@Trilobyter PS congrats on the Artemis II. thus far, other than a small crapper incident, it looks mighty successful. Thank you for your contribution.

@Lizette603_23 thanks, yeah from the conversation I heard they didn’t sufficiently “prime the pump” needed for water flow so it triggered warning lights. Was rectified quickly once they understood the cause. But they’re also having issues with the overboard waste water venting due to freezing, it does have heaters that are supposed to prevent but they are additionally going to roll the Orion so the vent is in the sun & hopefully that will thaw it. But they also have backup baggies if needed.

@Trilobyter better prepared than most of us at home! Is it okay if I badger you with questions from time to time?

@Lizette603_23 well I suddenly find myself with all sorts of spare time, right now I’m just sitting on the front porch with one of the dogs & my camera (never know what’s going to turn up, with the flowers starting to bloom the butterflies & bees & hummingbirds are starting to appear - and a hawk just zoomed by about 2 feet off the ground but I didn’t catch it) waiting for the rain that’s promised today (my garden needs it) so sure, ask away, anytime.

@Trilobyter My first question is about how you found yourself on the Artemis project

@Lizette603_23 so the longish version, I grew up around the Johnson Space Center, my dad work on Apollo from its early days. So I more or less followed in his footsteps, started working Space Shuttle in the late ‘80s in JSC’s Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL), which was a high fidelity engineering & test simulator, what is called an “iron bird” - basically a complete set of Shuttle computers, avionics, cockpit, middeck, payload bay, laid out in a warehouse sized building.

@Lizette603_23 In the SAIL we tested the electronics & software, ‘flying” full mission simulations, often with astronauts in our cockpit. The final step of systems integration testing done before each mission flew. So then the Columbia tragedy happened and in the aftermath they decided to bring the Shuttle program to an end - though it kept flying for many more years. But with that there was the initiation of the Constellation program and the Orion spacecraft was the crew-carrying part of that.

@Lizette603_23 In 2006 after Lockheed Martin was awarded the Orion contract I and some of my other SAIL colleagues were recruited to help develop a similar facility for the Orion. I worked on both initially but after a year or so I became full time on Orion, and kept going till my retirement this week. Of course during those years the Constellation program was cancelled but the Orion part remained in development, and eventually became part of the lunar-focused Artemis program.

@Trilobyter Were you inclined more toward the Orion work or is that just how it happened?