Per Aspera, Ad Astra.

Per Aspera, Ad Astra.

 — "Through hardships, To the stars." Motto of NASA 

 

From: KSC Media Accreditation [Edit Address Book]

To: Steve

Subject: Press Site Media Accreditation Request Approved

Date: Apr 19, 2011 8:13 AM

Stephen M Kessinger,

Your request submitted on 04/07/2011 has been Approved.

After I finish this trip I'll be in Florida attending the STS-134 launch, and will be posting about it here. Stay tuned.

It's human nature to stretch, to go, to see, to understand. Exploration is not a choice, really; it's an imperative.

— Michael Collins

Someday I would like to stand on the Moon, look down through a quarter of a million miles of space and say, "There certainly is a beautiful earth out tonight."

— Lieutenant Colonel William H. Rankin, The Man Who Rode the Thunder.

The front fell on.

Where have I been? Does this give you a hint?

You can read all about it here


When I installed my electric trim I noticed that at full forward travel it just touched the lower boom tube, so I played with some spacers until it fit better. I also replaced the undrilled bolts with drilled bolts and castellated nuts on any parts that rotate. I'll be going back and replacing them in a few other spots on the aircraft like in the landing gear, and will use them on any rotating parts in the future.

However there has been a mod to the springs and I have to go back and split them, plus I also have to add the mid rudder cable pulley to the bolt on the right. I'll get to that later, I'm glad I was able to figure the basics out for now.


With that (almost) complete I started on the cockpit.

 
I should have supported the parts higher, I had a bit of a problem lining them up.

I finally skipped ahead a step and added the upper side tubes. This set things a bit better, even if it's a little awkward getting into the cockpit to work.

 

When I installed the joysticks and control linkage I also substituted drilled bolts and castellated nuts. 

If you didn't know, today's title is a variation of the classic comedy routine by Clarke and Dawe "The front fell off"