The Trip

Sorry again for the delay in updates, but there is a reason and it will have to do with this post.

On August 17th, I walked into work like it was a normal friday. I was pumped because it was the weekend and we were getting paid. My mentor comes up to me and I had previously told him that I was interested in traveling with the group when possible. He said he would pass it on to my manager and whoever else. With my project specifically, I know that I will be going to launch sites at Air Force Bases and other places too in the future. That's exactly when I thought my chance to travel would come.....much later in the future.

My lead, who is also a good friend of mine, also was trying to get me to do some travel to launch sites for a few projects so that I could get the experience. Well, Paul walks up to my desk and asks if I was still interested in traveling and of course I answer yes. Right now we are getting ready to launch a satellite called Worldview I out of Vandenberg Air Force Base in Southern California and he asked if I would be interested in going. I immediately smiled and exclaimed "YES DEFINITELY!!"

Then he says, "Great, glad to hear it.....your plane leaves at 7 pm tonight."

...........................................i'm sorry, say what now?

So another colleague of mine was leaving to go out tonight too and the program manager requested me to come out too to help. Paul and I sat down and tried to iron out leaving on saturday or sunday, but it wasn't doable with the tickets. So, in a whirlwind of about an hour and 15 minutes, we applied for my corporate credit card, booked my flight roundtrip, booked a hotel room, rental car, received travel insurance, got accepted for overtime and travel expenses, and applied for a clearance pass at Vandenberg through United Launch Alliance. Needless to say I was a bit overwhelmed, not to mention they were letting me leave at 12 pm to go home and pack.

I really had no clue what was really happening, but I followed orders and went home to wash clothes and pack. Luckily the dress as casual, so that made it easy. I was driven to the airport by one of my friends and I proceeded to Santa Barbara for a 2.5 week business trip to help support the Worldview I launch from Vandenberg. The entire trip itself was amazing. Normally someone as young as me (as far as time with company and position) doesn't get this chance, so I was very grateful. The one thing I had to get used to was that a launch operation is a continuous 24 hour process and I had work the 3rd shift from 12 am - 8 am every day. So things were a little backwards, but I still liked being out there. It was cool to be on an Air Force Base everyday next to the beach and to know that I'm contributing to the successful Sept. 18th launch of Worldview.

I took some pics and will upload them next week at some point. The experience as a whole was exhausting but well worth it. I saw another launch that wasn't ours at 3 am one night. I learned about another whole aspect of my job that hadn't been previously introduced to me and as usual I learned a crapload from all my co-workers and friends out there with me. It was kind of cool being in another place and basically having everything already paid for, even drinks. I didn't get to spend alot of free time due to me trying to sleep during the day, but I know I'll be back there in another year for the launch of Worldview II and this time, I'll be one of the main Test Engineers there for 2 months. All in all, even though the trip came as a surprise and I was really unprepared for it, I acclimated and got settled into the schedule. The entire trip seemed surreal because of the realization of my first official business trip. It made me feel good that my work was trusted enough and counted enough to be asked to come out and help support an aspect of the preparation for launch.

As I speak, they are only about another 2 weeks away from launch. Much like my time out here in Colorado has, my job is even capable (as I saw) of throwing curve balls out of the blue. I've learned to just go with it though and gain as much as I can from each experience thrown my way. I'm here to work and prove myself as a capable Test Engineer for my program, and with my mentor and other colleagues around me who are willing to guide and help me, my path through the workforce is still unknown, but not as dark anymore. Here are two pictures I took with my phone before I found out we could take regular pictures. This is the satellite sitting sideways on the Three-axis positioner or TAP. This week it is going through fueling and being put into the Delta II faring. This will be a Global Digital Imaging Satellite.



Here is a picture of the Delta II Launch Vehicle that Worldview I will be housed in for launch. They have a bunch of Launch Towers at Vandy, so this is one of them that just happened to have a Delta II on it...