This is a chronicle of the emails that I sent to family and friends to keep them updated on the preparations for the HOST Mission during the fall of 1998. Each email is separated by a line of '-'. By the end of the mission, the list of recipients had grown to: Siblings: "Bing Yan" , "Wai Yin" , "Bing Chun" Cousins: "May" , "Chong" , "Chew" , "Mey Ying and Hwayke" , "Ceil and Yat Ming" , "Yat Ming" , "Mey Ling and Kal" , "Chee Mun" , "Pooi Foong and Ron" , "Kwok San" , "Kwok San" , "Choon Kooi" , "Sow Gok" , "Stephen" , "Cheen Hoong" , "Roland" Friends: "Sherman Ming" , "Sheldon Lee" , "Sheldon Lee" , "Charlotte Chen" , "Gideon and Kenneth" , "Sue-Ann Leong" , "Israel A. Posner M.D." , "Vanessa Marchena" , "Albert Kock" , "Biblioteca Nacional Aruba" , "Mr & Mrs Dongen" , "Samuel Chow" , Aruban Press: "Diario (Nilton Lacle)" , "NBC Affiliate" <15atv@setarnet.aw>, "Giovanni-ATV" , "Joe Angotti-NBC" , "Mito Martis-Chamber of Commerce" , "Lorraine de Souza" , "Fermin P. (Mito) Coronel-Aruban Consulate" , "Cedrick Tilma-Prime Minister Office" , "Richard Brooks" , "Tito Lacle-TeleAruba" , "Mary Vrolijk-TeleAruba" , "" American Press: "Killough-Miller, Joan-The Wire" ------------------------------------- Date: 27 August 1998 Subject: Going to Kennedy Space Center After more than a year on this project, we are finally packing everything up to go to KSC. The flight hardware will be lifted into the shipping container today, and it will leave on Saturday. Due to its enormous size, it will only be able to travel during the day, and will thus take three days to get to the Cape. We are all quite excited to finally be flying after so many months of long hours. I am leaving on 9/3/98, and will be joined by Agnes and the kids on 9/19. NASA has rented me a three bedroom condo on the ocean for the duration of the mission. Launch will be on October 29 at 2:00pm. Mission Operations will run thru till 11/7. We are all aiming to get back home by Thanksgiving (end of November). Our home at KSC will be the SSPF (Space Station Processing Facility). There are two live cameras setup on the web, and you may be able to catch a glimpse of us at: http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/video/ click on 'channel 4' or 'channel 5', SSPF At the request of someone in Aruba, I have made available an article describing my involvement with the HST project and this mission: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/hst.htm Bing and Lydia are scheduled to join us for the mission. We have rented a two bedroom condo very near the Cape on Cocao Beach for them. Uncle Yun Foo will be staying with them. Mom will be staying with us for the mission. If anyone else wants to come down, you are welcome. Just remember that hotel rooms can be scarce due to the huge popularity of this mission due to Senator Glenn. You can continue to reach me at this email address. When I get there, I will email you our home, office and new pager number. All the best. P.S. Chee Mun and Pooi Foong, please forward this to your dad. ------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 8 Sept 1998 Subject: Arrival at KSC I arrived here at Kennedy yesterday and getting settled in. We had previously sent all our luggage such as clothes, household goods, toys and books with the trucks that travelled weekly from Goddard to Kennedy. My coworkers were nice enough to bring all those boxes to their condos so I was able to get it all and unpack yesterday. By doing this I didn't have to check any baggage even though I was leaving for a 3 month stay. My first day back at work has been exciting and fun. We ran some tests with the hardware and it looks like it all took the ride down just fine. Walking around on base strongly reminds me of when I use to work here a few years ago. It feels great to back here again. The heat, humidity, alligators, flight hardware etc... Here are the contact numbers where I can be reached: condo: 407-783 8379 (at night and after hours) pager: 407-635 6694 (anytime) cel phone: 301-513 2330 (emergencies only) office: 407-867 1715 (may not be in very much) Agnes and the kids will be here end of next week. This will be after our comprehensive tests includes a Joint Integrated Simulation, where we work our full 24 hour shifts and NASA Control simulates failures to which we have to react by replanning and rethinking. This tests our team's readiness for the mission. Updates to follow periodically. ------------------------------------- Date: 15 Sept 1998 Subject: Update from KSC Hello everybody, I have been here for two weeks now and everything is going well. We have passed our post ship tests. This means that the flight hardware made the trip down here fine. Tonight at midnight we start our continuous shifts for one day to take part in an our mission simulations. All those involved with the mission over all the NASA centers will take part in this massive test to see the readiness of everyone involved by simulating failures and anomalies. They will judge the readiness of our team here by seeing how we react. I have to be present at my console at midnight tonight, then my counterpart takes over for me at eight the next morning. See the URLs below for pictures of our control center. The shuttle has been moved from its 'garage' called the OPF where it is serviced to the huge Vehicle Assembly Building. This is the enormous cube shaped building that you see in