April 30, SpaceX 9 Mission Launch....

[The Annoyed Man]

So when my father in law Bob Shrake died back in September of 2007, we made arrangements with a company called Celestis (http://celestis.com/) to have Bob's ashes launched into space. Bob had worked at NASA JPL for 40 years, where he designed and handbuilt many of the guidance packages that went into various of the U.S.'s spacecraft. Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, Cassini-Huygens, and others included guidance systems that Bob built on his workbench at JPL. So when Bob died, our son, who was very close to his "Poppa" had found out about Celestis and we thought it would be fitting to send some of his ashes into space. They have a number of different levels of "service" they provide. We chose a high-earth orbit mission so that his remains would stay up there for a longer time before coming home in a blaze of glory, but you can have your loved one's ashes sent into deep space, onto the moon, or even into the sun, and it is surprisingly affordable. The main thing is that there is a long wait for flight payload availability, and it took us from 2007 until now to get onto a mission. Celestis sends you a kit containing a couple of aluminum tubes about the size of a lipstick. The second one is for backup, in case the launch vehicle has to be destroyed. Their package includes a pre-launch memorial service on the base, video recordings of the service and the launch, and other features.

Anyway, the SpaceX9 mission is historical because it is the first commercial launch to resupply the ISS. The rocket/spacecraft combination is a Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon spacecraft. The Falcon 9 is a 180 foot tall 2-stage rocket with 9 booster motors in the launch stage of the stack. The Dragon spacecraft is large enough to be configured to carry crewmembers. The whole thing is designed, ultimately to be reusable. Check out some of the videos on their website.

Here is the link to Bob's "Celestis" page: http://celestis.com/memorial/newfrontier/shrake.asp. He was a great guy and he's still missed....like a second dad to me. He would be tickled pink to know what we were doing with him. Other notables whose remains are going up on this flight include L. Gordon Cooper, Jr. (http://celestis.com/memorial/newfrontier/cooper.asp) who piloted the Mercury 9 and Gemini 5 spacecraft and was backup pilot on the Gemini 12 and Apollo 10 missions; and James M. Doohan (http://celestis.com/memorial/newfrontier/doohan.asp), AKA "Scotty" on "Star Trek."

It is with both anticipation, sadness, wistfulness, and pending adventure that I'm writing about this. We'll be leaving for Florida on Saturday the 28th. The memorial service is on Sunday the 29th, and the launch is scheduled for 12:22 p.m. on Monday the 30th at SLC-40. The launch window is fairly brief, so if there are any delays, the launch will be rescheduled and countdown resumed the following day, and the day after that, etc. We've reserved our rooms until Thursday the 3rd just in case. If it goes off as scheduled, then we'll profit the extra days to exploring Florida a bit.

Anyway, there is supposed to be a live videocast of the launch. I'll try to share a link to it if I can, and I'll keep posting from Florida. I just thought this whole thing was pretty cool and wanted to share it with you guys.

[WildBill]

TAM - Thanks for the post. As a long time aerospace worker, I am looking forward to the success of this mission, not only for the "passengers" but it will be the first private spacecraft to dock with the space station. I only got to see one shuttle launch, but this one should be very memorable for you. Godspeed.

[MasterOfNone]

Having spent time in Honeywell's Guidance and Navigation Operation and worked on some guidance systems for space systems, I feel a little kinship to Mr. Shrake. Granted, my part was much less than hand-building, it was still rewarding to be part of it. It sounds like Mr. Shrake is going to reach the pinnacle of involvement in the space program by taking a flight.

[The Annoyed Man]

I think I jinxed things by posting this thread.

About 2-1/2 hours ago we got an email from Celestis telling us that the launch had been postponed to no sooner than May 7, without an actual firm launch date. I've got to get refunds, or changes, or whatever to four round trip airfares DFW/MCO, two hotel rooms for 4 adult guests, and a car rental rearranged. I've already been charged for the airfare, so I don't know what I can do about it, but it is a LOT of money, so this is a real debacle. I'm pretty disappointed.

Of course we'll do what we can to get everything rescheduled, and we'll go anyway when we find out the new launch date, but it's a huge hassle. For my wife and me it's not so bad because we're self-employed and work out of our home, and it is relatively simple to move things around to make the trip. But for my son and his fiancé, they both had to schedule vacations at their jobs, and now they've got to inform their bosses that they won't be leaving when they originally scheduled, but they will need to reschedule their departures on short notice........something guaranteed to endear them to their employers.



Oh well. I know it will all be worth it when we finally get to go.

[Dave2]

Of course we'll do what we can to get everything rescheduled, and we'll go anyway when we find out the new launch date, but it's a huge hassle. For my wife and me it's not so bad because we're self-employed and work out of our home, and it is relatively simple to move things around to make the trip. But for my son and his fiancé, they both had to schedule vacations at their jobs, and now they've got to inform their bosses that they won't be leaving when they originally scheduled, but they will need to reschedule their departures on short notice........something guaranteed to endear them to their employers.

What kind of insensitive boss or coworker would hold that against someone? It's a memorial service, not a romp in the park.

And I'm sorry for your loss.

[RoyGBiv]

Thanks for sharing this. I'll be discussing with my family later. What a great idea.

I hope your launch is as smooth as possible. Given the nature of space flight, scheduling changes are still nearly inevitable.
Godspeed Mr. Shrake.

[The Annoyed Man]

Well I just finished canceling our airline tickets and hotel reservations. Orbitz tickets are non-refundable, but they will apply the amount I paid against a future ticket purchase, minus any difference in fares, and minus a total of $700 in change fees.

