Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Blast Off
We’ve been warm in Yuma since November 17. But today it’s cool enough to wear a sweatshirt and a little rainy, which will probably be the big story on the TV news tonight.
We’re staying at the Yuma Proving Ground (YPG), an army base about 25 miles north of the actual city of Yuma. Another big story on the news tonight will be the YPG’s involvement with a NASA program that will eventually take humans to deep outer space, including Mars. The spacecraft is called Orion and is scheduled to launch an unmanned test flight tomorrow morning from Cape Canaveral.
YPG personnel are involved in testing large parachutes that will get Orion -- and by 2021 its four human occupants -- safely back to earth. Per a YPG web site, the parachutes will "slow the hurtling capsule to a languid 17 miles per hour upon splashdown in the ocean.” To read more about YPG’s role you can click here.
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Glad you were warm, and sorry that you will be getting cold (if you can call that cold, I'm sure your Ohio family has told you of our early winter). And now that I'm thinking of it, "cool enough to wear a sweatshirt", you're just showing off, aren't you? At any rate, enjoy the launch. I do regret that you no longer have your loaner truck, I was hoping to see more of it, in pictures of your travels, perhaps in front of the Grand Canyon, Devil's Tower, Rockefeller Center and our driveway. I do admit that I had a little truck envy of Jim, but I could keep that suppressed.
ReplyDeleteWe'll watch the launch for you.
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