With plenty of time to sit back, relax…..have a beer and wait for the launch, I thought I’d update you with a few pics….


The panic come in waves (although I have got some pics for you ;))!!!!!!!!!
I am constantly hopping to and fro, contemplating what I could have missed and then finally remembering something that I should have done. WHY DIDN’T I DO IT?
I’ve ended up making friends (not) with a Vodafone Support specialist begging them to resolve their useless service by getting the dongle I ordered from them last week, through the mail.
Twice I’ve been told that it would come within a few days and they’ll make a special effort for my project.
Twice I’ve come home and looked rather strange peering into my letterbox with a little apprehensive cry.

Then I’ve been texting people as early as 7am and as late as 10pm, to get details across….and now I’m in bed writing this blog as I feel this could be the most peaceful time in the next 48 hours.

HOWEVER,
this so called ‘panic’ is nothing on the feeling of excitement, motivation and expectations just around the corner.

Here are the most important things YOU need to know about the launch:

• We are launching on Saturday 1st October during the morning at some time probably. ( Check back on the day as I may be able to update you.)
• Instead of Steve helping us (due to other commitments with television….) he has brilliantly managed to sort out a friend of his, who will be lending us his payload and his even bigger balloon! Anthony has been the cure to all my stresses with his intellect and passion for the project, after having worked with James May in a launch previous to this one.
• YOU COULD WATCH US LIVE! between the hours of 11am and 2pm!!
  From the comfort of your home, tune in online and keep refreshing the page to either links and, technology permitting, you could have a live stream of our launch and then be able to follow the car on a map as we head off on the retrieval.

  –the car also updates its located live on the map at www.spacenear.us/tracker (if you have people at home wanting to watch you’ll be in the car labelled 2E0UPU_Chase and your payload will be the balloon labelled AVA).

  – I’m hoping to stream the launch live via video conditions permitting (this will be at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/avatest2)

• As with most projects, we’ve managed to completely redesign everything in the last minute. Working hard last night to finish the build, we have modified it to a plan that never existed. I mean, that’s what everyone does right? Even NASA?

The state we were in, re-designing parts of the payload. This is the gymbal device…..in the making. There is a possibility that we will not be allowed to fly this device due to safety reasons.

A peak inside the payload with GPS top left, a camera top right, a couple of hand warmers, seeds being tested as a thanks for a donation from Simon and just peaking out is another camera in the bottom….

A Creative Vado pears out into the distance with expectations of the curvature of the Earth filling the hole…. The final weigh in….around 750 grams (fine, now we have a bigger balloon!). Tune in and join us, Saturday 1st October 2011, as our ‘Taylor Made Space Balloon’ departs on it’s voyage, thousands upon thousands of feet towards the edge of Space….