Doozy

This blog entry is going to sound like gobble-de-gook to most of you, so I apologize in advance.

Today's rendezvous sim was cra-a-zy. When all was said and done, I got to check off two major objectives: a one-orbit rendezvous delay, and a "null" dump of leaking propellant (that's not really "null"). And I learned a lot. So that is great.

I don't regret any of the decisions I made real-time during the sim, so that is also good.

But I am frustrated by my performance because I felt that I was lacking some of the information I needed to really feel confident in the decisions I was making. I felt like I was making decisions in the blind.

Case in point: we delayed rendezvous by one orbit because our trajectory had been perturbed by the afore-mentioned "null-but-not-really-null" dump. I thought at the time, and still think now, that we made the right decision in delaying.

But I had one flight controller telling me one thing in my left ear, and my back room telling me the opposite thing in my right ear -- and as I was trying to think, they were loudly arguing with each other. I went with my gut and agreed with the controller recommending that we delay.

In the end, I took blame for things that weren't my fault, and probably escaped blame for things I could have done better.

And tomorrow I get to do it all over again. Such is life in the rendezvous world!