Every job has its ups and downs. In my own career at LASP, I’ve experienced tremendous success as the Flight Controller for the SORCE satellite launch in 2003, which was then followed by the horrible tragedy when the Glory satellite failed to reach orbit in 2011. And last year, I was completely awed when I […]
Glory, NASA, TCTE, TSIS
It began simply enough in early Spring of 2012 with a small gesture in a LASP conference room . But by the time the solid rocket fuel was ignited on November 19, 2013, I found myself inextricably tied to the success of its trajectory due to more than a decade’s worth of complex professional successes […]
LASP, ORS-3, STPSat-3, TCTEFrom thesaurus.com: Main Entry: disappointment Part of Speech: noun Definition: saddening situation; letdown Synonyms: bitter pill, blind alley, blow, blunder, bringdown,bummer, bust, calamity, defeat, disaster,discouragement, downer, downfall, drag, dud,error, failure, false alarm, faux pas*, fiasco,fizzle, flash in the pan, impasse, inefficacy,lemon, miscalculation, mischance, misfortune,mishap, mistake, obstacle, old one-two, setback,slip, washout The “old one-two”. Yup, that’s […]
Glory, stories, videoSometimes, things just don’t go as planned. Such has been the case with NASA’s Glory mission throughout its long development cycle. Throughout the 7 years that I have worked on the project, the setbacks have been formidable but somehow the team of dedicated people have overcome the odds. The mission was finally scheduled to launch […]
Glory, stories2010 will hopefully be the year that the NASA Glory mission launches into space. I have been working on the Glory-TIM instrument since 2004 and am extremely excited to have my own system fly in space for the first time! If I haven’t told you about it before, I designed the pointing system for the […]
Glory, videoI would have to say that recovering the balloon package is my favorite part of launching high altitude balloons. The whole process reminds me a bit of playing neighborhood baseball as a child. Inevitably, the ball would get hit into another neighbors yard or get caught in a tree or someplace inaccessible, and then a […]
balloon, gps, photos, SPOT, storiesThis morning will mark the third flight of the camera/SPOT balloon package to the edge of space in 2010. The flight is another education and public outreach (EPO) opportunity that is taking place in conjunction with the Boulder History Museum. They are working with a local middle school to film and produce a short documentary […]
balloon, mapping, SPOT, storiesIf you read the pre-flight article, you’d remember that I ended by saying, “Let’s hope for the Luck o’ the Irish for the ole’ balloon!” As it turned out, this balloon flight definitely needed the luck of the Irish. After a perfect launch into a blue-bird Colorado sky, we casually began to follow the SPOT […]
balloon, digital, gps, mapping, photos, SPOT, storiesThat’s right, the balloon team is back at it again! This time, we are launching a balloon as part of an Education and Public Outreach (EPO) effort at LASP in conjunction with Arvada High School. The expected launch time is 9:30am MDT. The payload has a few extra goodies this time based on the open-source […]
gps, SPOT, stories