We have worked for four years to get to this point and today we got to see our rocket standing up on the rail, ready to launch.
It feels good. It feels good to have passed so many hurdles and have gotten to the point we are now.
A few people have asked me what we expect for tomorrow, whether we expect to have a successful flight. The answer is yes. Everything we've seen from our testing here indicates that our systems are ready to go. The caveat: there is still plenty that can go wrong. Sounding rockets are by nature a risky business, and we've heard several stories of failure. On one flight, the data downlink didn't work and they couldn't record any data. On another, the alignment between the experiment and the guidance system shifted and they weren't able to look at the Sun. On another, a grating shook loose and no useful data could be taken. Some rockets have to be terminated shortly after launch. Despite all these possibilities, we remain very optimistic that the rocket and experiment will work as planned.
Whatever happens tomorrow, I'm very proud we got this far. I work with a wonderful team, and we built a wonderful instrument. Tomorrow I hope to show you screenshots of never-before-seen solar data!
Launch time is 11:55 Mountain Daylight Time. Recovery via helicopter will take a few more hours, and after that I will try to update you all as soon as possible.
Excited to hear the results! The helicopter ride sounds fun too!
ReplyDelete