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2004-06-21
today is a day to be remembered

09:02

Today, history will be attempted - that of a first non-governmental pilot to earn their astronaut wings. Burt Rutan's team is going to launch their SpaceShipOne from the White Knight carrier in an effort to reach 100km and earn a place in history. This is the first step towards winning the Ansari X-Prize of 10M USD. Friends and fellow ISU '04 students Ollie, Nick, and Brooke are doing their internship at X-Pize so will be part of it for sure, and then several others - Mark, Cian, David Buck, David Vivanco, Ruey, Jeph, Margot, Kelly, Munir (I think that I have everyone) - are either in the vicinity already or are flying/driving out for the event today. I also know a couple of people from JSC going. It will be quite the to-do! It's broadcast live on CNN (around 9:30 ET in the morning, I believe, is when things get started), so if you have a chance to watch, be sure to do so. The thing, turns out will be webcast. Space.com if offering a viewer's guide to the event. Imagine, history in the making. How cool is that.

*******

Had a great weekend. Beth and I visited Chris and Nicole in K�ln (Cologne), about three hours away. Chris is doing his internshp at the European Astronaut Center (EAC). He gave us a tour of the facility on Sunday, and wow, was it cool. It's pretty small, but the area is really beautiful and the facility is new and very well-done and it's such a shame that it's so underutilized - their Neutral Bouyancy Facility (NBF), the counterpart to NASA's Neutral Bouyancy Lab (NBL), has never been used as it was intended, which is training astronauts.

First things first, however. Friday, Arta and a friend of hers, Ivo, picked us up in his brand-new green Jaguar X8. I have never ridden in a Jag, but as far as looks go, they are above and beyond my favorite luxury car. I have also never gone so fast in a car - I won't say how fast, but it was fast and the car was as smooth as silk and treated the speed as if it was nothing. The only thing was that I spent the whole trip with my knees in my chest. Literally. Jaguar X8 /= four-person traveling car.

That night, we grabbed something to eat and then crashed around midnight. Saturday, we met up with Chris and Nicole's friend and ISU '03 alum, Stuart, for breakfast before walking around town and shopping (managing to lose Chris and Stuart several times - if you think I am bad about wandering off on my own, these two are worse). We ended up listening to a pretty cool jazz band when the inclement weather decided to rain heavily and forced us inside.

That evening, Stuart's wife, Katrine, joined us and we went to an Italian restaurant and watched Germany tie Latvia. After downing huge ice cream concoctions at a local parlor, Arta and Nic went back to the apartment to wait for Ivo to arrive - he had to drive back to the Danish border to get the passports that he and Arta had left in Denmark at a friend's. The rest of us headed off to a bar, and Nic, Arta, and Ivo arrived about an hour later. We hung out there for quite a while, then it was home. Arta and Ivo left the next morning to continue their driving tour of Europe.

Sunday, we got up and had the previously-mentioned tour of the EAC. Then, Beth and I peeked our heads into the Cathedral (it's taller and narrower than the Strasbourg Cathedral) and then we went to lunch/dinner at an American Barbeque restaurant. ;) Then, a walk along the Rhine and back to their apartment for Beth and I to grab out stuff and head out. Whew! What a weekend.

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