50 Years Ago - American Atlas problems delay launch

Friendship 7 on Atlas rocket.

Fifty years ago, it was the USA experiencing all sorts of rocket problems. NASA was behind the Russians on launching men into orbit of the Earth, and was eager to send up astronaut John Glenn in the Mercury Capsule, nicknamed "Friendship 7," on top the Atlas rocket. The Atlas had more thrust and fuel than the Redstone, used to launch Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom into sub-orbital flights over the Atlantic.

The launch would have taken place on January 27, but weather played a part in cancelling that flight. Astronaut Glenn had patiently waited for more than five hours strapped in the capsule until word came down that the bad weather would prevent flight controllers from monitoring his liftoff during the first critical few minutes.

Then on January 30, worse news was given to the press and the waiting American public: a fuel leak in the Atlas booster would need repairs. As John Glenn put it: "Sure, I'm disappointed, but this is a complicated business. I don't think we should fly until all elements of the mission are ready. When we have completed all our tests satisfactorily then we'll go." On February 1st, NASA announced that repairs would be completed by February 13, and the flight could be launched then.

John Glenn practices entering Friendship 7, with the help of Gunther Wendt, the famous German rocket scientist-turned-American-rocket-engineer-now-pad leader who led the team of engineers working on the launch pad.

Also on February 1st, the American public began showing their frustration with the delays. Politics were involved in space back in 1962, just like today. Congressman James G. Fulton, who was the top Republican on the House Committee on Science and Astronautic, said "There's no doubt our overall space program is slipping despite the high words and fine praise coming from the White House... if it continues to slip we'll be lucky to get a man on the Moon before 1980."

Remaining positive, on February 3rd Glenn announced to the press that the scheduled rocket flight on February 13th "can only bode success." He was still unaware, of course, of further delays to come.

Meanwhile, on February 4th, the world was quite relieved to see a prediction fail to come to pass. It just so happened that Hindu astrologers had predicted that because of an unusual alignment of five planets and the Sun occurred. According to their prediction, a previously unknown and invisible planetoid named Khentu would also move into alignment and cause Earthly disasters. Of course, nothing happened, and the Indian Prime Minister chided the astrologers and their public believers for such nonsense.

Posted by Mark Daymont
Spacerubble.blogspot.com

KAOS Joins Forces with Anonymous. Its 1:15 P.M. at the Imaginarium

Hello Troops,
I woke up this morning, checked my email, looked through Facebook for anything remotely interesting - found nothing expect for my brother in law's birthday. Wasted too much time reading through everyone's status and can't for the life of me figure out why. I'm wondering if our subconscious is preprogrammed with a nosey inquisitiveness source code at birth.
Then I did something I usually don't do, I checked out the Space Center's Web Site. This is what I found


"Odd," I thought to myself.
I quit out of Firefox and pulled up Safari.


The web site looked normal on Safari. I pondered over the problem, wondering why the website would look OK with one browser and complete gibberish on another.

"KAOS!" I shouted. Our nemesis must have joined forces with Anonymous, the world wide organization of professional hackers bent on replacing our ordered societies with mayhem, anarchy and chaos.

"That's it!" I shouted again. Chaos and KAOS - it all made sense. We've been hacked. The Space Center has finally made it into the big leagues alongside the FBI, the Pentagon, the Kremlin and the entire United States Government.

"What to do, what to do," I fretted over my Cheerios. Who did we have at the Space Center capable of reversing the damage done by Anonymous? Who could engage them in a stare down and have a reasonable chance of blinking last? The answer was as obvious as the lack of butter on my toast. I just had to think for a minute. I shot an email to Brent Anderson. Brent is our Batman to their Joker. He is our prime rib to their liver. And what supreme super hero ventures into murky water without a side kick? Who was Brent's Robin? I'll send another email to Matt Ricks.

Hopefully our Dynamic Duo will have the problem solved quickly. While we wait, how about a few things from the Imaginarium?

It's 1:15 P.M. at the Imginarium Station. Let's disembark the Wonderland Express and
see what mischief we can get ourselves into.

Who would have imagined that Mr. Bean also attended the venerable
Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry? It's all becoming clear to me.

