I had a seriously bad day yesterday at work. Hoping today goes better.
10:39 a.m. update: Unfortunately, not getting any better. End update.
Kent is coming to visit tonight, and I’ve been so busy and stressed out that I forgot he was coming until yesterday morning. I’m glad he is visiting. I don’t get many visitors, so I didn’t believe that he was really coming until he actually bought the plane ticket. Anyway, I’m glad he is visiting and hope he isn’t too upset that I have to abandon him on Saturday night to do the Urban Adventure Race with Gavin.
Yesterday was a great mail day — I got two postcards. One from Nick from his trip to Las Vegas last weekend, and one from Daniel who is apparently in Greece! (Who knew?) Ah, Greece. I could go back to Greece.
I always knew that at least one of my many friends from my co-op days would go into space. If you’d told me someone would go with one of the space start-ups, I probably could have predicted that it would be Loretta. (Note to Mom: Loretta = girl who gave me the “My First NASA Christmas” ornament.)
From Astronotes:
Virgin Galactic Signs First Honeymoon Trip
At the Experimental Aircraft Association’s (EAA) AirVenture gathering being held in Oshkosh, Wisconsin yesterday, Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, announced that George Whitesides, the Executive Director of the National Space Society and his bride-to-be, Loretta Hidalgo, will be the first honeymoon couple to take a trip on the fledgling space tourism company’s sub-orbital craft when the company goes into operation.
Branson brought the couple on stage Tuesday night during an airshow gala event sponsored by Virgin Galactic, there he gave them a bottle of champagne and a pin to signify their future Virgin Galactic space trek.
“Loretta and I have tickets to be the first honeymoon couple on the Virgin Galactic service. It’s not going to happen for a few years, but it’s something we’ve been thinking about for a long time,†Whitesides told SPACE.com in a phone interview.
“We have put money down. We think the Virgin Galactic team is terrific. There’s a bunch of great groups out there…and I hope they’ll all succeed,†he added.
While Virgin Galactic suborbital operations are still several years away, Whitesides said he’s looking forward to his honeymoon trip into space.
And will they hold hands on liftoff? “You bet,†Whitesides said.
