, we discovered some tall ships docked in the harbor.
Then there was this awesome statue of Cheemah, Mother of the Spirit-Fire -- it's part of a worldwide project to celebrate " cultural diversity, world unity and care for the earth." Awesome!
After that, we walked around Old Oakland. The buildings have this beautiful old architecture about them and the whole neighborhood was just awesome. So, obviously, the only thing I took a picture of was a sign. D'oh! Time to go back.
From there, we walked back to our neighborhood in North Oakland. Interestingly enough, the Oakland North blog is running a series on the history of the Temescal District today.
Speaking of Temescal history, earlier this weekend, some friends and I explored the Kingfish Pub, an old dingy dive bar in the neighborhood. Some commenters on Yelp have claimed that it's the "second oldest bar in Oakland," but I've yet to find an official verification of this source.
The SF Gate wrote about it last year:
It's a mystery what, exactly, keeps the Kingfish from collapsing. The roof sags, the beams lean, the floors slope more than some East Bay hills. "The whole place is twisted. There's nothing square in it," said owner Emil Peinert. "One of the windows just popped out."
The Kingfish Pub in its natural environment:
All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend in the East Bay and I've found myself loving it more and more. Others have mentioned that Oakland is San Francisco's own Brooklyn. I believe it!
It's fun. Does this mean I'm about to start saying "hella" though? Maybe not quite yet. ;)
What?! Another year in the history books? I say this every year, but time sure does fly. Especially when you're having fun. This year seemed like one of the busiest yet! Let's take a look back at my photographic year in review for 2011.
See previously, my photographic year in reviews for 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007.
Quick notes: I probably stuffed way too many events and photos in this post. Sorry! Secondly, it's interesting to see how many square formatted photographs (courtesy of Instagram) that I have. It's my primary way of sharing photos these days.
I started off the year trying to take a photo per day. Here, I walked town Divisadero in our old neighborhood and shot some random photos of the store front one night. This experiment lasted about 2 days.
Street cars are one of the reasons I love San Francisco.
Speaking of rides in street cars, I kept taking pictures of them / inside them and shot this iPhone panorama.
In early January, Christmas trees are victims in San Francisco.
Kerry took me to the Tonga Room in San Francisco for my birthday. It's a San Francisco classic. Pool in the middle of the restaurant with a boat and a band.
Our friend Christian celebrated his birthday by scheduling a Mexican party bus to take us around town! Drinks, music, and late night pinatas in the park!
Walking to and from work each day, I'm bound to stumble upon many of San Francisco's eccentrics. And then document them with my phone's camera (this is a trend I've noticed more and more -- I'm using my serious cameras less and less!)
I also picked up this rad bearded beanie (because, you know, I can't really grow a beard).
To end the month, the group of our friends took off on a chartered wine tour of Sonoma through Terrific Tours.
The first weekend of February was Super Bowl weekend! So, we mounted up in our vehicles to head to Lake Tahoe for a winter weekend at a friend's cabin.
This means there was also some serious Settlers of Catan games going on.
Also, the Starvin Marvin's BBQ Team decided to help out and provide some tasty treats.
Thanks to a query from Burrito Justice, I went to the SF Library to dig up a research paper on prehistoric humans found while excavating BART in the 1960's.
Mike Daisey came to town and gave an incredible performance on The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. Here's the setup of the stage prior to the show.
Winters in California aren't too bad…
A friend of ours had an 80's themed birthday. Dynamic Dave and Missouri Mike made an appearance.
Kinetic Kerry and Dynamic Dave, 80's style.
Our cats continued to make me realize how easy they have it. Here, Tegan is thinking about all her worries.
And a tweet of mine randomly appeared on Twitter's home page. Sweet!
It's been awhile since we've been wine tasting, so back to Sonoma we went!
Proving time and time again that we have the laziest animals in the universe.
March also means the South by Southwest festival is happening. Off to Austin, Texas!