Take an everyday household item, add imagination, and suddenly
You've made Magic

In the 1950's and 60's we thought the future was bright and full of promise.
We thought peace and goodwill towards men was achievable.
It was the early days of space travel. We had our sights set on the stars.

What happened?

I still believe the impossible is possible.
I still believe mankind is capable of great things.
I believe the future is bright and full of possibilities.
I believe we spend too much time listening to politicians and doomsdayists. They seem to share the same agenda - control and manipulation through fear. If they keep us frightened
we will take our sights off the good and look only to the their predicted coming night.

Will our own fear be the genesis of our undoing?

Take a moment and tell her you love her.
She won't be with you forever.

Wise words.



And finally, words as art -
A symphony of imagination

I'll see you in the trenches.
Let's make this a good and fearless week.

Mr. W.

Tonight at the Space Education Center.

Hello Troops,
The Space Center is firing on all cylinders tonight. Highland Elementary has 43 of their best and brightest 6th and 5th graders here at camp. Our mission's tonight are:

Voyager: Greenpeace (as told by Jon)
Magellan: Summit (as told by Zac)
Odyssey: The Sum of All Fears (as told by Devin)
Galileo: Crisis (as told by Stacy)
Phoenix: Intolerance (as told by Megan)

Pleasant Grove just experienced a drop in atmospheric pressure. A moment ago a gust of wind rushed over the school. The atmosphere suddenly rushed from an region of high pressure to a region of low pressure. I believe the unexpected appearance of a low pressure system was caused by the sudden intake of air into the lungs of hundreds, if not thousands of Space Center veterans all over the country reacting in shock after reading that Greenpeace is still on the Space Center's flight menu.

"I did Greenpeace when I was a camper a hundred years ago," someone just muttered. How do I know? I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand. Remember, you became a part of the Space Center Collective when you attended your first Space Center camp. We are all tied together in one Galactic Universal Consciousness.

Freaky, isn't it?

This Collectiveness manifests itself from time to time as sudden bursts of memories created from the hours of time you spent at the Space Center. These memory bursts can strike anywhere, like in the middle of a movie, or at church, or while you're doing your taxes or collecting free food samples at your local Costco.

Are you ready for another shocker? Hold on, before I write anything else I need to go outside and take down the American Flag from the flagpole in front of the school. I don't want the flag damaged by the next gust of wind caused by the rapid intake of air from our veterans. Stand by.....

OK, flag down. Here's the news.
I'm bringing "The Hunt for Horace" back for this summer season!
WOW. That sounded like a freight train moving over the roof of the school.

A Report from the Chronicle detailing an original telling of The Hunt for Horace in the
Space Center's Middle Ages.

"The Hunt for Horace" was told a long time ago. It was a favorite of thousands of campers in the late Middle Ages of Space Center history. In fact, many experts in Space Center Lore believe that "The Hunt For Horace" was the pivotal piece of literature that transformed the Space Center from the simple tales told during our Middle Ages to the renaissance of thought and creativity we all recognize at the Space Center today.

Clint Sanderson was the first person to play Horace when he was in the 5th grade at Central. Today, Clint is a married father of three living in Pleasant Grove. His eldest attends school here at Central. Amazing isn't it?

The transition from the Space Center's Middle Ages of story telling to our Renaissance.

Today's Hunt for Horace

"The Hunt for Horace" tells the story of Horace, the Paklid Crown Prince, and his epic adventure on board the USS Voyager as he travelles with his trusted body guard Dweeb from Earth to Paklidia, the Paklid home world. Accompanying the Voyager is the Paklid Royal Tug captained by the brave and somewhat forgetful Admiral Maximilian Alexander Rump.

Be sure to register for a summer camp before all available slots are taken.

It's after midnight and time for bed. The boys are down, the staff semiconscious and I'm drifting between worlds - typing and listening to my bedtime playlist on iTunes.

BonVoyage,

Mr. Williamson

Russian Mechanical Problems Delay Launches

Soyuz manned capsule in orbit in better days.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-04M was discovered through a test to have failed its ability to correctly pressurize. It was originally scheduled to have been the next manned Russian craft to travel to the ISS in March. Now, the Russians will have to delay that mission as they build a replacement. The next launch is now postponed until mid-April and may even reach back into May.