movies. The shuttle is joined with the tank and the solid boosters here. When the shuttle rolls out to the launch pad next week (I will have pictures), we will be able to install our hardware into it. I haven't been inside the launch pad in almost ten years. Agnes and the kids are arriving this Saturday. On Sunday I went to Disney to buy tickets for us all. Since we would be here so long we decided to get one year passes to all four parks. The normal one year pass for tourists is $320. We were able to get seasonal florida resident passes for $160. This is equivalent to just four days of regular admission to the parks. As always I am updating the info document about this mission (see the bottom of the document for new stuff). http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/hst.htm Here are some awesome pictures of the shuttle really close up. http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/shuttle/discovery.htm Thanks for all the reply emails! I really appreciate getting mail from all of you. All the best. ------------------------------------- Date: 24 Sept 1998 Subject: Hurricane preps from KSC Before I get into the hurricane Georges, let me get you caught up on the week. We went to the Magic Kingdom last Sunday. It was quite rainy so we had to wear our rain ponchos almost the whole day. On the good side, there were very thin crowds and nice cool weather between showers. But the bad side was that the rain was a hassle and we took few pictures. Discovery was rolled out to the pad this past week. Since it occurred at two in the morning, I did not attend (kwok san do you have any pictures of that?). Don't despair however. We just heard that the shuttle will be rolled back this morning, so we will see a roll back and a roll out yet. The guys and I will be heading out to the pad this morning with our cameras. Our flight hardware was put into the transportation canister yesterday. This is our vehicle to get us to the launch pad. Pictures are available below. Well we are close to a voluntary evacuation of Kennedy Space Center and Cocoa Beach (were our condo is located). We will get off the beach either today or tomorrow. I will let you know what we decide to do. All the best. Keep them emails comin'. For Disney World pictures: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/album/disney98/disney98.htm For latest shuttle pics on the pad: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/shuttle/discovery.htm#pad For latest pics on the flight hardware: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/hst.htm#ksc ------------------------------------- Date: 5 Oct 1998 Subject: Installed into the orbiter, at KSC Since I last wrote, the cradle has been installed into the Orbiter at the pad. I have added some images of that. Installation went smoothly, almost boring. The next week will be big. That will be when the computer I built (the HOST Controller) will be talking to the Shuttle Discovery for the first time. Almost all of the data and commands for our cradle flows thru the Controller, and if that interface does not work, we will have _no_ mission. This weekend will be the annual KSC open house. That means that with just your employee badge you can bring a car load of people into the center with no security hassles. Since we are at a high threat condition level (code is Threatcon Alpha) this is the only opportunity for Agnes and the kids to get an up close tour of the center. They will not be able to walk up to the pad, but get close enough to see the lettering on the orbiter. In addition, the OPF will be open, so that they will be able to walk up to one of the other Shuttles. This will be an unusual opportunity for Agnes and Stephanie, and I can't wait to see their faces when we get close enough to the orbiter to read the serial numbers on the Shuttle tiles. We have been having fun at the Disney Parks. Yesterday, we went to Downtown Disney, a shopping, and dining area. There is also a large 'Lego Town' there with lots of Lego creations and blocks for the kids to play with. There was a small ramped race tracks were kids could set their creations at the top and let them race down to the bottom to see the fastest one. Pretty soon Stephanie and I were busy putting together our creation. Our car did well, if it didn't crash into the others on the way down, it would usually end up in the top three. It was such a blast that it reminded me of when Bing, Yat Ming, Chew, Choong and I would play Legos for hours when we were small. KSC is in the middle of a wild life preserve. There are 'gators, wading birds, frogs, and lots of bugs around. I found a little (2 inch) turtle driving around the center here and brought him home to Stephanie (I was driving, the turtle was walking, just in case you were wondering). Stephanie loves the little thing to pieces. There is a photo of them and the turtle in our family album on the web. When we first got it, I caught a glance of Stephanie rubber banding the little guy onto her space shuttle model. Astro (as we call the turtle) was being flown around the condo in style..... Those of you coming to the launch (Bing) bring : - binoculars (important!) - bug spray (bugs here are BIG) - tripod (when the shuttle undergoes ignition, you don't want to see it in a camcorder viewfinder--you might as well be at home if you are going to watch it on TV). Links -> flight hardware