Saturday February 7^th 2009. Launch -68 days.

Just a little reality check today. We have had several days when we could feel that things were going pretty well. Today a problem appeared that has had us totally flummoxed. Since yesterday afternoon, various of our systems have been going slower than dead. After exhaustive checks we have not yet found out why. Of course, as we are still testing systems, we expect to find problems, this one though is proving a little tiresome. Various people who were not rostered to be working gave up a good part of their Saturday to help out, unfortunately without the ultimate reward of being able to say “job done! Problem fixed!”

Other than that it was just a normal working day. With the action mainly elsewhere in the corridor, it was time to get down to work on some other things that I was behind with and to enjoy the relative peace with us the only people on site. In the end, as often happens, the Boss came to my office around 7:30, when most people had gone home and we started to discuss the tests and other issues in detail. By the time that we had finished another very late arrival home beckoned. In the end, it has been the third night out of the last four when I have arrived home after 9pm after 12 hours out. Thoughts of going out and buying some basic necessities were abandoned: once again it was straight into my pyjamas and cook some dinner before slumping into the chair watching “Terminator”: it’s hard to believe how young Arnold Schwarzenegger looks in the film.