Rachel and Kerry pose with the mascot from HootSuite.
And then pose while riding some cheesy rides…
Austin gets pretty crazy during SXSW.
The Texas State Capital Building is pretty neat at night.
The primary reason we were in Austin was for our annual gdgt live in Austin event.
While in Texas, Kerry and I apparently found one of Austin's classic "love photo" spots.
We extended our stay a few days and had a chance to check out the world famous Salt Lick BBQ outside of Austin.
Don't forget about all the awesome music! Here, Liam Finn sings some tunes.
After a week in Austin, we flew back home to our fair city.
With BBQ season approaching, I hung out with the Starvin Marvin's BBQ Team while they practiced cooking some brisket.
I can't stop taking pictures of the sky!
Baseball season begins!
Our friends Scott and Marcie ended up getting engaged! So we hung out at a wine bar to surprise them (courtesy of Scott setting this up).
For our friend Jeff's birthday, we went out to the East Bay and had a BBQ in the park.
Koa was there to keep us company.
In late April, I ventured out to Kennedy Space Center for one of the coolest experiences in my life -- to checkout Space Shuttle Endeavour's last flight for a NASA Tweetup! It was the experience of a lifetime.
Here is the new Orion module on display at the KSC Visitor's Center.
An full scale mockup of the Shuttle on display at KSC:
Credentials!
The VAB! Words cannot describe how crazy huge it is. This is where they put together vehicles that take humans to SPACE. And at one point, the MOON!
I'm posing in front of the world famous count down clock.
We also got to go inside the VAB!
Sadly, due to a late thunderstorm and some technical issues that cropped up, the launch was scrubbed and I had to return home. This was the closest I ever got to seeing a Shuttle launch.
May was a fairly inactive month for me. Went for a run down to the beach.
There was also a lot of standing around, as Off the Grid SF started up a weekly event at our office building for lunch!
Masquerade party at our friend's house.
Kerry and I moved to Oakland! One of the immediate and obvious differences between San Francisco and Oakland was the blue sky. That's right! No fog in the summer, baby!
We immediately started checking out some of the neighborhood eateries. Our first stop? Homeroom! Specialty Mac n' Cheese!
And here is some cute art on the wall at Homeroom:
I flew to New York City for a gdgt live event. I went a few days early to visit my sister, who had just moved back to New York City from Los Angeles.
Brooklyn summers:
Checking out the High Line.
It was pretty fun hanging out with my sister in NYC. I hadn't seen her in awhile!
In July, we went out to Yosemite National Park for a wedding for our friends, Meghan and Andy. It was a blast!
Of course, I had to go for the standard post card shot of the valley.
Our friend Marcie took an awesome photo of Kerry and I while there.
I also borrowed a new camera, the Fuji X100. I had to test it out, so I used my standard benchmarking tool: the nearest feline.
In mid-July, we went back to Austin, Texas for another wedding. This time for Jess and Adam.
We end the month with some more baseball -- this time, the Oakland A's: a minor league team pretending to be a major league team.
August! This time, we venture to Seattle for a gdgt live event. Before all the festivities, we stopped by the Sci Fi museum to see the Battlestar Galactica exhibit!
Space Needle!
In mid-August, we ventured northward to the Russian River for a good old-fashioned canoe trip!
Seemingly millions of people flocked to the Mission to taste food from a few dozen food trucks. Street Food Fest was amazing. Amazingly crowded!
My parents and grandparents came up to visit and stayed in Napa. So we went on adventure and rode the Napa Valley Wine Train!
We spend Labor Day weekend on the shores of Lake Tahoe.
The other reason we were in Tahoe? Rib Fest!
We managed to sneak in some hiking as well.
Off the Grid held an event in the East Bay at Golden Gate Fields. So, we went out and saw our first horse races. It was pretty fun!
Mid-September, I went off to Chicago for another gdgt live event. It's such a pretty city!