Here is the email we received from Celestis:

Dear TAM,

After examining results of various space vehicle tests, NASA and our launch services provider have decided to move the target launch date from Monday, April 30 to no earlier than Monday, May 7. In other words, while the launch will not occur on April 30, no confirmed target launch date has been set. This decision was made in order to gain sufficient understanding of test and analysis results to ensure safety and mission success. We will closely monitor developments and inform you as soon as a new target launch date has been announced.

We wanted to let you know all of this as soon as possible so that you can cancel your hotel and travel reservations. If you have purchased a ticket(s) to view the launch in person (from either the Kennedy Space Center or Jetty Park), then due to the launch slip your payments are now refundable. However, we hope that you can join us for the launch, which appears may occur in early May. Your tickets with Celestis can be used to view the launch on the new target launch date: You do not need to cancel your Celestis ticket(s) and re-register later. As always, we recommend that you make flexible, refundable and open-ended airline reservations.

Of course, as we've repeatedly said, the launch date is always subject to change due to factors involving weather or other considerations. As you know, our spacecraft is a secondary payload on this launch and we have no input or influence over the launch date. Being a secondary payload is what makes Celestis services affordable, so this is a tradeoff that is often a part of the memorial spaceflight experience. We recommend you visit our New Frontier Flight page often to get the latest launch news.

Finally, we invite you to read the biographies of New Frontier Flight participants on our website. If your loved one's biography does not yet appear on our website, please contact [this guy] at thisguy at Celestis.com: He will be happy to assist you.

Ad Astra!

Thanks for sharing this. I'll be discussing with my family later. What a great idea.

I hope your launch is as smooth as possible. Given the nature of space flight, scheduling changes are still nearly inevitable.
Godspeed Mr. Shrake.

RoyGBiv, it is not only a great idea, it is very affordable (not counting travel costs to the launch location). The price has gone up since we bought the package in October of 2007. We paid about $1,600 for it. I think the price now is $2,995. Even so, a coffin costs $4,000 plus other funeral expenses.

[The Annoyed Man]

Well after going through all that crap yesterday, we got another email this morning saying the launch is back on for 5/7, and to go ahead and re-book our flight and hotel, etc.

Keeping our fingers crossed. I can't take another $700 hit in change fees from Orbitz, not to mention the added cost of booking fares a week out instead of a month out.

[KC5AV]

I read about the change in scheduling this morning. I hope everything goes well, and that there are no more problems.

[The Annoyed Man]

Yes, there was a change in schedule. The launch was rescheduled for 5/7, so we rebooked our flight for this morning, and I'm posting this somewhere over east Texas, having just taken off about 35 minutes ago. Long story short, we learned yesterday evening that the launch had been pushed back yet again, with a faint chance that it would go up on 5/10—the morning of the day we are scheduled to fly home on—with the next firm launch date of 5/16. The last time we changed our flight reservations, it wound up costing us an additional $1,600, so we decided to take the chance that it would still launch and we could see it. Then last night, we got another email announcing that the launch had definitely been called off for the 10th.

Since we don't have the kind of wealth where we can just keep throwing money out the window in $1600 increments, we made the decision to just go anyway and have a great vacation with one another. So while we're there, we'll do all the KSC tours and otherwise relax on the beach and just unwind. All four of us needed to get away pretty badly, so this will just be some quality family time, and we'll just watch the webcast of the launch when it goes up. It's now currently scheduled to be a night launch, so it should be pretty spectacular.

[74novaman]

Sorry to hear you probably won't get to watch it go up in person. Enjoy the vacation with family though.

[The Annoyed Man]

Followup:

The vacation was a really great bonding experience for my son, DIL, wife, and me. We had a great trip even though we missed being there for the launch.

We set our alarms and woke up at 3:30 a.m. on 5/19 to watch the streaming video on http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html. When we finally got to the countdown, it went like this:

10
9
8
7
6
5
We have booster ignition
2
1
BURP!
We have main engine shut down.



So, the launch was rescheduled for early this morning. We got up at 2:30 a.m. and watched it, and it was a thing of beauty. Very impressive performance. I have additional details to report, but I can't post them until later this evening.... but suffice it to say that I was contacted by a science writer at AP and a story is being put together. I'll post a link and additional details later. In the meantime, here is a link to a video of the launch this morning:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogal ... =144249811

[Keith B]

Followup:

The vacation was a really great bonding experience for my son, DIL, wife, and me. We had a great trip even though we missed being there for the launch.

We set our alarms and woke up at 3:30 a.m. on 5/19 to watch the streaming video on http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html. When we finally got to the countdown, it went like this:

10
9
8
7
6
5
We have booster ignition
2
1
BURP!
We have main engine shut down.



So, the launch was rescheduled for early this morning. We got up at 2:30 a.m. and watched it, and it was a thing of beauty. Very impressive performance. I have additional details to report, but I can't post them until later this evening.... but suffice it to say that I was contacted by a science writer at AP and a story is being put together. I'll post a link and additional details later. In the meantime, here is a link to a video of the launch this morning:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogal ... =144249811

Night launches are SOOOOOOOOOOO cool!!!

[discoqueen]

So, the launch was rescheduled for early this morning. We got up at 2:30 a.m. and watched it, and it was a thing of beauty. Very impressive performance. I have additional details to report, but I can't post them until later this evening.... but suffice it to say that I was contacted by a science writer at AP and a story is being put together. I'll post a link and additional details later. In the meantime, here is a link to a video of the launch this morning:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogal ... =144249811

Yay! So glad it finally happened! I know you've been waiting a while for this! Sad that you couldn't be there in person to see, but very happy you all had a nice vacation!

[74novaman]

Glad it finally got to go up. Sorry you weren't able to see it in person.