picts: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/hst.htm#ksc Astro the turtle: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/album/disney98/disney98c.htm MGM Studios: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/album/disney98/disney98b.htm ------------------------------------- Date: 10 Oct 1998 Subject: An eventful week at KSC Highlights of this week include meeting John Glenn, a rocket launch, and Stephanie seeing the Shuttle up close. We met six of the seven astronauts that will be flying on STS-95 back in Maryland during the crew training and familiarization. Senator Glenn was not able to make it because of his busy schedule. However, I did have the privilege of meeting him this week here at KSC during their crew training. We spoke of the science on this mission (both what he will be doing as well as us), and we talked about his excitement before the mission. Photo on the web page. On Friday, there was a launch of an Atlas rocket at the Cape Canaveral Station. The previous two launches have led to spectacular explosions, so there was a lot of pressure on this one. Fortunately, the launch proceeded without a problem and the payload was inserted into orbit. It gave us a taste of our launch. Photo on the web page. NASA had its annual open house here today. This was the only opportunity to get Agnes and the kids onto base since security has been tightened. We drove around the two Shuttle launch pads and saw Discovery from a distance. Then we visited Columbia up close in its 'garage'. Stephanie took along her Shuttle toy, so she could see how similar they are. That made it really fun and real for her. Photo on the...well y'know. Next week's major event will be a rare opportunity to enter the crew cabin (cockpit) of the Shuttle Discovery as it stands on the pad. I will be installing one of the computers that talks to the one I built for the cradle (see link below). I will try to get my little Aruban flag into the cabin to take a picture from there with it. That should be a lot of fun, only a select few get to enter the crew cabin so I look forward to it. Links: -For pictures of the Atlas launch and Stephanie's visit to see the Shuttle Columbia, click: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/album/disney98/disney98d.htm -Meeting Senator Glenn, click: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/hstb.htm#pad -Info on the computer I built that talks to the shuttle computer, click: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/hst.htm#controller ------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 21:35:41 Subject: A letter to the Aruban press Member of the Aruban press, Recently, my dear brother Bing let me know that Diario printed an article based on information from my web site. I was glad to hear that you were reading the information there. Publishing the site and making it available to you requires a level of self-promotion that I have avoided before. As excited as I was about my work, I had nevertheless previously worked on several NASA projects in private. Why the change? In November of last year my beloved father, Mr. Kong Ming Cheung, passed away. Seeing the people that attended my father's funeral I vowed to promote and keep his name alive among the Aruban people. My mother has also decided the same by doing her part in the Women's club and starting an educational foundation in my father's name. I decided then that I would use the publicity from this mission as a way of keeping his name alive as well. My campaign started in February with the round of interviews during the major solar eclipse of 1998 and continues today with the publication of my web page (see web address below). I dedicate my time and energy spent on this mission to his memory. Thus this letter and a request. Whenever you do a story on my work and this mission, please mention my father. He owned Kong Ming Supermarket, a very successful supermarket in San Nicolas. My mother's name is Mrs. Yok Fun Cheung and still lives in San Nicolas. If you need any more information on them just write me, or any of my siblings. The supermarket has been sold, and operates under a new name, so I am not seeking commercial promotion of the business. Since my father owned a successful business, the future of his children was financially secure. Despite this, he urged us to get whatever education we wanted and to follow our individual dreams. If it weren't for my parents' push, I would not be where I am today. I am a product of my island's great educational system and my parent's dedicated efforts. If you have any questions, technical or otherwise, please don't hesitate to write me. I would greatly appreciate your assistance in keeping alive the memory of my wonderful father! ------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 08:24:48 -0400 Subject: Ready for launch at KSC Highlights this week are sitting in the pilot's chair in Discovery and our final readiness tests. On Monday morning early (before sun rise) we entered the crew cabin of Discovery. The cabin consists of essentially two rooms. One is the mid deck and functions as the living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. The other is the flight deck and functions as the command center. These two rooms are very, very small, and after a few days with six other people, I would go nuts. I shot a few pictures, one of which shows me in the pilot chair. We had our final test with the flight hardware yesterday. This is our most comprehensive test including staff at the Johnson Space Center as well as here at the Kennedy Space Center. We no longer have any more tests, and the next time we power up the cradle, it will be in space. It is amazing to think how far this project has taken me. Last year in May, to power up the HOST Controller (the main computer I built for this mission) all I had to do was flip a switch on the lab power supply. In contrast to yesterday, in order to power up the Controller we had to power up the entire Space Shuttle too! Well I am now going to take a vacation for the next 10 days until launch week. I will be checking my email periodically, and I hope to get email from you all. We are off to Disney World again today, and next week we are going on a cruise to the Bahamas. For shots of my crew cabin visit: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/hstb.htm ------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 20:43:30 -0500 Subject: Launch week at KSC Launch week is finally here! After taking most of last week off, I am eager to start work again. Over the course of the past few months, the size of our team has varied depending on what test we are doing and who is needed. Team members travelled back and forth to Maryland as needed. Only the 12 'full time' guys (of which I am one) were here the whole time. Starting tonight (sunday night) we will finally swell to the full launch complement of 60 people. The teams are broken into two and coded by color. I am part of the Blue Team and we work from 7 at night till 7 in the morning. The Red Team works the other 12 hours. Final briefings and training will be this week as well as the usual parties. Our formal launch party will be monday night at the Patrick Air Force Base Officers Club. Auntie Shue Fun and Uncle Yun Foo will be watching the kids while Agnes and I attend this formal affair. Then the remainder of the week we will have barbecues and happy hours after work. After launch on Thursday we go into mission mode, working 84 hours a week, compared to the normal 40. This sounds like a lot, but during our testing back at Goddard, we did this for one month straight. Thus the week and a half here should be alright. As you know launch will be on October 29, and the mission will end the week after that on November 7. At mission end, our whole family was supposed to return back to Maryland together, but the plan has changed so that Agnes and the kids will leave right after the launch so I can have the condo to myself. This way I can sleep during the day and concentrate on the mission at night. We all hope that the mission will be very boring. This is because an 'exciting' mission means that there are problems and things are NOT going well. Although I have enjoyed solving the problems we have had so far, I want everything to work as planned. Of particular interest is the instrument I have been assigned to during the mission. This is the cryogenic cooler that will be installed on the Hubble Space Telescope in 2000. As my web page mentions, during our ground tests, the turbo machine inside the cooler has crashed several times costing many months of rebuild. This cooler almost did not make it on this flight. To find out if the turbo of the cooler has survived launch we will be turning it on about 18 hours after launch. As it turns out it will be during my shift, and I have the task of handling the command for the instrument team. Since it will take an estimated 15 seconds for data from my HOST Controller (the main control and data computer I built for the mission) to reach back here to our control center at KSC, we will not know what is happening up in space for that amount of time. We will be holding our breath until we see that the turbo has started. By the way, the turbo compressor spins at an incredible speed of about 250,000 rpm. Compare to a car engine that spins at only 7,000 rpm max. The cooler cools to 70 degrees above absolute zero, or about -200 degrees C. If this cooler works properly it will enhance Hubble Space Telescope immensely (see my web page). I have crammed a lot of detail in a few paragraphs above. If anyone has any questions about the mission feel free to email me. On the non-work front, this week we went to the Bahamas on a cruise and the KSC Visitor Center. We also saw the launch of a Delta II rocket on Saturday. It carried Deep Space 1, which will leave our solar system and never return, just like Voyager. DS1 tries out new technology that is the stuff of science fiction movies. Its main rocket engine is an Ion Engine. The 'push' from this engine is equivalent to the force of ONE sheet of paper on your hand; compare this to 7,000,000 pounds from the Space Shuttle. However by turning this engine on for years (shuttle engines burn for a minute or so), incredible speeds can be reached, enough for interuniverse travel. I consider this engine to be a sister of the 'Warp Drive' used on Star Trek, so this is exciting stuff. If you are interested, I encourage you to go to my web page, then follow the link there for more info. Like Voyager, Deep Space 1 carries a CD-ROM with information about our earth. My signature is on that CD-ROM, so I can say a small part of me is leaving our solar system forever! Links: Pictures of cruise, KSC visitor center, and Deep Space 