While this event does not impact the number of astronauts that can stay on board the ISS, it does bring up a point made by many space enthusiasts about the end of the shuttle program. As President Obama cancelled the Constellation program before the end of the series of shuttle retirements, many of us predicted there could be trouble relying on the Russians. Of course the first thing that happened was that the Russians took advantage of our weakness and promptly raised the taxi fares by $20 million per seat. Then to add insult to injury the Russians began declaring that perhaps the ISS should be a mostly Russian operation, since NASA had no way to replace astronauts or get supplies to the station. And congressman and pro-US human spaceflight enthusiasts fumed at the embarrassment of watching our government fumble with budgets (it's been over 1000 days since our Senate approved a budget- NASA has had to get by with less than they needed) and leadership.

Then suddenly the Russians began experiencing problems. Last year there were serious worries about accidents that could occur during the Soyuz landings, and then the Russians had to put a stop to all rocket launches while they searched for answers resulting from rocket failures. They then assured us that the problems were fixed.

Progress resupply rocket on pad.

Now we have another series of Russian failures that hold up the program. Not only the Soyuz seems to have problems, but the Proton rockets as well. A Proton-M rocket ready to carry the SES-4 communications satellite has been delayed a second time because of failures with either the avionics or an unspecified problem. Will this result in grounding Progress rockets? The World wants to know.

Phobos-Grunt probe readying for launch.

All of this latest trouble follows on the heels of the Phobos-Grunt disaster. That Russian Mars probe failed to leave Earth orbit and tumbled to a fiery re-entry this month. It was finally reported that before launch, problems with the probe's construction had led to more than a dozen welding repairs while the craft still had fueled tanks! As late as last week, Russian space leaders had even blamed US radar on causing the malfunctions while the craft launched to orbit. Now this week, we have the Russian space circus claiming it must have been cosmic radiation that affected the craft's avionics. At latest report, Russian investigators are blaming the problem on a cheap faulty counterfeit microchip, unable to withstand the rigors of outer space radiation. Some Russian engineers are quietly looking at the probability of internal problems with Russia's space manufacturing.

This causes NASA leaders untold headaches of course, but also deserves an appropriate "I told you so" response from those of us who warned about relying on the Russians for our space transportation.

Miss the shuttle yet?

Posted by Mark Daymont

Mark and Logan Honored and Mr. Williamson Caught Accepting a Bribe from a Fan.

Space Center Fans Waiting outside the Center deliriously hoping to catch a
glimpse of Mark and Logan. Mark and Logan are the Space Center's
newest teen idols after receiving their awards on Saturday.

Hello Troops,
Celebrity is a burden many of our volunteers carry after being honored at one of the Space Center's post Overnight Camp meeting's.

"Before today I was just, well you know - Mark," Mark said after receiving both his Odyssey and Galileo Pins. "Listen to those screams. How am I going to get home in one piece?"

Mark receiving his Odyssey Pin from Christine, Odyssey's Set Director

Mark getting his Galileo Pin from Ben Murdock. Stacy, The Galileo Set Director, was absent.

Stacy was on the program to award a Galileo Pass Pin to Mark. However, at the appointed time Mark had no choice but to accept the award from Ben Murdock. Stacy was unable to get to the meeting. Crowds of Mark and Logan's admirers, along with Pleasant Grove's paparazzi, filled the parking lot and blocked every entrance into the school.

Luckily one of the younger volunteers saw Stacy's head bobbing up and down over the crowd near the flag pole while watching Mark and Logan's screaming fans from the school's front doors.

"Mr. Williamson!" the volunteer shouted from the foyer. "I see Stacy near the flagpole. She can't get through the mob."

I looked for myself. The volunteer was right. Stacy's green flight director shirt was spotted in the sea of delirious teenage fans. I organized a posse of older staff and volunteers to push their way through the crowd to collect her.

