Still on the Ground

Thursday, November 18—The satellite named Swift has been slowed once again on its journey into space. This time, the delay was caused, ironically, by the self-destruct system of its booster rocket, which got a less-than-perfect score during a routine test Wednesday morning. Swift can't launch until the safety engineers are sure they can blow it up. If Swift's launch rocket happened to veer off course, the engineers would need to destroy it so it wouldn't destroy people nearby. Those are the same people whose blue-roofed houses looked so cheerily tropical as I was flying into the area—until I realized, with dismay, that the color was not of blue shingles but of blue-plastic tarps hiding the destruction caused by recent storms.

Like these houses, the tall Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center looks like a hurricane hit it. In fact, three hurricanes did hit it within two months early this fall, delaying Swift's launch by many weeks and ripping off so many pieces of its outer skin that you could see right through the building. Now, with the patched-tile look of an early Space Shuttle, the building stands battered but not defeated, still dominating this flat landscape for miles around. It also stands as a symbol of the determination required by the creators of this new space observatory, including NASA, Penn State, and other scientific institutions on Swift's international team.

“Of course delays are disappointing, but the important thing is to get the job done right no matter how long it takes,” says John Nousek. His team will control Swift from the Mission Operations Center —but first Swift has to get into space.

With long, intense workdays both behind them and ahead of them, members of Nousek's team are finding ways to cope while waiting here in Florida during these recent launch delays. Many of them are staking out strategic positions at the area's beaches and bistros now because, during Swift's first month or so in orbit, they will need to control and monitor the operation of the $250-million instrument 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “Swift will not be ready to be left unattended in its early phases of operation, so I have asked the members of our team not to plan any trips for the holidays coming up in the next couple of months,” Nousek said.

David Morris, a second-year graduate student who has helped to program and calibrate one of Swift's three telescopes—the X-ray telescope—is among the Penn Staters at the Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch. “I am looking forward to getting back to Penn State because my first shift at the Mission Operations Center likely will be when Swift is scheduled to begin transmitting data for the first time, which will be a real thrill,” says Morris, who had worked on a space observatory larger than Swift before he came to Penn State. “Working on a smaller team here is great because people feel a lot more personal responsibility, so you can count on everyone to work really hard to support the mission and other members of the team, both here and in other countries,” Morris says. Morris was part of a group from Penn State that traveled to Germany to test Swift's X-ray telescope at the Max Planck Institute, which is one of the few X-ray-calibration facilities in the world.

For now, Morris, Nousek, and other members of the Swift team must find ways to endure Florida's sunny skies and 70+-degree temperatures while they wait for NASA's engineers and the Air Force team in charge of flight safety to clear Swift's launch rockets for take-off.