1: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/album/disney98/disney98e.htm Mission page: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/hstd.htm Past weekly updates: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/mail.txt ------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 23:04:33 Subject: Countdown to launch at KSC Those that will be coming on base for the launch on Thursday will be treated with a rare sight. There are two launch pads here at KSC from where the Shuttle can depart. They are known as pad 39A and 39B. We currently have the rare occurrence of having BOTH pads occupied by Shuttles. When the Support Structure is rolled away tomorrow, viewers will be able to see the majestic sight of TWO shuttles ready to fly. Our mission (STS-95) will be launched from pad 39B, while STS-88 is sitting on pad 39A. STS-88 will launch the first American elements of the International Space Station. These are the same modules that I know quite well because I have been spending months around them while we do our ground test here in the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF). Our final all-hands meeting will be tomorrow morning at 8:00am. We will work just half day tomorrow in order to rest the team for the launch on Thursday. Due to Hubble Space Telescope's importance, 5 busses will be available to our team members and family to view the launch at a VIP site. If I were by myself, I would go to the Launch Control Center to view the launch very close up. However, since I will have about a dozen family members here, I will join them on the bus. It will be farther away, but witnessing the launch with everyone else will be worth it. This will be the third Shuttle launch for me. None of our team members will go to work on Thursday morning, but one hour after launch the Red Team will report on duty. They will start work two hours after launch as soon as the cargo bay doors of the Shuttle open up. Since we will then be exposed to the intense cold of deep space, we will need to turn on maintenance heaters at that point. Four hours into launch, power will be turned on to the HOST Controller. This is the main data and command computer of our mission, and is the computer I designed and built. Six hours into launch, power to the cryogenic cooler (NCS) will be turned on. During the mission this latter instrument will be my responsibility (more on my web page). As a member of the Blue Team, I will report on duty at seven o'clock Thursday night. My night shift extends for 12 hours, and since mine is the first complete shift, we will be doing a lot of commanding of the instruments. It will be interesting, and I hope I will be able to survive with no sleep. Privately, the Mission Manager put his best team on the night shift because he wanted the stronger team during the most difficult hours. I was gratified to receive a letter from Prime Minister Henny Eman of Aruba a few days ago. There have also been numerous requests from the Aruban media for information and interviews. For example, I was interviewed by the Aruban NBC affiliate (ATV) this morning. All I can think of is how proud my father would have been to see this. It appears that the Aruban people are as excited as the American public about this launch. I will be at home Wednesday afternoon from 2:00pm till 5:00pm. Due to requests for interviews and phone contacts, I will be available to take phone calls at that time at home. The number is below. As I have mentioned in the past, I request that the name of my deceased father, Mr. Kong Ming Cheung, be mentioned in any interviews that are printed or shown on TV. I dedicate my efforts during this mission to his memory. The phone number at my condo is: 407 783 8379. ------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 23:21:42 Subject: All systems go at KSC The launch was spectacular. After waiting for a few hours for the big event, the last few seconds seem to just fly by. Since we were on KSC, there were loud speakers carrying the audio. When tee minus 30 seconds was called, I was asking myself, am I really ready? After waiting for more than a year, here I am looking at the launch. At tee minus 20 seconds my heart started to pound in my chest. I looked out of the crowd of thousands, and everyone was looking in the same direction. We were all united in a common purpose. At tee minus 10 seconds I started recalling and remembering the previous launches, and wondering if this one would be different. Then the whole crowd counted out loudly 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2 and we all held our breath. The takeoff was so beautiful that I can't remember how the previous launches looked like. A little known fact is that the exhaust flame of the Solid Rocket Boosters is bright red. The plume is so bright that it saturates video and still cameras. As a result, the flame is not white as you see on TV or newspaper, but bright, spectacular, irrepressible red. As the Shuttle climbed higher, the sound finally reached us. It was a loud, rumbling, crackling blast that impresses on you that you are watching a powerful lion that is roaring its way upward into space. Tonight, all our systems are working well. The HOST Controller (the computer I built as the main command and data unit) is working well. All my doubts about missing anything are disappearing every day the mission progresses, and it is great to have another flight unit working in