More Oakland A's games! (Admittedly, baseball is always fun to see, no matter who is playing.)
Random stuffed animals left around our neighborhood…
Our friends Katherine and Tony got married!
Sadly, Steve Jobs passed away early in October. I swung by the local Apple Store to check out the memorial that fans and mourners were building.
Views from the office building: crazy people.
October means Fleet Week! Scott and I went out on a boat and watched the Blue Angels practice. We had pretty epic front row seats.
We ventured north to Sonoma for another wine tasting trip with friends.
For work, the team stopped by the SF MOMA to check out the Dieter Rams exhibit. It was pretty inspiring.
Besides Fleet Week, October also means pumpkin patches!
Dramatic mornings on public transit.
This is how we hack street signs in Oakland.
For our friend's Halloween party, Kerry and I dressed up as friendly TSA agents.
More wine!
And more Dave and Kerry pics after drinking wine!
Santacon!
We took a train ride down to Southern California on the Coast Starlight. That was a blast!
The views were pretty epic, too!
This piece was originally posted on gdgt. Check it out, here.
Alright, I meant to post this awhile ago -- here are my impressions of the Fuji FinePix X100 after using it for a week.
Pros
The viewfinder displays all sorts of awesome live data. Holy awesome, I don't know why more camera manufacturers haven't done this yet, but the X100's viewfinder has a live histogram. For me, it's totally key when trying to nail a photo. I absolutely love using histograms to try and get proper exposure. Plus, there's all the usual information (aperture, exposure, ISO, grid view).
Another cool aspect of the viewfinder is that it shows a rectangle that shows the actual field of view of the image that will be captured. This means you can see outside this area and use it for anticipation, planning, or lining up your shot. I love it.
The lens is fast! It's a fixed 35mm lens with an f/2.0 maximum aperture. The bokeh at f/2.0 is nice. It's super sharp when stopped down to around f/4.
Hybrid viewfinder: So, this camera does something kind of interesting. It has a regular old optical viewfinder, but it also comes with an electronic viewfinder as well that can be manually engaged (or automatically engaged when in macro mode) that shows what your camera sees directly from the viewfinder. Sadly, there are cons to this (see down below!).
Design: The design is awesome. I love that retro style, and the camera is comparable in size to most micro 4/3's cameras. Except it has an APS-C sensor inside!
The camera sensor: It's an APS-C sensor -- this is the same type of sensor you'd find in most DSLRs. Micro 4/3's cameras (which are all the rage right now, and roughly the same size at the X100) have a slightly smaller sensor.
Cons
I wear glasses now, so when I put the viewfinder up to my face, I can't actually see all the information displayed in the viewfinder. I can see the field of view of the image, but that's about it.
Focus = slow: Oh, man. I lost a number of shots while waiting for the lens to lock focus. It's actually pretty slow! And this is a problem that I notice happens a lot in low light environments (which the camera should actually be really good at shooting in!).
Hybrid viewfinder: This camera does something particularly annoying every single time you take a photo using the optical viewfinder. After you take an image, the electronic viewfinder pops up and shows you the most recent image you took. There's no way to turn this off. Are you in the middle of trying to capture a series of action shots? Too bad! "Snap -- view photos for 1 - 2 seconds -- snap! -- view next photo for 1 - 2 seconds -- snap! -- oh, my God, just let me take photos and look at things later!"
The other issue I have with this (and all electronic viewfinders in general) is the general poor quality and low resolution of the image you see.
Slow to try and setup for a shot: This might be my limited amount of time with the camera and inability to truly get used to it, but I found it a pain to try and setup the camera properly for shots as I walked around Austin and San Francisco with it. Changing lighting conditions (which normally don't phase me, even on my DSLR), wrecked havoc on my ability to take photos. There's not really an automatic mode (for better or for worse) -- this camera is for really seasoned professionals who know their stuff (do you know your Sunny 16 rules? If so, you can probably be comfortable using this camera).
