Can't have everything, Part II

[cjsmith]

Another thing I won't be doing because of classes is watching a shuttle launch.

OK, it's not 100% clear that there would have been a guest pass for me. One was offered to Rob; there may or may not have been another available. But we could have asked. So I thought about it. If I could get on a redeye, I'd miss only bio lecture and Spanish class. Sadly, the redeyes to Orlando from here tend to land a couple of hours after the scheduled launch time. Well, what if there were a flight departing in the afternoon? I'd have to miss bio lab as well, which is starting to get really shaky; total hours spent in lab are part of an inter-school curriculum agreement, so missing those is a real problem. But I could ask my bio professor... if there were afternoon flights! There aren't! So I'd have to take a morning flight, and the chemistry prof made his lab policy clear on day one: if I miss even one chemistry lab during the quarter, I flunk the class. OK. No shuttle launch.

This is something I kind of had in the back of my head as "one of the gazillion things I want to do before I die": watch a launch, shuttle or otherwise. And I don't know how much longer shuttles are going to be launching. But this time won't be the one.

If I'm honest, I can't truly blame this one entirely on school. This has been a theme in my life for decades. I've always had this job thing. I've always needed this job thing in order to eat and pay rent. The number of fun trips Rob has been on without me is painful to contemplate. Some day, I swear, I will be the kind of person who can GO DO STUFF. It may take time; it may not happen until well after graduation; but some day, some day, I'll go.

Comments

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Um, can you try talking to the professor?

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

I got lucky enough to be working for NASA/Ames on the first work/study program that DeAnza had (when it was just a local "junior" college) back in 1971/72 and, because of that, was able to go with the group to see the night launch of Apollo 17 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_17). It is a truly awesome and moving experience - except for the fire ants.

If you don't make it this time at least you know that we will be doing more space stuff under the new administration. Which means you will have opportunities to go to another one.

I would someday like to witness a shuttle landing, something my parents were able to view.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ooo, a landing! That's wonderful in an entirely different way, I bet.

It's really amazing that we live in the age we do. Trips into orbit aren't exactly routine, but they're no longer the kind of thing that rivets a nation's eyes on the news like they did only decades ago.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I could, yeah. (Keeping in mind that every one of my professors this quarter is bending over backwards for me already by rescheduling a final exam.) Also I'd need to ask the person who had the first guest pass. And come up with plane money. It's not 100% impossible at this point, just unlikely.

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

I have talked with people who have witnessed a landing and they say it is just as thrilling as a launch but much, much quieter. When the shuttle is spotted the entire field of watchers seem to "Gasp!" in unison.

Witnesses' Waltz says it all:

[leback.livejournal.com]

It seems like the sort of thing about which a science professor really might say "Yes, by all means, go, and tell me all about it!" On the other hand, they might think "Hey, if I can't see a shuttle launch, neither can she!"

Maybe you could make up the lab by writing an extra-credit report on the chemistry of space-shuttle launching. :-)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Toni and I went to one w/o NASA guest passes back in 1995 (STS-63). I can't remember the process we went through, but KSC loads everyone with the type of ticket we had up on buses at the visitors' center and we rode out to the river bank a few miles from the pad. Needed binoculars, but it was still awesome (a night launch!).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

There's a photograph of a space shuttle launch in our chemistry textbook, and it's even in the chapter we're doing! I should totally schmooze this. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Wow, I bet. Just the enormity of the task (get humans safely into space and back, and by the way, enable them to do some work while they're up there) is awe-inspiring.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That made me all sniffly. Thank you.

[leback.livejournal.com]

Pity you can't get an extra pass for your professor. -- that'd probably be an A+++ in the course right there!

If the shuttle launch stuff is particularly relevant to the chapter material, maybe instead of an extra-credit report, you could put together a presentation -- spend half an hour or so of class time showing pictures, describing the launch, and explaining some researched materials on the science that this mission will be doing, and the relevance of chemistry to the space program. Lots of instructors really love having other people fill class time for them. :-)

(I am sort of thinking about this by analogy to a political science class -- I knew some people in my department who missed classes last November because they were off doing things like get-out-the-vote, and I think any political science professor who penalized them for that would have been *insane*. I think the same thing happened this quarter, with people going off to Washington for inaugural festivities -- I know one professor even cancelled class because *she* had tickets to the inauguration itself.)

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

You are welcome.

And now I'm going to give you the first filk I ever heard at a convention: