Day 77, 6/9/09 -- Back to flight mode.

FIREBall had a very successful flight, it seems. They terminated at about 10AM and landed near Cedar City, Utah. Initial reports indicate that they payload is in good shape (it fell over on landing, but that's to be expected) and they got a lot of good data.

After the few days off that everyone in the group took, it was time to get back to a flight-ready mindset. To that end, Ilan cycled our cryogenic system to get detectors cold and we ran a flight simulation to make sure that everyone still knew how to do what they needed to do.

As is typical for flight sims, there wasn't much for me to do. Because I already knew that we weren't going be able to attempt a launch tomorrow morning, I took the opportunity to prep and cook a brisket that I had bought over a week ago and had just been waiting for an opportunity to cook. I made a spice rub and let it marinate overnight in the fridge, and then got it cooking in the charcoal grill at the base at about noon. Six hours later, we were rewarded with this:

Needless to say, it disappeared rather quickly.

After the flight sim and brisket consumption, Jeff and I showed Kyle the ins and outs of filling cryogens on the gondola. Dan showed up in the evening as well. The plan for tonight is to do some star camera alignment and scan tests, so Jeff and I headed home.

Pictures today are of the brisket. You know, the important stuff.
http://picasaweb.google.com/asad137/EBEXInNewMexico060909#