... is that you never find a candidate that you can agree with 100%. What I really hate is when I find a candidate that I really like, but find ONE position that is a deal breaker. Which is why I just sent the following letter to the Barack Obama campaign:

I've been a life-long Democrat, and I've been very excited about Barack Obama as a ( Read more... )

A bunch of super-genius obsessive compulsive egotistical jocks...

... and you're surprised that there's some soap opera?

My company built a robot a few years ago, called CHARLOTTE. I don't remember what the acronym stands for, but it comes from the fact that it looks kind of like a spider in a web. It's basically a box suspended by cables in a large cublicle framework. The cables are attached to motors via pulleys on the framework. The motors are computer controlled ( Read more... )

Got this picture in an email from a co-worker thie Friday. Atlantis rolling out to the launch area in the morning mist.

... is the sound of me exhaling after holding my breath for three days. whew!

They're going to launch the Space Shuttle Discovery this afternoon, weather permitting. This is either going to be the first of a lot of launches in the next four years, or the last one ever, if anything goes wrong. Either way, NASA -- and Johnson Space Center -- and my life -- will go through some definite changes ( Read more... )

One of things that I have not enjoyed about my promotion is that most of my time has been spent doing management work instead of technical work. But, as I pass my six-month mark as project manager, I am finding myself getting more and more time back on the technical side of the fence ( Read more... )

Several years ago, I worked on a system for displaying and semi-automating crew procedures for astronauts onboard the ISS. Our astronaut point of contact was Dan Barry, who went up on his third shuttle mission during that time. After the mission, he invited the development team to his house for BBQ and home movies and slides from the mission. A ( Read more... )

I got an award yesterday from NASA -- a "Superior Assistance Award" for the work I did on the critical design review. It's nice, and, if I remember correctly the fifth award I've gotten in 18 years at NASA. What I think about sometimes, though, is the one that got away -- the one that means more than any other award.


( Read more... )

In a small auditorium, perhaps a hundred people filling the chairs and standing along the walls. All eyes glued to a television monitor, watching the countdown. At T -10 seconds, there is not a sound to be heard, except a whisper of inhalation as a hundred people hold their breaths. The engines ignite, and the vehicle begins to move, and the room ( Read more... )