Today is L-4. Four days to the launch of STS-117. Four days until I work my first shuttle ascent. And four days to do a huge amount of work that involves setting, checking, and rechecking flight-critical data. It’s really not possible to get much of a jump on things — products are delivered according to a set schedule, and one product leads into the next such that we go through periods of waiting for data followed by periods of concentrating hard to get that data where it needs to be.
Someone is always working. By Friday, everyone will be always working.
Sometimes it’s hard for me to remember that I can’t do everything. Because I’m the kind of person that wants to do everything. It never seems to fail: when I am busiest, there is always something else that I wish I had time for. I really want to be able to work my first rendezvous sim tomorrow, even though I have been told by multiple people that I really need to set aside this entire week for launch preparation. My mentor, while giving me final instructions before leaving on vacation this week (which I will take as a sign that he trusts me to do things right, not that he thinks I am beyond hope), explicity said to me: “If anything non-flight related comes up next week, just say no. Seriously. Say no.”
I didn’t tell him that I had already agreed to work the rendezvous sim tomorrow. A generic rendezvous sim that lasts for 8 hours and has nothing to do with the mission.
This morning we had our last ascent sim before the flight on Friday. The sim itself went ok, but I managed to royally screw up the database by making what I thought was a very simple change. It was fixable, and we fixed it, but it left me frazzled. Then I started talking to the others, discussing when certain products will be delivered for me to use in the scripts and processes I have to have completed by the end of Wednesday. A couple products will be available later this afternoon. A major product won’t be available until tomorrow.
And finally — finally! — I realized that trying to work a rendezvous sim tomorrow is just about the dumbest thing I could possibly do this week. I need to be focusing my full concentration on this launch, not a generic sim. A sim is just a sim. I wanted to work it badly, because it would have been my first rendezvous sim. My first sim in my new job.
But this launch is the real deal. I can’t afford to not be thinking about it.
I don’t know why I didn’t just listen to what everyone was telling me in the first place. Sometimes I just really want to have the cake and eat it too. Cake can be refrigerated and saved for a little later, right?
Becca says
I would’ve done the same thing. And so would the person who gave you that advice.
txrunnergirl says
I don’t blame you for wanting to do it all. The upcoming launch sounds exciting!