This piece was originally posted on gdgt. Check it out, here.
A friend of mine (see Marcie Lynn Photography) rented a Nikon D3x this weekend for a photo shoot. She took it along on a wine tasting trip a number of us went on, and I had a chance to play around with it.
The photos that came out of this thing were absolutely incredible. That said, it's a beast of a camera and you probably need a Sherpa or two to help you carry around the camera and lenses.
It's a 24.4MP full-frame camera. Coupled with a 50mm f/1.4 lens, this thing practically had night vision. It also absolutely nailed the focus on photos and the images were tack sharp.
The really interesting thing about 24.4MP is your ability to crop the image and still maintain high enough resolution for multiple uses. That was the most impressive thing, in my opinion. You could take a group photo of 10 people, then zoom into any one of them, and there was enough resolution and fidelity for a flawless 8 x 10 portrait. Incredible!
The other impressive thing was the image quality at ISO 6400. Properly exposed, you could barely see any grain! Seriously, that's insane.
This is totally going on my "WANT-but-probably-not-ever-own" list. Anyone have $9,000 laying around?
STS-134 NASA Tweetup and the final flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour
On April 28th and April 29th, 2011, I was fortunate enough to participate in the NASA Tweetup for STS-134. It was to be the final flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and the second to last mission in the Space Shuttle program. I traveled to the Space Coast from San Francisco and spent three fantastic days with fellow Twitter users and enthusiastic space geeks at Kennedy Space Center. Things didn't always go as planned (you'll see), but it was an experience that I'll cherish and never forget. Godspeed, Endeavour.
As I write this, I'm currently en route to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to participate in the STS-134 NASA Tweetup. If all goes as planned, we'll be watching the final launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour at 3:47pm on Friday, April 29th, 2011. It's only a few short days from now.
Watching a space shuttle launch has always been something of a long shot dream for me. Growing up in California, it wasn't very convenient nor easy for our family to travel across the country for a launch. It turns out that my best chance to see a launch would be canceled before I could even comprehend what the Space Shuttle was -- NASA scrubbed plans to launch Space Shuttles from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California after the Challenger accident in 1986.
(To be fair, Shuttle launches from Vandenberg were originally intended for Air Force / Department of Defense purposes, so it may have been unlikely the public would have been informed of upcoming launches. Interestingly enough, we've been able to observe rocket launches and missile tests from Vandenberg at my parents' house, located 220 miles away.)
Fortunately, we had something else available to us on the West Coast -- the flat, expansive playas of the Mojave Desert and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. Because of this, we were able to partake in a number of Space Shuttle landings while growing up. We'd often find ourselves venturing out to the dry lake beds around NASA Dryden and Edwards Air Force Base, usually on short notice. Once there, we'd patiently wait under sunny blue skies and rising temperatures until the shuttle announced its arrival with distinctive twin sonic booms.
Ka-Boom! Ka-Boom!
Everyone would crane their necks in all directions, looking for the tiny speck that would eventually grow into a space ship right in front of our eyes. Inevitably, someone would spot it in the distance. It almost appeared to be falling rather than gliding.
Photo courtesy of Randy Walker.
We had front row seats as it silently flew over our parents' cars, trucks, and motor homes. The silence was periodically broken by the cackle of radios, as amateur radio enthusiasts tuned into NASA's communications channels. As it approached and landed on a runway, located only a few miles from us, the crowd would start cheering and clapping.
During one landing in the early 1990's, we raced to Dryden before sunrise to catch an early morning landing. After the shuttle touched down (which specific shuttle it was escapes me), we drove the two hours back to our town, where my parents dropped me off for school. When I entered the classroom, my third grade teacher asked me to explain my tardiness and threatened me with a detention -- it would have been my first.
"I was watching the Space Shuttle land!" Coolest kid in class? You bet.
