@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.

@Trilobyter In an entirely different context I spent a few weeks working next to a retired astronaut or two, and their approach to everything seems quite different than the average Joe. Did you find that part easy or not so easy? I'm not mentioning names, I'm just curious how it is to work with people who are involved in something you know the inner workings of so intimately in one way and they in another.

@Lizette603_23 it was certainly intimidating to work with them, at least in my early years on Shuttle. I’ll never forget the first time I had to go up & very nervously present to one a detailed analysis & explanation of a failure that occurred in one of the SAIL tests. Of course they were all different in personality but one common aspect, they were all very intensely focused & serious at work. But I also attended parties with a few of them when they really “let their hair down”.

@Lizette603_23 one story about an astronaut - Mario Runco. He was a particularly intense person to work with when he was the assigned astronaut to fly the SAIL, but he was also one of its biggest advocates. When the program ended they were going to tear-down & scrap the SAIL, but there was a counter-push to preserve it and make it part of the JSC visitors tour (it’s very cool to see). Mario was part of that push back and I think that was a key reason they went with preservation.

@Lizette603_23 forgive if this verges into gossipiness, but another thing about Mario was his strikingly Vulcan-like personality & appearance. Once in our operations room someone posted a doctored photo of him with pointy ears to complete the look. I haven’t seen him for years but recently & sadly, one of my SAIL colleagues passed away and Mario was at the memorial, barely recognizable as his previous short haircut is now way past his shoulders in length. Our Vulcan has turned into a hippie 😁.