The Rocket Bus Rolls (#sctweetup – Part 2)

First morning of the Space Camp Tweetup: We assembled in a conference room on the second floor next to the administrative offices.  Of interest, it had a panoramic window view of the shuttle simulators down below on the first floor.  It was a comfy room too, allowing plenty of space for the 14 of us that would be using it as a command center for the next 2 days.  Here we also met Jackie,  our primary host for the event.  Jackie was everything you would want a host to be: friendly, engaging and determined to make sure everyone was having a good time.  Jackie set a fun, positive mood for the events to come.

We weren’t to get too comfy in our new command center as the first real order of busines was a bus tour to visit the Marshall Space Flight Center just a few miles away.  I was aware of the Redstone Arsenal and the propulsion test stands, but really didn’t know what else to expect of Marshall.  After passing the security check at the main gates I was becoming more aware of other non-tweetup related folks on the bus with us.  Some murmuring began as to who they were but we quickly became distracted by the sights to pay it more mind.

Our first stop was at the Payload Operation Center for the International Space Station (ISS).  Exiting the bus we realized our unknown stowaways were toting large broadcast TV cameras.  By golly, we were going to have members of the news media following us around for the day.

The Payload Operation Center was sort of like a Mission Control Center for the science experiments on the ISS.  One of the directors came out and gave us a very thorough explanation of everything we saw.  I was kind of shocked that with my video camera I could zoom right in on the computer screens monitoring the ISS data.  I was concerned I was seeing top secret info but realized it all looked greek to me and with the primary word in ISS being “International” it’s all likely commonly shared data anyway.  Still, I refrained from tweeting detailed photos, just in case.

Next stop on the bus tour was the test stands for the rocket boosters.  For our ride over, we picked up some additional NASA employees from Marshall to act as guides and to explain what we were going to see.  I sat next to Robert on the bus, he furiously typing away on his iPad, me on my iPhone.

Just like at the rocket garden at Kennedy Space Center where I like to rest in the shade of the Saturn 1B rocket, we had an old 1B booster providing shade for us at the first test stand we visited – how kind of them to arrange that for me.  We all huddled around our guides in the shade of the Saturn booster as the TV crews filmed us from out in the sun so they could get a wide enough pan of us all.  There were three of them with cameras and they seemed to be representing different networks.  One of the three, I have to admit, really stood out from the rest of them.  Actually, she looked quite over dressed for the job in heels and a red dress.  I had figured earlier on that she was a reporter, but there she was lugging this large and heavy broadcast camera around – reporters don’t have to carry there own cameras now, do they?  Right now she had her camera on a tripod and pointing right at me.  “Why hello there, are you getting my good side?”  She was a pretty lady and I was starting to think maybe she liked me.  Yep, typical guy.  “No stupid,” I said to myself, “she’s taking footage of you because it’s her job – not because you’re some kind of young stud” (see mid-life crisis #3 in previous post).  Either way, if she was going to take my picture, I was taking hers.  “Smile over dressed camera lady that normally wouldn’t give me the time of day but has to cause it’s your job”.  Click.  Ooh, nice picture, thanks.

The test stand here could be described as a massive rust bucket – very cool looking, yes – but a massive structure of very old steel that had seen shinier days.  In fact I spotted a pine tree growing on one of the upper trusses – kinda like those weeds that grow in your gutters when you forget to clean them out, only this time it’s a tree.  A tree!  Another test stand was nearby but I was too busy taking pictures of a tree and a girl in a red dress to hear how it was used for the shuttle.

We got back on the bus and headed to the next stop for another test stand.  Along the way I chatted a bit with Robert while he iPad’ed away, possibly even making some commentary on the lady in red when suddenly I noticed a small mic clipped to his shirt.  “Dude, you’re wired?”

“Yeah, it’s for the TV station.”

“Oh no!” I thought as visions of Monday Night Football Mic’ed Up segments went through my head.  Surely everything I just said was being recorded and would be used against me in a court of TV news programming.  Luckily, I’m much more mild and bland in real life than I think I am in my head.  I’m pretty sure anything I said would be considered boring and left on the cutting room floor.  Finally, I inquired further, “Why do they have you mic’ed up?”

“They’re doing an interview with me later.”

Well, obviously not right now, so I was a bit perplexed why he had the mic on for the bus ride.  Hmmm, maybe he’s bugged and the lady in red is listening in now to find out more about me because she likes me… yep, once again, typical guy.

The next test stand was a real behemoth.  And shiner to.  It was obviously still getting a lot of active use due to the much better condition and lots of human activity percolating around it.  If I recall correctly I believe the most recent rocket booster they had tested was an Atlas V (a month later I would see an Atlas V launch from Kennedy Space Center, but that’s a whole other future blog post).  Our guide made it clear that this stand is open for business so if you have a rocket that needs testing, bring it on down!