Yesterday was the final scheduled launch of OV-103 Discovery. You'll find that many sources will say final "scheduled" launch, but let's not kid ourselves, she's made her last ascent, and no amount of wishing or letter writing is going to get the STS program restarted after this summer.
I make it a point to watch every shuttle launch if it's at all feasible, and that has often meant streaming NASA TV while at work, and my coworkers pretty much know that if I have headphones on, we must be close to a launch. This was true yesterday and I started watching about an hour before launch, which was perversely actually T-15:00 (NASA time is WAY worse than football time). I had the coverage on the screen and did my best to stay billable at the same time. At about 30 minutes to go a consultant called and I worked on getting him to lower his contract price (which I eventually did, a new skill that I'm learning). While that was happening my client called twice, and when I got off the phone I left the client a message and learned there was a potential problem with Range Safety that could postpone the launch.
The client called back at about T-7:00 and he ended up venting to me until well after ET staging (it's hard to say when, the streaming hung up at about T+5:00). I'll be honest, I was tempted to put off the call, partially because of the launch, but also because I suspected that the client was upset about some change orders I had forwarded him earlier in the day. I sucked it up though and took the call, which was the right thing to do, and the end I'm happy I did.
He was upset, but to my surprise, not with me. For only the second or third time in 5 years he was upset with the Interior Designers and not us, and he unwound about them for the first half of the conversation, then he moved on to the GC moving slowly, and finally he came to the change orders. He is not interesting in paying them at all, he thinks they're high, and he thinks that the lighting design was inadequate. Full disclosure, I did all the lighting drawings and I've never felt that they were properly reviewed by the rest of the design team, mostly due to rushed schedules, so if he's questioning the lighting design he's questioning me. This is not the first time that he has questioned my designs, but this time was a bit different. It was less direct, a bit more passive, and had a delaying tone as if his criticism was something that could wait for another conversation. I wasn't afraid to speak up and defend the design, but didn't feel the need to draw him into a larger conversation about it.
Anyway, we made it through the conversation without any shouting, and I kept my cool even when I saw the foam strike near Discovery's wing root at about T+3:56. It did freak me the hell out, but I saw no obvious damage and knew that the risks were low in the high thin atmosphere the shuttle is traveling through after staging. I went to discuss the conversation with my boss, who was a little on edge about it. My other boss isn't as involved in the project and joined the conversation with a little more detachment, something that hasn't gone well for me in past conversations like this. This time it went pretty well, boss #2 was in a jovial mood and made jokes that seemed to suggest that he was on my side.
We went back and forth through all the issues that the client had brought up and even branched out to a few that he hadn't. In the end it was pretty clear that the client was venting, and that's when boss #2 said something very interesting and insightful. He said that people tend not to vent to the people that they're mad at, they tend to vent to someone that is close to the problem, but not actually the cause of it. That might seem obvious, but it's hard to stay objective when dealing with emotional people who have millions of dollars on the line. I was glad he said that and it made me realize that during the call I had been letting many of his comments fly past without getting me riled up. I had subconsciously recognized that he was venting and detached myself a little bit from what was happening which enabled me to not loose my cool about the fact that he was disparaging my work. I'm learning, and realizing that made it almost worth missing most of the launch of STS-133.
In any event, I went home reviewing the launch coverage on my DVR while on the phone with my father. The event I saw was not 1 but 2 foam strikes, but NASA isn't worried about them just now. Here's the video:
Maybe tomorrow I'll write about Change Orders and project burn out. Gripping stuff, stay tuned.
I make it a point to watch every shuttle launch if it's at all feasible, and that has often meant streaming NASA TV while at work, and my coworkers pretty much know that if I have headphones on, we must be close to a launch. This was true yesterday and I started watching about an hour before launch, which was perversely actually T-15:00 (NASA time is WAY worse than football time). I had the coverage on the screen and did my best to stay billable at the same time. At about 30 minutes to go a consultant called and I worked on getting him to lower his contract price (which I eventually did, a new skill that I'm learning). While that was happening my client called twice, and when I got off the phone I left the client a message and learned there was a potential problem with Range Safety that could postpone the launch.
The client called back at about T-7:00 and he ended up venting to me until well after ET staging (it's hard to say when, the streaming hung up at about T+5:00). I'll be honest, I was tempted to put off the call, partially because of the launch, but also because I suspected that the client was upset about some change orders I had forwarded him earlier in the day. I sucked it up though and took the call, which was the right thing to do, and the end I'm happy I did.
He was upset, but to my surprise, not with me. For only the second or third time in 5 years he was upset with the Interior Designers and not us, and he unwound about them for the first half of the conversation, then he moved on to the GC moving slowly, and finally he came to the change orders. He is not interesting in paying them at all, he thinks they're high, and he thinks that the lighting design was inadequate. Full disclosure, I did all the lighting drawings and I've never felt that they were properly reviewed by the rest of the design team, mostly due to rushed schedules, so if he's questioning the lighting design he's questioning me. This is not the first time that he has questioned my designs, but this time was a bit different. It was less direct, a bit more passive, and had a delaying tone as if his criticism was something that could wait for another conversation. I wasn't afraid to speak up and defend the design, but didn't feel the need to draw him into a larger conversation about it.
Anyway, we made it through the conversation without any shouting, and I kept my cool even when I saw the foam strike near Discovery's wing root at about T+3:56. It did freak me the hell out, but I saw no obvious damage and knew that the risks were low in the high thin atmosphere the shuttle is traveling through after staging. I went to discuss the conversation with my boss, who was a little on edge about it. My other boss isn't as involved in the project and joined the conversation with a little more detachment, something that hasn't gone well for me in past conversations like this. This time it went pretty well, boss #2 was in a jovial mood and made jokes that seemed to suggest that he was on my side.
We went back and forth through all the issues that the client had brought up and even branched out to a few that he hadn't. In the end it was pretty clear that the client was venting, and that's when boss #2 said something very interesting and insightful. He said that people tend not to vent to the people that they're mad at, they tend to vent to someone that is close to the problem, but not actually the cause of it. That might seem obvious, but it's hard to stay objective when dealing with emotional people who have millions of dollars on the line. I was glad he said that and it made me realize that during the call I had been letting many of his comments fly past without getting me riled up. I had subconsciously recognized that he was venting and detached myself a little bit from what was happening which enabled me to not loose my cool about the fact that he was disparaging my work. I'm learning, and realizing that made it almost worth missing most of the launch of STS-133.
In any event, I went home reviewing the launch coverage on my DVR while on the phone with my father. The event I saw was not 1 but 2 foam strikes, but NASA isn't worried about them just now. Here's the video:
Maybe tomorrow I'll write about Change Orders and project burn out. Gripping stuff, stay tuned.
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