What’s Happening at JPA

The team really cranked it out last night. The launch box repairs are nearly complete. We’re now modifying the attachments from a Dark Sky Station mount to a balloon mount.

We had completely disassembled both shop ground stations to make room for assembling the Ascender ring inner envelope. By the end of the night it was all back together and talking to the test away vehicle rig.

The JPA piece should be on TV in about an hour. We’re now entering the “JP NERVOUS ZONE” . Dale (the reporter and news anchor) always does a great job, but the butterflies still do their thing in the stomach.

Just a thought before the election.

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If you are in the greater Sacramento/Stockton California area tune in to News10 (Channel 10, local ABC news) this Thursday evening.

Dale Schornack the evening news anchor joined us in the desert for the Away 36 mission. He’s been out in the dust and wind with his camera for about a decade now filming our efforts. He’s put together a piece about the whole thing, the from balloons to orbit. They’ve started airing previews of the piece tonight. I just saw one and the scenes are great!

It should air on the 6 and 11pm newscasts.

Saturday we did a test fit of a structural rib on the Ascender 100. The ribs along with a leading edge tube changes the circular cross section of the airship into an elliptical one.

The rib was a little off. We’re now going back over the numbers to see where we went wrong. We’ll have a new test rib made for another test in about a week.

It was a really honor to be there signing books and talking to folks. I still have goosebumps. On the first day they set me up just under Spaceship One and the Spirit of St. Louis.

On day two I was at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center, the annex by the airport. There is a risk that it all can go to your head. A eight year old boy came to my rescue. He walked up to the table, looked me in the eye and said, “That’ll never work”, turned around and walked off. I smiled, being firmly put in my place and enjoyed the rest of the day.

The next day I did a book signing at NASA HQ. I’m still so weirded out by everything I can’t begin to tell you. However, friends there is a bright ray of light there. It came from the folks at the NASA HQ Library. They are the true unsung heroes of that place. More on that later.

JP will be at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. this Saturday and Sunday, October 18 and 19. Saturday he will be signing copies of his book “Floating to Space” at the National Mall building. Sunday he’ll be doing the same at the Smithsonian’s other building, The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport.

Stop by and say Hi!

http://www.nasm.si.edu/events/eventDetail.cfm?eventID=1025

http://www.nasm.si.edu/events/eventDetail.cfm?eventID=1026

It’s early and the gang’s not here yet. Here’s some pics from the last couple of weeks.

  
Building up a Highrack for testing.

Rebuilding an old rocket launch gondola.

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It’s more hunting for the GPS antenna glitch. Today had been one of minor change, two hour test run, repeat. The vehicle has been out in the parking lot all day. A pile of sand bags have been  keeping it from blowing away in the high winds we’ve been having.

A one quarter rib pattern is finished, (Ascender 100). We only need the quarter pattern to start cutting fabric however we need to complete the other three quarters of the pattern to true up the rib panels as we assemble them.

The Away 28 crew was here today measuring and reviewing components. A group of student engineers from Cal State University Sacramento are using the upgraded Away 28 mission as a project.

Enough for today, I’m tired and heading out.

We still have not been able to replicate the satellite drop out we saw on Away 35. Everyday the test rig is powered up and we fly a simulated mission for three hours. All of the big problems have been ruled out. The hunt is now on for something subtle. On the plus side our GPS antenna knowledge has gotten a big boost.