space. The other component I have been assigned to, the cryogenic refrigerator (NCS) is working well also, we are currently at -50C, and we will be cooling until we reach -200C. All the nightmare scenarios we looked at regarding the turbo machines being damaged before flight have not come true. Since one of the papers in Aruba has published my email address, I have received a lot of well wishes from the island. It seems that this mission is followed very closely in Aruba. Although I cannot reply personally to all of them, I do appreciate the well wishes. The hours are bad (7 at night to 7 in the morning), but I just have one more week and I finally get to go home to Maryland after being here for 3 months. Agnes, the kids and all our guests are leaving tomorrow so I will have a quiet place to return to. We will miss Florida. It has been a great place to work and vacation. I have not had the time to update my web page with launch pictures. I will let you know when that happens. All the best. ------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 01 Nov 1998 06:07:25 Subject:Flight Day Three at KSC Agnes, the kids and our guests left this morning. I felt rather sad seeing them all drive off all together without me. Oh well, I have a job to do here, and it won't be the last time that work takes me away from them. I finally had time to update my web site with launch pictures. I was able to put together an animated gif that looks like a short movie of the launch. I invite you to take a look at it although it may take a while to load by modem. Our hardware is working well in general, but we are having a problem with too much heat. When the cargo bay points to the sun, the contents can heat up rapidly to 75C or more. On the other hand, when the bay is pointed to deep space, we can go as cold as -70C. Usually the shuttle flies a mixture of the two extremes, and the temperature stablilizes to somewhere in the middle. One of the other cradles on this mission is a sun experiment, and we have a lot of sun pointing scheduled. As a result, our cradle is running warmer than ideal. This is causing longer than usual to cool the cryogenic experiment. We are currently at -190 C inside the instrument. We need to cool about 10 more degrees. Once we have cooled completely off, parts of the system will be so cold that nitrogen gas may condense out of the gas mixture. On sunday the astronauts will be releasing the Spartan payload with the Shuttle robot arm. When that happens, you will be able to get a better view of our cradle that is located behind it. Behind Spartan is our radiator (large white panel) and the two orange towers on either side supporting it. I will get the image onto my web page so that it will be clearer to explain. ------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 02 Nov 1998 23:34:46 -0500 Subject: Flight Day Five at KSC My web page has been an unofficial chronicle of my personal experience on the HOST mission. It has received a following among my collegues here at the control center, who like the pictures and contents. As a result of this attention, it is being incorporated and linked-to more and more by official NASA sites such as the one below. I would encourage you to take a look at that site, it has other info on our mission. We are still running too warm in the cargo bay. Due to another cradle that is sitting behind us, we need to do a lot of sun pointing. The cold end of the cryogenic refrigerator reached 73.5 degrees above absolute zero today (the goal is 72), but we have drifted warmer since then because of more sun pointing. Tonight on my shift we will try one more time to 'dive cold' (as we call it), and accept what we get as the final value. To give you some perspective, water freezes at 0 C, but that is 273 degrees above absolute zero. Thus we achieved about -200 C. We are only a couple of degrees above a temperature where the air we breathe will become a liquid. We have asked to extend the mission by one day. Since the shuttle took off essentially on time, and the shuttle fuel cells were not used up while it was waiting on the pad, we may be granted our wish. If we get our extra day, we will request a lot of deep space pointing to cool off our cradle. We can follow what the shuttle is doing and where we are pointing to by using the large graphical display above our heads. It shows the earth, and the position of the shuttle. It is fun to hear and see the astronauts communicate with the ground and see them position the shuttle based on their conversation. The graphic shows the earth as the astronauts see it, and we can see where it is day and night, and when the astronauts will see sun rise etc. The shuttle has the luxury of being able to achieve many different orbital positions because of its ample fuel supply. I hope you have had the opportunity to see the video shot from one of the Solid Rocket Boosters falling back to earth. It is an amazing sight, you can see the other one fizzling out and the tumble back to earth is beautiful. When we were watching that in our control room, we all cheered when the SRB splashed down to the water. The building that contains our control center can house two missions. We shared the building with Deep Space 1, this spacecraft launched a few weeks ago on an ATLAS 2. I highlighted DS1 in one of my past updates. Now that DS1 has launched, they went home to NASA JPL in