On March 14th, NASA announced that it would begin accepting applications for a new tweetup event -- to watch the final launch of Endeavour. The event was originally scheduled to take place on April 18th and April 19th, culminating with the final launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour (and representing the second to last flight of the Space Shuttle program).
The application process was pretty straight forward and simple. Where are you from? What are your favorite NASA Twitter accounts? And most importantly, what is your Twitter username?
Over 4,100 Twitter users responded to NASA's call for applications in 24 hours. A week later, they selected 150 lucky people to participate. The event would feature an exclusive behind the scenes tour of NASA facilities at Kennedy Space Center that included NASA's press site near the famous Countdown Clock, the Vehicle Assembly Building, Apollo / Saturn V Center, the Shuttle Landing Facility, an up close look of Endeavour at Launch Pad 39A, and of course, the launch of Endeavour itself.
By some sort of sheer luck and fortunate coincidence, I was one of the 150 people who were lucky enough to be selected to participate in the event. I was in Austin, Texas, attending South by Southwest on behalf of gdgt -- the previous night we had thrown one of our gdgt live events. As I was heading back to the venue that next morning to help finish the tear down and clean up, I decided to stop for some coffee and a quick breakfast. While standing in line for coffee, I pulled out my phone and started checking Twitter (as usual). The first tweet in my stream was from NASA, reminding everyone that there was only an hour left to register for the STS-134 tweetup.
What?! I quickly grabbed my coffee, ran outside and sat down on a curb, and frantically filled out the application form on my phone -- all while cursing my AT&T connection as the form took forever to load and submit. But it finally went through! It was time to let the waiting games begin.
A week later, I opened up my email client and saw a new message waiting for me. My heart skipped a few beats when I read the subject line: "STS-134 NASA Tweetup CONFIRMATION." It went on to read, "Congratulations, your registration has been selected to attend the NASA Tweetup at space shuttle Endeavour's targeted launch April 18-19 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida!"
Yes! I now had my golden ticket and I would finally see a launch! It was impossible to hide how ecstatic I was and judging from fellow NASA Tweetup attendees I began to follow on Twitter, I wasn't alone.
The size and scale of the Vehicle Assembly Building (in NASA's acronym happy world, it's more commonly known as the VAB) is nearly incomprehensible. It was built in 1966 and stands at a height of over 500 feet. It's the largest single story building on Earth. In fact, you can even see the VAB when flying out of Orlando International Airport, 40 miles away!
A few minutes after passing through the employee entrance and security checkpoint at Kennedy Space Center, the structure looms large in front you. Incredibly, it's still 4 miles away. It steadily grows to consume an ever larger percentage of your field of vision.
We entered the VAB on Thursday and tried to take it in. It was huge, giant, gargantuan, and monstrous. There isn't an appropriate adjective to describe just how immense this building is. You basically walk in, look up and then keep looking up some more. It never seems to end.
As if there wasn't enough to comprehend, you finally began to realize the amazing history of this building. For one, this is where they put together the powerful machines that took men to the Moon. The Moon! Machines that were in this building brought humans to another heavenly body and back. For a space geek, this is nearly as hallowed ground as it gets. And not many people get to see this.
Nowadays, this building is used to stack the Space Shuttle (e.g., mate it with the solid rocket boosters and the external tank). NASA was already hard at work prepping for STS-135, which will mark the end of the Space Shuttle program with the final flight of Atlantis. We were able to see a small portion of the immense solid rocket boaters and external tank in an adjacent gallery.
Someone from our group pointed up to the SRBs and ET and asked a NASA official who was with us how they got the whole shuttle stack to the launch pad.
"How do you get to it the launch pad?" He asked. "That is the launch pad!"
One hundred and fifty of us were gathered underneath a white tent at NASA's press site, located only a few meters away from the world famous Countdown Clock.
We were listening to astronaut Clay Anderson describe his experiences in space, such as acclimating to Earth's gravity after spending nearly 5 months aboard the International Space Station. Clay is a veteran of 3 previous shuttle missions as well.