"Its a madhouse out there," Stacy said breathlessly after having been half carried, half dragged into the school. We sat her down on one of the foyer's benches with a cup of hot cocoa. Erin put a blanket around her shivering shoulders. She apologized to Mark for missing the awards. Mark understood. He knew her experience was soon to be his when his ride home arrived to collect him.

"Am I in time to give Logan his Galileo Award?" Stacy asked.

"Are you up to it?" I asked.

" I am," she replied. "Logan worked to hard for me to delegate this to someone else. I'll push through the pain. Help me up."

We helped her stand and walk to the Discovery Room.
"Stacy's here," a voice shouted.
Applause rang out when she walked through the classroom's door. Stacy stopped for a moment to accept the staff and volunteer's appreciation of her harrowing ordeal before walking to the front of the room to meet Logan.

"There's hundreds of screaming girls out there calling out your name," she said while pinning the pin on Logan's lanyard.

"Welcome to my life," Logan responded. "How to you think I got these?" Logan held out both arms. Partially healed scratches covered each arm from elbow to hand. " Your life is no longer your own once word gets out you're going to get a Space Center award."

"Amen!" shouted many of the gathered staff and volunteers - each having lived through their own ordeal of getting an award.

Stacy Awarding a Galileo Pin to Logan.

I stood and made an announcement after Mark and Logan were honored .

"Troops, today we say goodbye to one of our own who will be leaving for an LDS mission to Argentina." I paused to let the news sink in. Everyone in the room stared at Abram. Abram waved from his chair in the back of the room.

"Abram, we have a card for you and a small gift." I called Abram to the front to receive everyone's gratitude for a job well done.

Abram started at the Space Center while in junior high. Over the years I was impressed with his can do attitude and good naturedness with the students, staff and volunteers. They don't come better than Abram. We all wish him the best in Argentina.

Thank you Abram!

Isaac bearing a Brib... hummm a "gift"

And finally a confession which could land me in a spot of trouble. Last Thursday a young man named Issac arrived with friends to attend the Phoenix's Open Mission, flight directed by none other than the Space Center's very own Dave Daymont.

Isaac walked up to me while I was seated at my desk and slipped me this note. Attached to the note was real American money. Yes, I'm talking about real American money - none of that phony Canadian stuff. On the note he'd written that he was a regular reader of The Troubadour and had read how easy it was to bribe me with a Diet Mt. Dew. The note went on to say that the cash was to be used for a Diet Dew.

I say this could land me in a spot of trouble because of my position as an employee of the Alpine School District - a government organization. We don't take kindly to the bribing of government officials in this republic of ours, so I hesitated to accept the card and money. But in the end I confess to accepting the "gift". How could I turn down such a heartfelt offer from a young Space Center fan. I only hope the judge feels the same way if any of you turn me in to the authorities.

Now let me emphatically repeat that giving gifts to government officials is frowned upon in our American culture. However, until our elected leaders in Salt Lake and Washington decide not to accept all the freebies showered on them by lobbyists and political action committees, I'll feel perfectly fine accepting the occasion soda from a well wisher wanting to grease the palm of someone who could make or break his simulator mission :)

Thanks Isaac. The Diet Dew was delicious and thank you for being a regular reader.

Mr. Williamson

The House is Full

Our Space Center house is full tonight. Forty-five space campers arrived at 7:00 P.M. for our weekly Overnight Camp. The 45 campers are joined by Twenty six staff, making a grand total of 71 souls in house. Can you imagine that? Seventy one people are here for just for this camp. Most of them are in various stages of going to bed.

There are 31 boys and 14 girls. The girls are in the gym. The boys are sleeping in the Voyager and Odyssey. Well, sleeping may be a wishful thought at the moment. The six boys assigned to the Odyssey are far from asleep. Stories are going back and forth, each boy tries to be heard by speaking louder and louder and louder still. I've been in the Odyssey once already asking them to quiet down. It lasted for a few minutes before the cycle started again. I'll go in again before I go to bed.

Jon just brought a boy to my desk. His mother is coming to pick him up. He's here with a group of eight friends for an overnight camp birthday party. Evidently she didn't know this was an overnight camp. The family made plans for Saturday so she's on her way from Salt Lake County to pick him up. It's 12:25 A.M. I guess I'll be up until she arrives to pick him up. This gives the six boys in the Odyssey a reprieve. They'll get another thirty minutes or so to tell their stories before I give the order for silence and sleep.

