Usually "Staying Sassy in Senegal" is all about yours truly because let's face it, my life is infinitely more ridiculous and sometimes even more entertaining than what's going on in the old US of A. Today was a very different story. My friends here in Senegal are very intimately acquainted with "the rocket that is never going to launch." Well, today the rocket actually did launch! To make sure that I could witness history in the making I installed myself at Massa Massa for the afternoon. I couldn't think of a better way to 1. actually make sure that I could connect to the internet (Massa Massa has a generator and therefore power all the time), 2. wait out what I thought would be an eternity of waiting for liftoff and 3. satisfy my desire not to eat ceebu jenn than spending a blissful afternoon Massa Massa.
After the first delay I was nervous the launch wasn't going to happen, so I ate a salad. When the spacecraft successfully lifted off and entered in orbit I celebrated with a delicious apple crisp-esque dessert. It was absolutely amazing to watch liftoff even if my video was more stop and go than streaming. I can't even imagine the feeling of watching it in mission control. After several calls from my mom who wanted second by second updates which I did not have I ran a couple of errands and returned home to call my mom back. I couldn't find a live feed for the capsule splashdown so my mom turned the volume on our TV as high as it would go and then held the phone up to the TV so I could listen to CNN over Skype!
The United States, Russia, China, Japan, India, the EU and now SpaceX that's pretty freaking badass if I do say so myself. Congratulations to Matt and everyone at SpaceX. I have just a faint idea of how much work, heart and soul you've put into this launch.
If you're interested in reading more here are some articles and SpaceX's website. I'm sure there will be a lot more great press in the coming hours.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/08/AR2010120801591.html
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-spacex-capsule-20101208,0,2381140.story
http://www.spacex.com/
Congratulations!
Messy, but Warm
7 years ago
Alyssa,
ReplyDelete"RocketMan" no longer has an excuse for making the trip to Africa now! Congrats one and all.
Dad
Your mom and I had coffee this morning...she had her laptop with her in anticipation of 'lift off'.
ReplyDeleteShe is counting the minutes until you return home for the holidays : )
This is awesome - also, I want to ask Matt over the holidays why they named the capsule Dragon because that's pretty great within itself.
ReplyDeleteLindsay
Alyssa, How exciting for Matt! I got to watch it on cnn. How great technology is. First you call and you get to listen on cnn too. See you soon Love Ma
ReplyDeleteYou know how my favorite movie has always been "Apollo 13"? Well today it became the SpaceX live feed! Sorry Tom Hanks.
ReplyDeleteFantastic work Matt!!!!!!!!
Lindsay, "puff the magic dragon." Seriously. We almost called the engine "Trogdor" : )
ReplyDeleteAlyssa, thank you for devoting an entire blog post to SpaceX, I can’t wait to celebrate with you