Sunrise on Cocoa Beach in Florida before the Kepler Science Working Group meeting.
Launch pads across the water, looking North.
In the visitor area at Kennedy Space Center, with a new picture on the wall.
Vehicle Assembly Building.
Space Shuttle Discovery on pad 39b I think it was.
Extreme zoom.
Empty pad 39a.
zoomed out view.
Dive-bombing pelican.
Apollo 8 control room.
Business end of KSC's Saturn V booster. IT's unfortunate that this is even here. It was built for Apollo 19 (the one at Johnson was for 18, maybe). Nixon cut the program after all of the money was already spent to build the boosters and the spacecraft to save the $10M to run them. The NASA director resigned over it at the time. It's cool to see it, but I'd rather they have used it instead.
Jonathan and the Saturn V.
Fin on the bottom of the Saturn V.
Second stage engines.
Third stage.
Lunar Lander first intended for use on Apollo 15 but later replaced with one that could carry a rover.
Lunar Rover mockup.
Looking down the length of the new rocket building.
Hydraulically supported starball @ KSC.
Starball with moon behind Kepler field in Cygnus.
Kids spinning up the starball.
Fake shuttle mockup.
Moon over External Tank.
Moon Zoom
A small exhibit about Kepler.
Mercury-Redstone and Mercury-Atlas with moon behind.
Evening of the launch, Kepler VIP's gather to take the bus to vieweing area.
Jonathan with Kepler's Delta II 6 miles behind.
Me at the launch viewing site.
Badge.
Some crowd shots
Wendy, my old officemate.
The pad is about 6 miles away.
Best full zoom shot.
of the launch from our vantagepoint! Long, and last 2/3 pretty uninteresting.
After launch -- Jonathan Fortney and mission Principal Investigator Bill Borucki.
Me and Bill.
Soren and Bill.
On the way home to Moscow from the Lewiston Airport, I rolled the car on the lightly snowed road.
I started skidding to the right. I compensated, but couldn't straighten out and then continued to skidding toward the left as I went off the right side of the road.
In the gravel there the wheels and bottom of the car slowed rapidly.
The reporting police officer measuing distances and taking pictures.
I knew I was going over, but couldn't do anything about it.
I rolled around the left first, then the top, and came to rest on the right side.
The side head-curtain airbags deployed. But not the main airbag. Smart.
Badly scraped up on the left side here, and all windows broken. My laptop got thrown from the vehicle. I was in the seat just fine. I opened the driver side door here, climbed out onto the rear door, and jumped down into the snow.
Damage to me was a little dried blood on my left pinky -- maybe it came from this tiny cut on my thumb from glass or something? A little bit of seatbelt bruise on my left shoulder. And a light bump on my right shin.
My poor car. How could I have done this to it . . . Two guys stopped to help me. Their cell phones worked, while mine and Gwen's didn't. I stayed warm in one's pickup truck until the cops and tow-truck came.
Undercarraige is fine, and it still runs and drives okay.
The thrown laptop (suitcase I put there later).