The Next Gen Does Good Work!
It was kind of fun not having any assignment on the flight for a change (although there were times last weekend when I thought I might have to get back to Houston and help out with the computer problems.....but they handled that just fine too!) - got to see the launch and watch as the team made the ISS symmetrical again - it really looks beautiful with big solar arrays on each end of the truss! I watched th landing today from our Flight Director "ready Room" up in the rear corner of the MCC. That's where the old guys gather for key events - to kibitz and talk about how WE would do it while staying out of the way. Always fun to see the legends of the business again. (Apollo Flight Director Glynn Lunney was there today, watching his son, Flight Directr Brian Lunney work Entry Weather today....).
What really amazes me is that we have gotten to where we are in ISS assembly without a major hiccup in the construction sequence. Everything has gone up and fit as it was supposed to, and many of the major components had never been mated on the ground. Imagine building an RV with a team of other people in different cities, each person building a different component. Then you all meet at an airport with your pieces, put them together, and immediately go fly it.....to the engineers here who understand the problems of large-scale integration, it should be pretty mind-boggling. I know it is to me, and I'm a part of it!
The decision to land at Edwards was a good one. I haven' even gone back to look at what the KSC weather was at the touchdown time, but that is not important - at the time the decision had to be made, the forecast didn't look good - and that is enough to change destinations. Never look back at those weather decisions with hind-sight and think you could have "guessed" better....it just doesn't work that way. And flying a spacecraft is no different in that regard than flying your RV....
I agree with Doug - great job by all on the team - and I'm glad we could give the SOCAL guys a show!