California, and our new neighbor is Star Dust. This spacecraft is to rendez vous with the tail of a comet and investigate its contents. Links: Official NASA HOST page, that refers to mine (look around there for more info on the mission): http://hstsci.gsfc.nasa.gov/host/addinfo.html My mission page: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/hstd.htm Past mission update: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/mail.txt ------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1998 22:54:34 Subject: Flight Day Six at KSC Things haven't changed much since the most recent update. We are making good progress with all our science objectives. The most interesting news tonight is from Aruba. I will be participating in a video teleconference with Aruba on Wednesday morning. It is being setup by the assistant to the Prime Minister, and from what I can gather it will be in front of the entire council of Ministers. This meeting is a weekly where the press of Aruba will attend. The image from my side will be enlarged on a projection screen, and I will be able to see the council (known as 'Raad' in Aruba). This is all possible with the amazing advance of desktop PCs. I purchased a QuickCam VC on the day of the launch, and I have been tinkering with it since then. I will be at home in my condo, and using a regular phone line for the bidirectional link. Since the images will be sent over the internet, my phone line will be tied up. For the voice communication, I will be using my cel phone. I will also be using the chat room at www.arubachat.com to establish initial communication. I will not be 'talking' over the chat room once we get the video link up, but you can eaves drop a little by logging onto http://www.arubachat.com. I will be logging on as 'dr_ed' at 9:30am eastern time, and 10:30am Aruba time. This should be really interesting as I have never done anything like this before. I look forward to some challenging questions. Links: Aruba's excellent chat line: http://www.arubachat.com (log on ahead of time to get a free user account) ------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 05:48:47 -0500 Subject: Flight Day Seven at KSC We have found out that the mission will not be extended. This is really not a problem for us since almost all of our science objective have been met. The only remaining one is the cryogenic refrigerator. To put things into perspective, we have cooled from 20C to -200C. That is a drop in temperature of 220 degrees. We had asked for an extra day for the right orbit to cool just 1.5 more degrees. That is only a small amount compared to how far we have come. Since taking hardware into space does not happen often, we just wanted to get it all perfect, but no mission is ever perfect. Since so much of the mission has passed there is little new that I can report. I have attached a sample of the daily report that we write as a team to upper management. Note that I have the responsibility of writing the progress report for the NICMOS Cooling System, the principal instrument on our mission. All the best to you. ------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 07 Nov 1998 03:18:08 -0500 Subject: Mission Accomplished, at KSC During our final cooldown attempt, we finally reached a low temperature of 72.64 degrees above absolute zero on the cryogenic refrigerator. This is only 0.64 degrees short of our goal of 72K, but our management is happy with this performance. When we were only two days into the mission, the thermal engineers realized that their predictions were incorrect, and that we would be warm. The worst day would be seven days into the mission. That is when the temp of the HOST Controller (the central computer I built for this mission) would have reached 53C. Since I was told that we would be cool for the mission, I never designed the controller to operate at that temperature. For that reason, NASA management decided that if my box got that hot, it would be shut off. That would also mean that our WHOLE cradle would be shut off, losing the ability to collect science data. This underlines how central the HOST Controller is for the mission. Without the controller, there would be no mission. Fortunately, we were able to alter the Shuttle's orbits to keep the temperature in the bay down. This has been our last night on shift. We are all pretty relaxed and happy that this mission has gone so well. This is also apparently the case at mission control. Every morning, the Flight Activities Officer issues a schedule of the day. This morning's package has a cartoon on the front cover that featured HOST. I have included it on my web page. It jokingly refers to our constant complaints that we are always too warm. By now, they are probably a little tired of our constant requests for cold orbits. Tonight, the main activity for the instrument I work on is warming back up. If we landed with the cooler at 72 degrees above absolute zero, the warm Florida air rushing into the instrument may damage something. It would be like pouring boiling hot water into a frozen glass. The large temperature shock can break something. Warming up means that our team can relax since most of the turbomachines are shut off. I have finished my 'mission' page, you can see it below. My shift, the Blue Team will be responsible for powering down the instruments one by one tonight. We started at 2:00am, and every time we