Vandenberg, We Have a Problem...

Well, for those that haven’t heard, we have had some not so fabulous news at the Whiting house today. No one is hurt, sick, or injured. We still enjoy many blessings—the gospel, a wonderful family, and many more material possessions than we need. But, Jack has experienced quite a devastating event—
He had his launch early this morning—1:55 A.M. to be exact. He said the experience was exhilarating. He did his countdown, checked the data, and said the fateful word, “Go!” SUCCESS! His part of the mission went exactly as planned, and he realized that despite what he thought, his heart wasn’t REALLY going to jump out of his chest after all. Things were looking great…stage zero complete….stage one complete….stage two…..not so complete. Unfortunately there was a failure during this stage and the rocket was not able to get the satellite into orbit. In fact, this 270 million dollar piece of equipment is floating somewhere near Antartica as we speak (or as I write and you read).
I found out this morning when my mom called and said she had heard something about it on the radio. After it had been confirmed, we cried together. Then I called my friend Stephanie and cried some more. Then my sis in law Kari came over and I cried some more. (Side note--SO excited that they are moving into our ward.:)) I finally started to feel better when I talked to Jack—I first wanted to make sure his part went okay, which it did. No, this is not a tragedy of epic proportions—no one has been hurt or died. But, it is a tragedy for all these amazing men and women who worked on it for over 10 years. But, that is the name of the game with science and technology—ordinary people attempting to do extraordinary things—there are bound to be errors. The amazing thing is they keep trying. I mean, for goodness sakes, I get frustrated when our drip hose for the garden doesn’t work or my blender shorts out! I just want to say I really admire ANY person who is willing to work so hard on something and know that perhaps, it may literally fall to the ground and be destroyed. And I think it is amazing that right now those same people are sitting around trying to fix that problem. That is the kind of thing that makes our country great--the wonderful hardworking, innovative people who "just keep swimming." (Thanks Dori.) Well, despite this bit of a downer post, I hope you have a great day and go accomplish something hard in honor of the Taurus rocket launch!

My Husband the Environmentalist

Well, although we in general do not support the Global Warming agenda, we aren't opposed to studying the subject to see if it is really happening--especially when those studies help pay our mortgage. Jack's latest work adventure involves the Taurus rocket and launching a sattelite into space to monitor the carbon levels in the atmosphere to let us know what's up with all that stuff out there. This rocket will be launched Tuesday, and he is off with his crew and some fancy guys from NASA to get it up in space.
As if all that isn't cool enough--wait until you here THIS: He is the guy who, during the last sixteen seconds of the countdown before the launch, essentially says, "Go!" or "No go!" depending on data that he reads AT THAT MOMENT. Can we say PRESSURE? Can we say WAY COOLER THAN APOLLO 13?? (Actually, I am sure that we can say both of those things.) What I am actually really wondering is, if he is so important, why don't we make more money? Anyway, if you want to check out more, go here. And here is a message to my husband because, even though he is sitting in the same room with me, I feel compelled to write him a message so all of you can read it too:
Honey, you ROCK (et science)!

P.S. Can you tell I was feeling a bit goofy slash sarcastic? Maybe I should stop reading seriouslysoblessed!