Table of Contents

Julie Payette's Journal

Kennedy Space Center – Tuesday,
June 16, 2009 – 11:00 a.m.

Hello my friends!

I hope this is my last communication before I depart. If all goes as planned, the next time you get a message from me, it will be from lower Earth Orbit! The valve that leaked during tanking on Saturday has been repaired and we are poised to resume the launch countdown later today. It is incredible, even to insiders like us, that the NASA technicians were able to pull off such a tricky repair on such a critical system in such a short period of time. With more than ten million physical parts, five onboard computers and one-of-a-kind flight software, the Space Shuttle is by far the most sophisticated and versatile transport vehicle ever built by mankind. It is amazing that we are able to safely prepare, launch and return it to Earth on such a regular basis. It may appear as routine to some, but everything needs to converge and work perfectly for a mission to succeed, and there is nothing (and will never be – at least in the near future) ordinary about defeating gravity and putting human beings in space.

Endeavour’s launch is now set for 5:40 a.m. tomorrow morning, Wednesday, 17^th of June 2009. That’s less than 24 hours away. A launch like this one, a few minutes before sunrise, is very rare. It will be spectacular. In the soft yet still darkened sky, telltale sign of dawn, the people who will be observing from the ground will be able to follow the course of the Shuttle well beyond the time when the two solid rocket boosters will separate and fall back into the Atlantic Ocean. By the time they lose sight of the Shuttle, just before Endeavour reaches orbit, it will be the size and the brightness of a morning star.

My crew and I are ready to go tomorrow. Our morale was not altered by the delay. On the contrary, we actually took advantage of this unexpected free time to take a step back and get even more focused. Locked away in quarantine, unable to leave the Space Center, we had time to review our procedures, stay in shape, and say goodbye to our loved ones. Right now, the entire crew is in the conference room at crew quarters for a final "tagup". We’re ready and we will split in a few minutes to go to bed. Eight hours of sleep, then wakeup at 7:00 p.m. We will then get a few hours to have breakfast, clean up, and settle any lasting personal matter. Then shortly after midnight, we will walk into a historical room where all other American astronauts before us were suited up before their spaceflight, including the legendary Armstrong and Lovell before they left for the Moon! It is very impressive. At 2:00 a.m., we will leave for the Launch Pad and by 3:30 a.m., everyone will be strapped in Endeavour and the hatch will be closed, ready for launch. One is not late for a Space Shuttle flight!

A little earlier today, the entire crew got together to review the details of the activities that we will perform immediately after reaching orbit, eight and a half minutes after lift off. This is a critical time when we have to reconfigure the Shuttle from a rocket that took us into space, to a spaceship that will be our home for the next two weeks. Nothing is left to improvisation and every action is choreographed and assigned to a specific crew member. And if our initial plan does not work, then we have prepared a plan B, and even a plan C. I‘ll let you know how it went.

Well I’ve got to go to bed. Thank you so much to all of you, for your words, counsel, friendship and support during this long journey that brought me to this moment. I wouldn’t have made it without you and I hope I will represent you with honour in this incredible adventure. This is the Major League of space exploration.

Per aspera Ad astra,
Julie Payette