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Julie Payette's Journal

NASA Flight Ops - Ellington Field, Texas -
June 2, 2009 – 12:04 CDT

I am sitting in the cockpit of one of NASA'S Goldstreams. The plane is grounded in Ellington and we are awaiting a few more crew members before heading to Cape Kennedy in Florida for the last Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test exercise. I am sitting in the cockpit because it is the only location where air conditioning is available, and with the door still open in the midday sun, the passenger cabin is an oven (welcome to Houston in June). This countdown exercise at Kennedy usually occurs 3 weeks prior to the launch, but my Commander Mark Polansky, in an effort to preserve our energy, decided to have us flown to Houston instead of us flying our own T38s. The days are long but pass by very quickly at this point in time. A 16-day mission is an ultra marathon for a Shuttle crew. Oh! Here comes my colleague Tim Kopra, all smiles. In two weeks, he will move into his temporary home – the International Space Station – with Bob Thirsk and his sidekicks. He is evidently ready for his 3-month stay. In fact, we are all ready to execute the mission, but we haven't yet realized that we are just about to leave. A certain anxiousness has set in a few days ago (since the return of the Hubble mission, more precisely), and the crew cohesion, already strong for the past 15 months of training and simulator cohabitation, has intensified. What an adventure this will be!