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Julie Payette's Journal

Launch -23 days
NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston,
Texas May 21, 2009

Well, I hope those of you who are coming to the launch in Florida have made your hotel reservations and have started to think about what to pack because things suddenly started to happen late today when NASA announced that they were finally clearing the shuttle Endeavour (our shuttle!) for the launch of STS-127.

The problem is that since May 11, 2009, when the shuttle Atlantis was launched on its mission to service the Hubble telescope, Endeavour-which can be seen in the distance in the attached photo taken on May 10, 2009-has been standing by, ready to leave from a second launch pad in case the Atlantis crew needed help while in orbit. Yesterday, the Atlantis crew completed the inspection of their spaceship's thermal blanket, and Mission Control Centre in Houston said that everything was fine, but NASA was still hesitating to release Endeavour from its responsibilities as a lifeboat and start the countdown for STS-127. But now they have!

In the coming days, Endeavour will be moved from pad 19B to pad 19A (the closer one in the photo), the cargo that STS-127 will be taking to the International Space Station will be stowed aboard, we'll pack our toothbrushes and a few other little essential items (like food, oxygen, clothing, spacesuits), and then it will be our turn.

A launch date of June 13, 2009, is now much more likely!

One thing is certain: our crew is ready. We've been training for this mission for over a year. We've repeated the robotics operations, practised the five spacewalks in the training pool, boarded and left the shuttle and docked with the Station and undocked so many times in the simulator that we are beginning to know the procedures by heart. Today, for the last time before the launch, we rehearsed all the details of the 2-hour period (called POST INSERTION) that immediately follows engine shutdown on arrival in space after an eight-and-one-half-minute ascent. This is a critical period during which the shuttle has to be transformed from the rocket it was to a functioning space vehicle. Everything is minutely choreographed during those two hours and each person has certain very specific tasks to perform. We have to adjust our orbit, take off our orange spacesuits, reconfigure the onboard computers, open the cargo bay doors, deploy the antennas, activate the kitchen and toilet, fold up the seats (no need for a chair when you're floating weightless), take the equipment, tools, flight plan and procedures out of the drawers, and install an entire network of portable computers, monitors and cameras. The various tasks are so interconnected that if one person gets behind or misses a step, the entire process is affected. And if you happen to be affected by space sickness during the post-insertion, there's no time to feel sorry for yourself. You do what has to be done, you take a Gravol (actually a Phenergan-Dexedrine combination) if necessary, and you keep going.

For me, the day of the launch will be especially exciting. Unlike my first flight, when I was sitting on the middeck, this time, I will be sitting in the cockpit for the launch, between Commander Mark Polansky and Pilot Doug Hurley. I will have an exceptional view and as Flight Engineer, I'll be involved in the action until we reach orbit. Once the engines are shut down (MECO=Main Engine Cut Off), I'll spend almost the entire post-insertion period on the flight deck reconfiguring the onboard systems and installing the computer network. And then I'll have the privilege of opening the shuttle cargo bay doors with my colleague Chris Cassidy. Can you imagine? My nose pressed up against one of the aft windows of the flight deck, watching those enormous doors as they quietly open to reveal the shining blue planet right below? Even in the flurry of post-insertion activities, it's a magical moment that I can't wait to relive.

Chat with you soon.

Julie

Launch - 23 days and counting!