The boy is gone. It's late and time for bed. The Odyssey is quiet - a good sign. Nope I spoke to soon. The Odyssey's Old Time Revival is starting again. Time to get things calmed down. It will be a long day tomorrow.

50 Years Ago Today - Ranger 3 Misses the Moon

Artist idea of Ranger probe traveling through space. This replica of Ranger was used at the Parade of Progress Show in Cleveland Ohio in 1964. I would love to find out where this is today. Perhaps the Smithsonian?

Fifty years ago on January 26, 1962, NASA launched an Atlas-Agena B rocket from Cape Canaveral. Lifted beyond Earth orbit, Ranger 3 was set on course to begin our epic reconnaissance of the Moon. On board were not only experiments to test the functionality of the Ranger series of probes, but also a Seismometer capsule which would roughly land and begin studying moonquakes. The craft itself was intended to crash into the surface of the Moon, as engineers had not yet devised a way to softly land a spacecraft on the lunar surface. A camera would send images of the lunar surface back to Earth before the expected crash, and instruments would make radar reflections of the surface, measure the altitude from the surface, and study gamma rays while in space.

Side view or Ranger 3.

Power for the craft was provided by two solar panel wings providing energy to a 1000-watt capacity battery. A large communications antenna was attached to the base. In a way, Ranger 3 appeared much as most of our satellites of the period would look.

Atlas-Agena B lifts off from Cape Canaveral.

The Ranger 3 mission did not go as planned (surprise!). The booster guidance system suffered a malfunction which caused the spacecraft to speed up beyond the planned acceleration. The mid course correction failed, and the spacecraft was unable to relay data and information clearly. Ranger 3 missed the moon by about 22,000 miles. Eventually, some data was received that helped engineers fine-tune the design for the next mission. Ranger 3 itself kept on flying- it eventually began to orbit the Sun, and remains out there to this day.

Science fiction fans may remember that the TV series "Buck Rogers" used a space-shuttle derived design as Buck's spaceship, which was named "Ranger-3."

Posted by Mark Daymont
From Spacerubble.blogspot.com

A Dark Tuesday

Hello Troops,
Some people say the sun stopped its forward motion toward night. Others reported seeing strange objects in the sky. Psychics worldwide stopped whatever they were doing for the briefest of moments. Each heard the same something - an unnatural whispering in the fabric of human consciousness.
"There is a disturbance in the mechanisms of the universe" one psychic from Montreal texted to a friend in Wolverhampton, England.

Scientists are reporting these strange phenomena are the result of a massive solar storm spewing radiation across space at 4 million miles per hour.

"The solar radiation is coming in contact with Earth's magnetic field. This contact is causing worldwide feelings of incompleteness," a scientist from the National Academy of Sciences said during an interview on tonight's NBC News with Brian Williams. "It is the way the radiation affects the firing of the brain's nerve cells."

St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City had twice the number of people in attendance at evening Mass. "I haven't been to Mass in years," one woman explained. "There is something about this night that bothers me and I think the best place to be is church."

What happened during the early evening hours of Mountain Standard Time to cause so much uneasiness? How was the normal universal routine altered? The answer may surprise you.

Mr. Williamson left the Space Center at 5:20 P.M. !

I'm sorry if this unannounced and abrupt change in my daily routine upset so many. It was never my intention to do so. You see, today was one of those weird rare days at the Space Center. We didn't have any after school missions. Not one of our five ships had a booking. No bookings meant I could actually leave the school having put in ten hours instead of my normal eleven. The whole thing seems to fantastic to be true, but I promise it is. I left the Space Center at 5:20 P.M. I can't believe it myself.

Perhaps there are no absolutes in this universe.

And How About a Few Things from the Imaginarium?

"Run for your lives, the Dalaks are coming!"

Rachel's urgent Facebook Message.

