is this where I put the news that I'm the commissioning lead for our next satellite to launch? transporter-11, be there or be square
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=transporter11 Friday August 16th: 18:20 UTC / 11:20 PDT / 14:20 EDT / 20:20 CEST
ah man, we just missed each other. I moved to France almost a year ago. lemme know if you're back in europe sometime!
launching a satellite next week. as flight director.
we're flying aboard SpaceX Transporter 10 from Vandenburg SFB in California.
keys to my own apartment. in france. (i'm renting) (there's a terrace)
stay tuned. i may have a update soon also this totally says September 23 jobski jobski from the future
jobski
i am moving to France for work (same company) and a new adventure/chapter of life in early september. don’t hesitate to reach out if you’ll be in the Toulouse area! also had lunch with c_hawkthorne !
gregory also has a lifetime warranty. i've lived a cumulative few weeks out of their Border 30 and Border 18 bags, with no complaints (ok onetime i got caught in a massive downpour and umbrella priorities went to a girl i was with and not my bag and my computer took one for the team, but that's on me) never had a backpacking bag from them though. i have a newer rei trail 40 and it's fine but i'm a pretty casual backpacker. last trip was a 1 nighter in Point Reyes and it was great. also only worth it if you find it on sale. the older version was better and i regret returning it.
I had a great series of exchanges with an air traffic controller recently when I was giving my friend an air tour of the Bay Area. I was flying a Citabria--tailwheel airplane that's less common (and more fun ;) ) than your typical Cessna. Dude must have been excited to hear one on frequency on one of the first nice flying days in a while (torrential rains in California recently). He called me a "Citaaaaaahhbria" every single time he had a traffic alert for me. I responded in kind. It was a nice bit of levity in the sky. https://archive.liveatc.net/koak/KSFO-KOAK-Dep-Apr-09-2023-0000Z.mp3 (20:32)
it was fun meeting c_hawkthorne in person!
I've been learning to fly tailwheel airplanes for the past 6 months, flying roughly once a week. Now I've got 42.3 hours of flight time, with 0.5 hours of that now being PIC--pilot in command! Frankly, flying solo was not as nerve-wracking as I expected it to be. I've been learning new things each lesson with my instructor, but I haven't had to be corrected on stick-and-rudder pure flying technique in a while, so I didn't feel the absence of my instructor's remarks. We flew a couple laps in the pattern (takeoffs and landings in loops, in the airport vicinity) and then he got out, took his stuff out of the plane, and sent me off! I did three landings (and one go-around), and that was that! I did get the feeling of "hey, I'm flying an airplane--by myself. sweet!" This is the type of plane I fly, a Bellanca Citabria. Many of them are around 50 years old. Fabric wings and fuselage! Roughly 110 horsepower! a 4-cylinder engine with a carburetor! Two seats, in tandem (rather than side-by-side) As you can see, the little wheel is in the back ('tailwheel')--it's a more traditional gear setup (most modern planes have a nosewheel) and is harder to fly (takeoffs and landings). The word on the street is that tailwheel pilots generally have better "stick and rudder" skills (i.e. flying technique). I can't really be the judge of that, but it's kind of the equivalent of learning to drive a manual/standard transmission car. Because it's fairly straightforward for a tailwheel pilot to transition to nosewheel aircraft, and not the other way around, you must have a "tailwheel endorsement" on your license to fly tailwheel airplanes. I had to earn that endorsement (even though my license is a student license) to fly solo--so yes, I can do wheel landings. I've also gotten very proficient at performing slips, because there are no flaps on this model. Here's what I see inside. Notice that there isn't even an attitude indicator (also called an artificial horizon)! (Yes, I've had to do my simulated instrument training "partial panel" by default, learning to fly the plane without looking outside and without an attitude indicator) I've got a few things left to do to earn my private pilot certificate-- get 10 hours total solo time, get 5 hours total solo cross-country flight time, do my long cross-country solo, do 3 hours of night flight, and prep for (and pass) the oral exam and checkride (flight exam)! I can't wait for electric airplanes to become more common (https://www.diamondaircraft.com/en/service/electric-aircraft/ !!), but in the meantime I buy carbon offsets because the one thing that really makes me ambivalent about pursuing this as a hobby are its carbon emissions...
