THEMIS Launch

While I won't bore you with the explanation of the acronym, THEMIS, I did want to tell you a story about it.

The pictures show the THEMIS payload as it is about to be encapsulated in the payload fairing and the other photo shows it from the inside so you can see the payload. For those of you who never understood what I was working on in Mississippi, this is probably one of the most practical examples of it to show you. There are two of these shrouds which make up a payload fairing for each mission and they primarily serve as protection while the spacecraft is on the launch pad and while it is ascending past maximum dynamic pressure. While this mission is a NASA mission that studies the affects of solar flares and the aurora borealis (aka Northern Lights), it was one of the first Delta II missions I worked on and one of the more exciting ones.

Launch is set for Friday, Feb. 16 just after 6PM ET from Cape Canaveral, FL.