When asked what he was thinking the first time he stepped out of an airlock (Clay actually says you don't step so much as gracefully fall) was that, "I was meant to be right here, doing this."
On Thursday evening, less than 24 hours before Endeavour was set to lift off, we were tentatively scheduled to take a trip to Launch Pad 39A and get up close and personal. We would be only 600 meters away from the Space Shuttle and watch as the rotating service structure retracted to reveal the Space Shuttle.
At least that was the plan. Only 20 minutes before we were supposed to leave, we found out that NASA was postponing the RSS retraction by at least an hour, due to dangerous incoming thunderstorms.
It was a beautiful sight to behold -- an ominous, large storm front bearing down on Kennedy Space Center. Every 10 to 15 seconds, the sky would flash and faint sounds of thunder would soon reach us. Suddenly, riding out the storm in a seemingly flimsy tent supported by aluminum poles didn't sit very well.
Everyone packed up their gear and we ran for cover to a nearby building. There, we rode out the storm in NASA's John Holliman Auditorium. This is where they hold many of their mission briefings with members of the press.
Eventually, the storm would pass. Unfortunately, it would be too late for us to take a trip out to Launch Pad 39A and get some personal time with Endeavour. The RSS would end up retracting at midnight. But it was good news, because launch was go! We were disappointed to be foiled by Mother Nature, but there was still fun to be had.
Finally, the big day was here. We arrived at Kennedy Space Center early, partly to beat the crowds on the road (750,000 people were expected to descend on Space Coast for this launch) and partly because we wanted to be at KSC for as much time as we could. Many of the other tweetup attendees had the same idea as well. At 9AM, all 150 of us gathered next to the Countdown Clock for a group photo.
The tweetup tent was filled with energy. You could tell many of us didn't sleep too much that night -- and why would we? For the vast majority of us, this would be our first launch! We were ready for this. In fact, someone might say we were born for this moment (though I bet that many of us at the tweetup would trade seats with any of those astronauts inside Endeavour in a heartbeat).
As mid morning approached, some people started whispering rumors.
"NASA is looking into a LOX leak in the ET."
"Something about a heater not working? Supposedly it's not launch critical."
"I hear the wind might kick up later."
Anytime someone shared news that wasn't positive, we all shushed and hissed at them. Nothing was going to come between us and the launch. Nothing was going to happen that would compromise the launch of our dear Endeavour. Call it a self fulfilling prophecy, call it denial, or just naive enthusiasm, but every single one of us in the NASA tweetup tent were ready to will that space shuttle into orbit.
It was nearly time. At 12PM, roughly 3 and a half hours from launch, we disembarked from the tweetup tent and walked a few hundred meters down hill towards the VAB, where we would wait by the roadside to cheer our heroes on. All 6 Endeavour crew members were inside NASA's Astrovan and set to drive by us on their way to Launch Pad 39A.
While waiting, we could see a helicopter approaching. The deep, distinctive "whomp-whomp-whomp-whomp" sound signaled the arrival of NASA's UH-1 Heuy helicopter. It was tasked with clearing the route and providing aerial protection for the astronauts' trip to the launch pad. Inside the helicopter sat a sharp shooter, keeping watch.
After a brief wait, the NASA motorcade approached, lead by the Astrovan and followed by a fleet of vehicles that included suburbans, armored cars, buses, and unmarked police cars. As the Astrovan slowly made its way past us, we cheered, clapped, and waved.
That's when the Astrovan turned left into the parking lot of the Launch Control Center. Most of the tweetup guests couldn't know anything at the time, but that wasn't supposed to happen.
Stephanie Schierholz, NASA's incredible Social Media Manager (and the person responsible for much of the work putting the NASA tweetups together), turned to a friend and said, "huh, that hasn't happened before."