You must forgive Rachel. Yes, I'm talking about our Rachel. The Rachel you know who flight directs the Odyssey and Galileo. She has evidence that two of science fiction's greatest human nemesi are making appearances - perhaps in your neighborhood.

What is causing our normally calm and unflustered Rachel to panic so? See for yourself below.


This Dalak sits and waits for the arrival of The Doctor. If the boy had any smarts, he would high tail it out of there. Who in their right mind would ever purposely put himself between The Doctor and a Dalak? It is suicide, pure and simple.



This English city's council government was smart enough to put up warning signs to alert the people of their pending extinction. A Dalak on the loose is a recipe for community disaster on a monumental scale.


If Dalaks on your doorsteps aren't enough of a bother, what about the latest bellows from Rachel's Watchtower? Yes, the Weeping Angels are on the loose in some of our cities. Don't blink. Trust me on this. Don't Blink! And whatever you do, don't look away.

Yet More for Tonight

Many of you good readers of The Troubadour know my one great weakness - my adoration of the Human Imagination. Tonight I pay tribute to two wonders of modern imagination.

Behold what the human mind is capable of doing when given freedom and incentive.

Always take the ordinary and make it extraordinary. Exercise your imagination whenever possible. Step out from the teaming masses. The air is fresher and the view, breathtaking.

And Finally, The Other Mary Poppins
"Scary Mary"

Solar Storm Hits Hard Today

False color image of Sun. Solar flare developing in upper right section.

A massive CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) should be hitting the Earth right now. Traveling at about 1400 miles per second, the solar energetic particles are hitting the Earth's magnetosphere (our shields) and interacting with high-flying orbital satellites. A storm this strong hasn't hit the Earth since 2005. There were concerns that some aircraft traveling at high altitude over the Arctic circle would have to divert. Our main concern is that some satellites may suffer damage or loss of signal quality during the event. Skywatchers with clear skies can be looking for magnificent aurora.

Posted by Mark Daymont
From his Blog: Spacerubble.blogspot.com

The Noises of the Night

Hello Troops,
It was 1:00 A.M. I was tossing and turning, hoping to find a comfortable position on a thin pad held rigidly in place by the school's hardwood stage floor. I stared up at the ceiling. Two banks of stage lights hung precariously overhead. I though for a moment about the 'Big One' predicted to shake Utah to its knees sometime in the near future. I wondered what those lights would do if that massive earthquake broke loose that second. I envisioned two possibilities:

1. All would be well because Central Elementary was built in the 1950's and people knew how to build quality schools in those days.
2. I wouldn't survive because Central Elementary was built in the 1950's and people didn't build earthquake resistant schools in those days.

Fueled by that thought, my late night pessimistic strand led me to think about the gym's massive air conditioning / heating unit which sat directly overhead on the roof. One good jolt would bring the whole thing crashing through the roof and right onto the very spot where I slept. I thought of moving but didn't. There are times in life when the occasional risk must be taken.

Right in the middle of my 2012 disaster movie playing in my head, a noise from the gym shifted me back to the hear and now. Below me on the gym floor were fifteen space campers sleeping on our quality creaking cots that like to collapse without warning. Twelve or so of the Space Center's male staff and volunteers ranging in age from 13 to the twenty something occupied the stage with me. One of the campers started to cough. The first cough broke the silence and was quickly followed by a series of three or four coughs in a row separated by a couple of minutes. Each series of coughs pulled me back from those few minutes of shut eye I desperately needed. I debated whether or not I should wake him up to get a drink. My hesitation paid off. After twenty minutes or so, that part of the evening's performance of Noises of the Night came to an end on its own without my intervention. It was nearly 1:30 A.M.

I turned over on my flimsy pad. My old unyielding bones complained about the hard floor. I adjusted my pillow and tried a different position. My unsatisfied bones continued to object. I layed on my back and closed my eyes. I thought of the alien invasion predicted by one of the SyFy Channel's UFO reality shows. I wondered if the Grays with the bulging almond shaped eyes would take an interest in my fleet of startships, show mercy, and allow me keep my brains off their supper menu or decide not to replace my consciousness with one of their own in a weird body snatching scenario.

