Waiting with Abe Benrubi to go to the RSS retraction.
This means CLOSEST EVER TO THE SHUTTLE ON THE PAD. it was supposed to happen at 7 but then a stream of fabulous lightening storms came through so it was pushed back and back all the way till midnight.
What a beautiful shot with just my iPhone. You should have SEEN the lightening that followed.
They ended up pushing the RSS retraction back till
Midnight so I had to bail because it would have meant getting back to my hotel room at around 2am. If I hadn't had interviews the next morning I'd have done it easy, but work called so I and my PAO buddy headed home in the crazy-ass storms.
The next morning of interviews went really well! They were mostly written stories and only 3 or so had the cameras in my face. One was a live streaming interview to 1.2 million viewers. But this particular show was very laid back and silly and short so it was pretty easy.
The more I interviewed, the more fluent I became so I do see that these things get easier with practice. One chick who interviewed me asked me how I felt about Obama canceling the shuttle program. When I informed her that the Bush administration canceled it she argued for a second and then realized I must be right, frantically picked up her blackberry and said, "oh no! I just sent a story out for publishing that says Obama canceled the shuttle program!" Holy cow. If a reporter from the Miami Herold can't get that right, can you imagine the amount of misinformation that must be circulating out there about everything in the media? OMG.
My interview sign up sheet. NASA PAO was too busy to get my last name right!
I was outside for a camera interview when the AstroVan came past the entrance to the press site on the way to the launch pad with the STS-134 crew. We waited till they would go completely past before we started out interview but it had disappeared behind stuff and we never saw it come out. As we were pressed for time we just did the interview. When I got back inside, relieved all interviews were over, I ran into a friend who told me the launch was scrubbed. She had been talking to me as if I knew or something and then I realized how ironic it was that the scrub happened during my interview right in the middle of the press site and I was just learning it from her! The AstroVan had turned around in the LCC parking lot right across the street from us, which is why we hadn't seen it go by during the interview.
Bummed? Yes, but not completely. I got a first hand look a the zoo that was the press site on a launch scrub. All interviews (mine were done) changed from standard Pre-launch stuff to GIVE US THE WORD ON THE APU FAILURE. The energy was chaotic! I got to see the start of the scrub press conference that you see on TV live, in its little auditorium, but then it was too crowded for me so I bailed back to the news room.
Overall impressions: I was really well taken care if while there. I got access to all the employee break rooms and offices, including the food and drinks for the astronauts, (who, by the way, were very impressed with the amount of pizza I could put down). People were very respectful to me and just appreciated me being there, even though I was the one Geeking out. And the reporters were as cliche as you can imagine. Being in the news room for those few days was so fantastic! Very full of energy. Such an exciting thing for me to be a part of.
The scrub meant new free time. I returned the spider habitat to the scientists. In the meantime the Tweetup attendees had started a spoof Twitter account for the spider: @space_spider. We had a good laugh over it and I showed the scientists how to use Twitter to follow it.
A golden orb spider. Her sisters will be sent to space station as part of the CSI-05 experiment.
After that there was extra time so my good friend who was out there showed me how to legally get as close as possible to the space shuttle on the launch pad. When I got there I realized it trumped RSS retraction and everything had turned out the way it was supposed to. I have seen launches but I have never seen a fully stacked shuttle on the launch pad even remotely up close. The beach was right on the side of me. The breeze was cool and the air was clear and I could have sat there all day. Thanks for bringing me out there! That topped all else on this trip!!! This picture does no justice to the real life visual.
I topped of the evening with dinner with a couple of PAO friends (these are the NASA press representative). They were both exhausted from the day's events. And starving. They're so busy they don't eat real food all day. I got back to the hotel and passed out. Now I'm about to pack up, go buy some souvenirs, and head to the airport for home!
Out of all the travels I've done for work, nothing beat this one. Even without the launch. Ready for some hugs from home!
2 comments:
You did so awesome and I'm so glad you enjoyed every second of it all! Coolest job ever!
do you have links of your interviews
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