Something was amiss. The Astrovan turned around in the parking lot and faced us. We all waited. Some people checked Twitter and saw tweets from various NASA personnel. There was a problem with Endeavour. There wasn't much info to go on, and we didn't know what to believe.
The Astrovan and its entourage began to move and approached us. They got to the intersection in front of us. If they went to our right, they were going to Launch Pad 39A. If they turned toward our left, they were headed back to crew quarters and the launch was scrubbed.
They turned left. One hundred and fifty hearts broke at once. We all cried out. There was a collective gasp from everyone watching. Some people yelled out, "You're going the wrong way!" Others pointed in the direction of the launch pad. I felt like I had the wind knocked out of me and was shocked. We were a mere 3 hours from liftoff, and only 3 miles from the launch pad. Something I've been dreaming about seeing my whole life, something that was so close, it was knocked away.
Now, to be fair, this account might paint us all as a selfish bunch, but I don't think that is the case at all. First and foremost, we want the crew and the Endeavour to be safe. There was just so much emotion, hope, and anticipation for the launch that it really affected all of us.
As the Astrovan made its way past us to head back to the crew quarters, a stream of people walked away from the road and back toward the tweetup tent. More solid info began to emerge -- there was an issue with one of Endeavour's APUs. It would take 48 hours minimum to fix. That means the earliest Endeavour could launch would have been Sunday. The day I fly back to California. A press conference was scheduled for later that afternoon. Stephanie Schierholz, Beth Beck, and the rest of NASA's social media and public outreach team hoped to know more by then.
A lot of us in the tweetup tent sat in shocked silence. Some people were quietly talking to family and friends on their phones, or were busy rebooking plane tickets. Others were standing outside, looking at Endeavour in the distance. I did the same. I wanted to tell Endeavour that she was my favorite Space Shuttle, but with an emphasis on was. It was a stupid thought. More than anything, I was disappointed that this happened.
Nearly all of us were disappointed though. But we were going to try to make the best of it and wait for more news. I mean, we were at Kennedy Space Center after all. How many of our friends and family members were jealous that we could actually even see the Space Shuttle at that moment?
NASA's press conference on Friday afternoon confirmed many of our worst fears. The launch was now postponed until Monday at the earliest. It would be at least a day before engineers could get inside Endeavour and take a look. The ET has to be drained and the rotating service structure moved back into a protective position. NASA wouldn't have more definitive information to share until a briefing scheduled for Sunday morning.
It didn't look good. I wound up changing my flight back home and moved it up a day. There was no way I would be able to make a Monday launch due to work commitments. It left me in a melancholy mood. I actually felt depressed!
Many of my fellow tweetup attendees and temporary housemates also changed their flights to leave earlier. Others were going to stay behind, intent to see the launch through. I admire and envy them.
Stephanie Schierholz sent out an email survey to the group to find out how many people would be able to stay behind for a Monday launch. Only around 60 people would be able to make it!
In hindsight, feeling melancholy or depressed about the situation was ridiculous. We knew exactly what risks we were taking by coming to Florida, and we were all familiar with the sometimes unpredictable nature of a launch.
We participated in an amazing event, seeing things and meeting people that most could only dream of. Just being at Kennedy Space Center and talking to veteran astronauts, or important scientists, or even volunteers was an inspiring experience. I even felt like I could quit everything and try out my hand at being an astronaut.
It really was a great experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything. The aura of KSC and the entire Space Coast is intoxicating. It's hard to see how someone could come to KSC and leave without wanting to be an astronaut, scientist, or engineer.
As I left Kennedy Space Center yesterday, I took a final look at Endeavour sitting at 39A and wished her well. I couldn't say goodbye though, because it wouldn't be true. After STS-134 is over, she'll be processed and eventually sent to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. There would be a Space Shuttle in my neck of the woods after all!
I may not get to see Endeavour launch, but I'll still get to spend some time with her one day.
Godspeed, Endeavour.
Update: As this post went live, NASA announced that Monday's launch was also scrubbed.