Right in the middle of that thought another noise pulled me back to the here and now. It was a gurgling accented with the occasional snort. One of our young campers was snoring. After chaperoning our Space Camp for twenty one years, I've come to realize that everyone's snore is distinct - like fingerprints. Many times I've been tempted to record the more interesting snores with the intention to send the sound bytes to some professor of linguists for analysis. Such a study might answer a nagging question I've wondered about for years. Do snorers snore with a regional accent? If so, then it was my believe that this boy's snore had a definite southwestern tonality and pitch.

The snores ended abruptly when the boy sleeping next to the snorer shoved him. "Stop snoring!" he whisperyelled.

Shortly after 3:00 A.M. The Noises of the Night woke me with a crescendo of Dreamtalking. One of the boys on the far end of the stage burst into audible babble. His dreamtalk might have been religiously motivated - something akin to speaking in tongues because I couldn't understand a word of what he was saying. I reached for my flashlight. I found the boy sitting up in his cot. He looked into the light. I held him in the spotlight while he finished his thoughts and fell back into silence. I switched off the flashlight. I closed my eyes and counted sheep to the sounds of the heating unit on the roof.

At 5:00 A.M. I awoke to the sounds of the hardwood floor. One of the volunteers was up on his way to the bathroom. Each step caused the floor to creak like the timbers of a old wooden sailing ship riding the waves of a building storm. A few minutes later I heard the sound of a flushing urinal. The bathroom door opened. "Don't do it!" I thought. I didn't want him to reenter the stage through the hallway door. Of course he did just what I didn't want him to do. "Here it comes," I thought. The metal sound of the door's crashbar latch snapping and clicking into the locked position rang throughout the gym. The cymbals had their moment in our nighttime symphony.

A couple boys woke up just before 5:45 A.M. and started whispering. They provided the Noises of the Night with its closing piece. I turned my flashlight in their general direction. They quieted right down. I was done for the night. I got up, left the stage and prepared to make my early Saturday morning WalMart donut run.

All of us who have worked at the Space Center over the last two decades have grown accustom to the Noises of the Night. These performances have good and bad weeks. This weekend's performance was good thanks to the absence of one tune I despise with a passion. It starts with a wrenching guttural sound followed by the sound of liquid splattering onto the gym floor. I refer to it as "Vomit in F minor". Its absence from this week's playbill makes me grateful for life's simple blessings.

And so, we move into another week. I want to thank you campers for coming to the Space Center and serenading us with your renditions of the Noises of the Night. There would be no Symphony Hall without you. And a Thank you to our great staff and volunteers.

Mr.Williamson

Delta IV lifts SATCOM to orbit

Delta IV components. Credit: NASASPaceflight.com

Here we go... For the first U.S. launch of a satellite this year, United Launch Alliance (ULA) sent a Delta IV rocket into the Florida skies from Launch Complex SLC-37B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Forty minutes later, the WGS-4 satellite separated from its stage and began orbiting. The Wideband Global Satcom 4 is a military satellite, first in a series of ten that will form a Defense Satellite Communications System. Other countries included in this defense system include Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

ULA operates Delta launches from Pad B of launch complex SLC (Space Launch Complex) -37.

SLC-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Historically, SLC-37 (originally LC-37) was used to test the first Saturn 1 and thereafter launched over a half dozen Saturn 1 and Saturn 1B rockets during the Apollo program. All of these Saturn rockets were unmanned, but were part of the testing required to make sure the equipment was ready to put astronauts into space and on their way to the Moon. Later, during the 1970's the complex was demolished. The complex was later rebuilt to launch DElta and Atlas advanced rockets for government missions. The Delta IV and Atlas V are in consideration as launch vehicles for the upcoming Orion space capsule.

Closer view of SLC-37B. I took this photo while standing at Launch Pad 34, location of the infamous fire onboard Apollo 1. Inside the tower can be seen a Delta rocket being readied. Photo taken in May 2011.

Last Apollo mission to lift off from LC-37B, was Apollo 5. This was an unmanned mission on a Saturn 1B rocket, designed to lift a test version of the Lunar Module into orbit without a crew.

Apollo 5 test mission patch.

Posted by Mark Daymont