On the Bottom Half

Landing Prep

Everything is set for a landing at KSC on Monday morning! The time is in flux right now, but nominally NASA is expecting a landing at 0907 EDT. The STS-121 crew spent the past flight day undocking, which went flawlessly, flying over the ISS before performing the separating 1.5 ft/sec burn to formally move from the vicinity of the ISS. They will remain close enough, however, to re-dock if the Mission Management Team decides that it is unsafe to attempt landing, pending findings of the last inspections of the Thermal Protection System. These inspections were set to occur yesterday with the Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) being used to laser image the starboard leading edge and the nose cone RCC tiles for micrometeoroid damage sustained during flight. They also performed close-out and final berthing activities of the OBSS and Shuttle Arm. Today's activites are cabin stowage, flight control system checkouts, interviews, and prep for tomorrow's deorbit burn and landing.

I've had to cut back on my NASA TV viewing as we're more than halfway through the bandwidth allotment on our broadband internet connection and it's only halfway through the billing period... I love this stuff...

Spent today cleaning the house. I know I'm setting precedent, but I've discovered that if I don't do it, no one else will and I especially don't like living in my roommates' dirty kitchen. Just can't handle the ick they leave on the floor. Plus it's good exercise. Also, for fun, I did yard work in the little patch of real Earth that sits outside my front door. Picked up all the rubbish and cigarette butts risking certain death by spider bite, what with shoving my hands so deep into those bushes.

Rented Gothica and Schindler's List this weekend. Signing up for video store memberships always makes me laugh: they needed two pieces of government ID (license, health care card, etc.), some formal mail showing your address, a password if you forget your membership card, and a signature. Didn't have any mail with me when I went though, so they took a $20 deposit instead, refunded when I brought in some mail showing my address.

If you haven't seen Schindler's List, you should. This is the first time I've seen it and I can understand why it received so many awards. Really excellent. Gothica is really creepy - the premise is: Halle Berry plays a criminal psychologist who works in an asylum. She drives home one night, then wakes up some time later to discover she is now a patient in her own institution charged with a murder she doesn't remember committing. Ick...

posted by Kyle @ 23:09