Less than a week to go before the launch of the Parker Solar Probe, and so, this marks the beginning of our journey together as I begin to write daily blogs for a week. Today, the team gathered together to collate all the equipment to transport down to the Kennedy Space Center.
I plan to informally describe some of the teams daily actions as we knuckle down and get prepared for this roller coaster ride of a lifetime. Today was transportation day – we gathered all our equipment and placed them in boxes ready for us to unpack them in a few days when we arrive in Florida.
Some of our computers are going as well! – this meant it has been all-hands-on-deck for our Virtual Reality team over the last few days, as they rushed to place the finishing touches on our super amazing VR environment. It will blow your mind! you will get to look at our beautiful Parker up close and fly alongside it as it hurtles around the solar system – If you are in Orlando for the week, you have to come find us – I promise you, you will not be disappointed to be among the first people to see our beta version.
This is a mission very close to my heart, for me this is going to be my ‘first’ big NASA launch, and because I have been working very closely with the mission for many years as a scientist. However, my excitement is no less than the hundreds of great scientists, engineers and stakeholders (yes, that includes you 🙂 ) that have allowed us to get to this wonderful place.
[I say first launch, because if any of you are lucky enough to live near Washington DC, I should point out another superb watching area. Sitting on the steps of the Lincoln memorial at night looking towards our nations Monument and Capital to see a smaller rocket launch in the distance from our NASA Wallops facility is always awe-inspiring].
We will be at the Kennedy Center on Friday Morning (08/10) and Saturday afternoon (08/11), as well as all day Sunday (08/12) and Monday (08/13) – So come and join us! or let us know you are coming in the comments below:)
[edit. Added a picture from yesterday that I forgot to included]
Sounds exciting….been a fan of this type “stuff” most of my life. My favorite class in college was astronomy.