Flew a plane solo for the first time today!
I don't mind that this is a slower place on the internet. Not everything needs to be breakneck content content content. No, scratch that. Nothing should be breakneck content content content but that's what most of the internet has turned into lately. It's the town square. Sometimes there are parades, sometimes there are protests, sometimes there are unsavory types who wander through. But usually there's just a slightly warm breeze, leaves rustling, people walking their dogs, someone sitting on a bench reading a book, some lovers on a picnic blanket, and a few old friends catching up over a coffee. Even the town square can't prevent the sky from raining sometimes. Open an umbrella. Or step inside the pubski for a pint.
I'm at SpaceOps 2023 in Dubai, where I just gave two presentations (my colleague couldn't make it so I presented his paper as well since I was a coauthor). The most amazing thing is that as I was wandering around the conference afterwards, meeting people, I'd go to introduce myself and they'd tell me they'd attended one of the two presentations and wanted to talk about it. Super crazy feeling.
here's a representative sample: In my case, a satellite mission patch (image / physical embroidered patch / stickers / etc), representing a particular satellite mission that I've worked on / flown.
As of yesterday, I've published my first technical paper! (2nd author)
I'm in France! It's been a week so far and I'll be here for 10 more (crazy to write that out). c'est merveilleux !
My neck of the woods may have changed by the end of this year, perhaps, to some place with lots of wine and cheese. But that's still TBD. Keep me posted!
Two satellites I've worked on for the past year are launching Friday soon. Early Saturday some morning in the coming week I will be in the hotseat, flying one of those satellites as a satellite operator, using satellite control software our team and I built. Very, very excited! PS: mk there's still the #bugski of editing a post with a Twitter embed; the rest of the post text is not present in the edit box when it first loads.
That article is quoting the Washington Post's original reporting. here's a free-access link Experts in classified information said the unusual search underscores deep concern among government officials about the types of information they thought could be located at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and potentially in danger of falling into the wrong hands. The people who described some of the material that agents were seeking spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. They did not offer additional details about what type of information the agents were seeking, including whether it involved weapons belonging to the United States or some other nation. Nor did they say if such documents were recovered as part of the search. A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment. Classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in a search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence on Monday, according to people familiar with the investigation.
I knock on wood. and I don't pin a mission patch on anything until after first contact.
I have no words for the horror that Ukrainians are living through right now. threw this together the other night
I drive a 2017 BMW i3 with a gas-powered range extender. It has a 33 kWh battery. I bought it used. If I drive at 70-75 mph on the freeway, I get about 100 miles of electric-only range before the range extender needs to kick in. If I drive slower, or have a higher mix of city driving, I can reliably get 120 miles. If I'm only driving in the city, that number can go even higher. And I'm not a hypermiler--I drive it like the hot(ish) hatchback it is, though I'm very good at using regenerative braking. I (believe I) am a typical car commuter. On office days, my commute is about 40 miles round-trip. On the weekend, it's not uncommon for me to have a 100-mile day in the car--charging outside the house is optional. Based on my last year's worth of driving, my little go-kart is about 96.5% EV (14,000 miles driven). I burned about a dozen gallons of gas last year (including 2 road trips >250 mi). I'd say 96.5% of my driving is not a "will we make it dance". For about $10k more I could've had a 2019 i3 battery-only EV with a 42 kWh battery with 150 miles of range and accomplished the same thing with a dozen fewer gallons of gas. For the same price, I could have had a new Chevy Bolt with 250 miles of range. I think people tend to buy cars for their edge use cases (I'm going to go on so many road trips!) and over-index on convenience (but right now I've got a 500-mile gas tank! I only have to go to the gas station every 10 days!). Yes, it's easier to say because I park in a garage at night where I've got a level-2 40A charger, but a $25k (new!) Chevy Bolt with 250 miles of range could be fast-charged (DC/level-3) once a week in the time it takes you to do your grocery shopping.
We deployed two satellites in space today! (now the next challenge begins)
hey dude, sounds like you had a great time. wishing you well.
I bought my first car this past weekend.
We’re pleased to announce that we have successfully communicated with both YAM-2 and YAM-3, and on the first opportunity! This is a huge step forward for us and our Cockpit Mission Control team, and we’re just getting started. We have contact!
this is terrifying