I passed! I passed, I

I passed!

I passed, I passed, I passed. La la la la la.

I am a certified ARD Support Officer! (Well, I will be once I finish the rest of my pesky off-console, i.e. non-sim, tasks.)

No one should ever be required to certify during a FDO/Booster sim. For non-NASA folks, these sims are different from normal ascents because we generally stop each run right after the engines cut off, instead of continuing with some of the early orbit procedures. It means we end up doing 6 or 7 ascents in four hours, instead of our usual average of 4.

I felt brain-dead after 4 runs, and I still had 3 to go! It was perhaps the most intense 4 hours of my entire life. But it's done, and I passed, and I even got a "you guys kicked butt" comment from the guy who's been an ascent flight controller since, like, the dawn of time. That felt good. Really good.

I worked my first sim on December 20, 2005 and I passed my Cert on November 22, 2006. When I started this whole thing my goal was to finish in less than a year, and I did. I'm happy. I'm relieved. I'm ready for a BIG OL' NAP. :)

I probably won't be online again until Sunday night. Here's wishing everyone out in blogger-land a very happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday!