Counting Down

One day, sixteen hours, and fifty four minutes until undocking…
This morning around 7:30, I walked into the back room to grab my “lunch” out of the refrigerator. I blinked in surprise when I found more than a dozen people milling around. I had completely forgotten that 1) it is Monday, hence people are actually at work again and 2) there is a sim running this morning in addition to the actual mission.
In a development that is either welcome or scary — I can’t decide which — I think I am actually adjusting to this schedule and these hours. I get about 6.5 hours of sleep, and while I’m pretty darn tired when I first wake up, I’ve been surprisingly alert these past few days. I don’t even have much to do except continually count down to STS-129’s undocking. This flight has been very smooth.
EVA3 started about an hour late this morning due to a problem with one of the crewmember’s drink bags. Yep, his drink bag. Little things that don’t seem like a big deal turn into much bigger problems in orbit than they would ever be on the ground. It was an easy but time-consuming fix.
I’m already thinking ahead to the next mission, mainly because we plan to go see the launch. There are only 5 shuttle flights left EVER and the last one I saw was in 1998. Jose has NEVER seen one. Neither has anyone in my family — except I think Brian saw one from the window of an airplane one time!! — so it sounds like it’s going to turn into a family outing to Florida to see the launch of STS-130 in February. Mom, Dad, and David have already said they’re in, and while Katie and Joel probably won’t be able to come all the way from Seattle, hopefully Brian will be able to drive up from Miami. Assuming he’s in town that week and not out on a job, anyway. I’m very excited that they want to come, and it should be awesome.
My Thanksgiving plans are up in the air. We are scheduled to undock on Wednesday morning, which means that Wednesday will be my last shift. However, the mission doesn’t land until Friday. I’d love to head down to Corpus Christi so we can spend Thanksgiving with Jose’s family (we missed it last year due to another shuttle mission), but since I’m the lead for this flight, I’m a little hesitant to leave town until the mission is safely on the ground. There’s basically zero chance that the shuttle will need to re-rendezvous with the ISS, so realistically, I can go to Corpus without worry. But I’m still hesitant. We’ll see.
I’m off to the movies with a teacher friend who’s off work this week. I don’t remember getting the whole Thanksgiving week off school when I was a kid, but here in Texas they do. Lucky them!
One day, sixteen hours, and forty seven minutes until undocking…