powered down an instrument, is was announced over the voice communication system, and we all applauded and cheered for a successful mission. It was really a happy atmosphere in our control center. There will be a lot of media present at the Shuttle landing tomorrow, and we were able to secure some tickets. I was fortunate enough to get one, so I will be there at the landing. I have never seen a landing before, so I look forward to it. A well known fact is the double sonic boom that takes place when shuttle comes in. As you know, when airplanes fly faster than the speed of sound, they create a shock wave that can be heard as a sonic boom. Well the shape of the shuttle is such that you hear a DOUBLE sonic boom. In NASA films I have heard the sound (a loud boom-boom). I will update my 'landing' page on Sunday with pictures. My completed mission page: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/hstd.htm Past mission update: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/mail.txt ------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 08 Nov 1998 21:18:19 -0500 Subject: Farewell to the Kennedy Space Center BOOM! BOOM! With a percussion tribute worthy of the entry of a Space Shuttle, STS-95 announces itself to the witnesses at the landing site. Due to the stubby shape of the orbiter, when the Shuttle passes overhead at a speed greater than that of sound, you hear not one, but TWO loud impressive sonic booms. This mighty twin BOOM is the signature of the Shuttle, and I have long wanted to hear it live, and in person. Despite knowing the path that the Shuttle takes as it approaches the landing site, none of us could find it in the sky. Then suddenly it popped out of the blue, coming in very 'hot' and 'fast'. Screaming down like a brick. It then wooshed down the runway without any engines until it came to a gentle stop at the end. We all cheered and applauded, not just for the crew and the Senator, but mostly for ourselves. For we had made history. No one had ever flown a cryogenic refrigerator in space. The next generation of world-class deep-space viewing instruments will all use cryogenic temperatures, which have all previously been accomplished by using cryogenic ice. This places limits on the life of the instrument. Now with a cooler such as the one we flew, as long as you have power from your solar cells, you could make science observations. This is the dawning of a new era in space telescopes. It is with mixed feelings that I leave. I miss Agnes and the kids, so I am very eager to go back. However, being here and working here is just so wonderful. The beach reminds me of Aruba, you can see the Shuttle every day, the warm weather is enticing when winter is coming up north, and Mickey is just one hour away. By the way, with the landing of Discovery today, we have the rare case that all four Shuttles are here at the Kennedy Space Center. Endeavor is on pad 39A, Columbia is in OPF-3, Atlantis is in OPF-1, and Discovery is safely inside OPF-2 tonight. On my commute from the condo every morning, my drive takes me over a bridge that connects Cape Canaveral to the Kennedy Space Center. When I go over this bridge I can see in the distance the huge Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and the two launch pads over my right shoulder. I am reminded when this happens of how fortunate I am to be working here at Kennedy. The Space Shuttle is here, and seeing it every day is a great joy and privilege. Although I would love to work here permanently, I know that the only way I can get as close to the Shuttle as I have been on this trip, is not to work permanently here at KSC, but instead build flight hardware for HST at Goddard. This way I can come back every few years, and be allowed nearly unlimited access to the Shuttle. So it is with this realization that I leave with a heavy heart. Leaving the land of the Shuttle and Mickey. This mission has been so perfect and fun in every way. I only wish I could talk with Dad about it, and give him a tour.... This is my last update for this mission from the Kennedy Space Center. Although my role for the Third Servicing Mission to the Hubble Space Telescope in 2000 has not been defined yet, I know I will have a role since there is so much work to do. Perhaps I will stay with the cryogenic cooler as it is finally installed into Hubble. That massive mission will take place in just one and a half years. Hubble will have a brain transplant, a new skin, new solar panels, new recorder, new gyros, new instruments etc. After we are done, Hubble will be completely overhauled. Although I will stop sending updates, you can always refer to my web page if you are curious about my activities. I would like to thank my family members who were either here to see the launch, or only with me in spirit, and I especially want to thank the people of Aruba who have supported me in an unexpected and overwhelming way during this mission. Your support has made it easier to work the long hours during this mission. Farewell from the Kennedy Space Center. I will be back in the year 2000. By the way, does anyone want to buy a slightly used drag 'chute.......? My completed landing page: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/hste.htm Past mission update: http://www.mindspring.com/~dr_ed/job/host/mail.txt Main web site entry point: http://automated.home.ml.org -------------------------------------