Bits & Pieces

UPS AND DOWNS: Another busy week here at MPA. CJ's Film Studies class is keeping us surprisingly busy watching a number of movies and analyzing them, his English class is very demanding (in a really good way), and his math class is a bad joke (no lectures whatsoever, just complicated problems and you're on your own). We're also striving to get some exercise daily via "Just Dance" on the Nintendo Switch, continuing baby steps on kitchen remodeling, getting Annabelle enrolled in college for fall, and spending a couple of hours a day online chasing COVID vaccines.

On Tuesday, we had a busy lunch time. At noon, we tuned in to a live presentation by David Buerge, author of "Chief Seattle and the Town that Took His Name" as part of the Lunch-and-Learn program by the Holocaust Center0 for Humanity. His book is the first biography of Chief Seattle intended for adults.

A biographer and historian, Buerge spent more than 20 years researching the Duwamish Tribe and Chief Seattle. One interesting fact we learned from him is that Seattle is the largest city in the world named after a Native American. 

Chief Seattle was multi-faceted. He was a warrior, an orator, and a creative visionary, and Buerge gave examples of each ... but part way through, we cut away to a SpaceX test flight of SN9, a big silvery rocket. Because, well, rocket launches are SO COOL. 

We'd watched the SN8 flight few weeks back, which was also SO COOL until the fiery landing.

Unfortunately, this go 'round was an example of history repeating itself. SN9 crashed even more spectacularly. 

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Back to the drawing board!

Meanwhile, back in Seattle, we tuned back in to the Chief Seattle presentation after the SpaceX launch and crash. But truth be told, we didn't stick around for the whole presentation. All three of us (CeeJ, Bee, and I) were having trouble following along with the kind of freestyle fact sharing by the presenter. But I have to tell you, he really lost us when he TOOK A PHONE CALL during the presentation. I mean, it's one thing to forget to turn off your ringer, we've all done that, but it's another to actually answer the phone (it wasn't an emergency) while you're in the middle of a presentation. 

SAVE THE DATES

The year 2021 is shaping up to be a busy one for spaceflight enthusiasts. 

On the agenda: Boeing and NASA have their second uncrewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, tentative launch date is March 25. This Orbital Flight Test-2 is a critical milestone for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, as NASA works with commercial partners to safely deliver crewed missions to the International Space Station.

Technicians observe Boeing’s Starliner crew module being placed on top of the service module in the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 14, 2021. The Starliner spacecraft is being prepared for Boeing’s second Orbital Flight Test (OFT-2). As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, OFT-2 is a critical developmental milestone on the company’s path to fly crew missions for NASA. Photo credit: Boeing/John Proferes

NASA and Boeing are targeting no earlier than Thursday, March 25, for the launch of Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2, or OFT-2, is a critical developmental milestone on the company’s path to fly crew missions for NASA to the International Space Station.

About a month later, SpaceX has a launch date for Crew-2, on April 20. This second crew rotation mission with astronauts launching to the International Space Station. This mission is carrying a pair of NASA astronauts, as well as two international partner crew members.

Members of the SpaceX Crew-2 mission to the International Space Station participated in training in Hawthorne, California, on Jan. 11, 2021. Pictured from left are ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. Photo Credit: SpaceX