omegafriends | Text-Jebediah's offical Space Blog

Well, it's about that time again. I can safely say that we've checked all the boxes, crossed all the Ts and locked down the K-2 test rocket until tomorrow morning when we'll resume the countdown. It's been a hectic Monday after the weekend, making sure everything still worked and getting it ready for fueling tomorrow, but our ducks are all in a row.

It's going to be an important test tomorrow, even if the rocket in question is small. K-2 is going to test the new Mainsail engine, a reaction control system, an autopilot, a new capsule's basic re-entry characteristics, and even our new escape tower. Though with luck, the last one won't be needed until stage separation to pull the capsule away from the rocket.

We're going to fly a banana shaped course-first away from town, then curving back and slightly north of the city limits to drop all the debris into some unoccupied ocean. Our recovery ship and helicopters will be standing by-if you stand on one of the taller towers downtown, you should be able to watch the entire operation, from launch to splashdown, in less than 15 minutes start to finish, tomorrow afternoon. We've got three parachutes for touchdown, and can actually land safely with two-in theory. There's a lot of theory here, and normally we would test it all separately. But I think that an all-up test will let us knock over a lot of targets at once, and I do have confidence in the stuff our organization has put together.

I'll be watching events from the blockhouse and the control center-but who knows, maybe if everything goes right, I can talk Gene into letting me fly the next one at the end of the month if this goes according to plan. Of course, that depends on getting Bill and Bob to go along with it, and Bob won't OK me without an absolutely perfect test. But I'm sure that's going to be a piece of cake after tomorrow.

[[OOC: Responses can be from people either turning up to watch the launch on Tuesday or logging on to leave either anonymous or public comments on the blog.]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Well, I hope your flight goes well. If not, I'll do my best to get my butt up there to help you guys. If there's something I know my way around, it's space ships. From simple rockets to the more complicated stuff. Though I'm sure Superman would beat me to that punch. I'll watching from the rooftops come launch time. May fate favor you."

We'd actually appreciate it if the Superpowered population kept out of this flight-it's unmanned for starters, and if you guys save our rocket from something going wrong, we won't be sure if we could have fixed it on time.

So you hear that? If it starts to explode, please let it. We need the telemetry to tell what's going wrong-and if the escape tower works as planned.

"Understood. Well, I can offer any technical knowledge in this aspect. I'm fairly used to space flight and used to maintaining my own ships. Though I am also human, so I would like to see to see my species join other starfarers."

Well, no offense, but you're better off talking to Wernher about that sort of thing, he's the real scientist here. I'm just an astronaut and a publicity agent.

There was some delay before he got a response.

"The company website says you're the CEO and a designer of many of the early ship parts. Are you sure you're not more involved than you're stating?"

Well, okay, I might have drawn up the LV-30 and -45,and a few other odds and ends, but really, we don't use those for much more than satellite launches these days.

And hey, you know what they say. I loved it so much, I founded the company.

"I'm not used to that expression. Well, if you need help, just contact The Hunter. I'll certainly be watching the launch."

Edited 2014-06-03 16:34 (UTC)

[Athrun followed the advice, which is now why he's standing on the roof of an especially tall tower downtown. He's always enjoyed advanced technology, and spaceflight is no exception. He's eager to see this in action, though he appears as calm as ever.]

[The rocket, a small 'trainer' model, was wheeled out last friday, spent Saturday and part of Sunday undergoing systems checks, and was fueled this morning. Around noon, the last of the fuel trucks pulled away from the pad and the various tie-downs and umbilicals start to detatch. Communications plugs, fuel lines, one by one, they begin to unplug and fall away from the body of the rocket as the countdown continues. At this distance, it's hard to tell that anything is going on.

Unless, of course, you're following Jeb's updates.]

T-10 minutes, all communications tests complete.

[ Back home, spaceflight was not this big of a deal. Skrellian ships were more efficiently designed - not to mention prettier - and they went up into space and came back regularly with little or no fanfare. Things seldom exploded, and the only major issue everyone had with it was that everyone knows you can't live in space permanently.

So, why had Sherrinford cleared his schedule for the afternoon to stand on a rooftop with a pair of binoculars in one hand and a phone in the other? Moreover, why is he smiling? He's not even sure he can quite explain it. Perhaps, in addition to the rush he gets from his own scientific pursuits, he enjoys watching others in theirs. ~~Kinky.~~

In addition to following Jeb's updates, he's also occasionally posting to his own micro-blog account. Who knows if anyone actually reads that thing, but sometimes you just don't care if you're shouting into the void, you know? ]

Watching K-2 launch. Can hardly contain excitement!

[Athrun acknowledges that there's someone there, but he's too attentive to the watch to offer more than a greeting.]

Hello.

[He's scanning the launch site with his own binoculars, and when he's not doing that, he's looking at updates on his phone.]

All controllers report go for launch, evacuating the pad staff.

[And indeed, the last few engineers are sprinting for the van near the pad and putting some distance between them and the laucher.]

Hi.

[ He'd have flashed his fellow spectator a smile, but with the launch literally seconds away he didn't think he could afford to take his eyes off the launchpad. ]

Surprising there aren't more people up here.

Indeed. I guess there's not as much interest in space as there used to be. Then again, we have nobody to race against.

Spinning up the gyroscopes. Guidance is internal, automatic launch sequence started. T-2 minutes and counting.

[ That was sad, although not altogether surprising. ]

Most people need to have some reason why it's immediately relevant to them personally, I suppose.

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