With Wings As Eagles: Craig P. Steffen's Blog

ready to fall

2009 October 21 00:36

Ok, quick one.

The Ares I-X test vehicle rolled to pad 39B this morning, so it's ready for its test flight next week. Here's thrice watching:

I'm getting the engine tin fitted. Here's the engine as I was working on it this evening, with the rear panel fitted for the final time. On the right is Pangur, supervising for the first time in a few days. She had dental work on Saturday, and she hasn't wanted to get in the car carrier to go to the garage since then, but this evening she managed it for a bit.

I realized that since some pieces of the engine tin interfere with the lifting strap, very soon I need to lift the engine down to the rolling trolley on the floor so that I can get all the other pieces put on. So cleared a bunch of stuff off the work bench and out from in front of it. Here's the workbench, and the area in front, and the blue cradle on the floor ready for the engine. Not far now!

The last thing that I need to finish on the gas tank before re-installing it is to get it re-assembled, which includes getting the drain put back in. Since the sealant was drained out of the drain hole without the drain plug in (obviously), the sealant gooped up the threads of the drain hole. So I need to do something about that.

Fortunately, when I was at Harbor Freight a week ago, I picked up just the right tool set: