The Mission Begins...

I've been MIA over the past week first because I was finishing up my preparations for STS-129, and then because I was taking full advantage of my downtime before the mission began! (If you don't care about the shuttle mission, you should probably just stop reading my blog until Thanksgiving. Heh.) I had a very relaxing weekend at home reading, cooking, organizing, and doing crafty things. I got up a bit earlier each morning to sleep shift since my shift for this mission started at 3:30 a.m. this morning, and it only gets earlier as the days pass. By the time I get to my last shift next week, I'll be going on console at 1:00 a.m. and wow, let me just say it is WAY easier for me to sleep shift by staying up later and later than it is to get up earlier and earlier.

When I was in high school, I'd often help my dad deliver newspapers on the weekends or during the summer. He's a manager in the circulation department, and while some newspaper carriers are there like clockwork and never miss a day, others are definitely not, and there was often a route that needed a sub on any given morning. I distinctly remember that getting up so early in the morning sometimes made me feel nauseous, and apparently it still does. I got up at 5 a.m. Sunday and felt awful all day. Monday was better, but this morning was rough. When I got off console at lunchtime and walked outside into the sunshine, my body finally realized it was daytime and I started to feel better. Funny how that works.

Atlantis had a picture-perfect launch yesterday. It was really something to behold, and it was right on time! No technical issues or weather delays -- amazing! And just like that, the mission that I've been preparing for since March is finally underway. This is my first mission as lead Rendezvous Officer, and it's been challenging, sometimes frustrating, but entirely rewarding. At times, when things were going badly, I would exclaim to the guys in my office "ugh, it feels like this mission is never going to just GET here!"

And yet here it is. And there Atlantis goes, up, up, and away.

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY for me and my team. We'll be getting into the rendezvous checklist tomorrow morning around 5 a.m. The last big engine burn will be around 8:00, and if all goes as planned, Atlantis should quite literally bump into the space station at 10:53 a.m. (Give or take a few minutes. It may be rocket science, but it ain't always an exact science, especially when it comes to timelines. Ha. I made myself laugh.)