Challenging Test!

Funny how experience differs of the same event; on Sunday's test a lot went wrong, and I've just reviewed the video. From outside the suit, the camera's perspective, things are pretty much OK, while inside -- with my temperature up to 104F [quick weight loss!], a critical gauge not working properly, the visor fogged so much that I could barely see my gauges, and the crummy radio acting up, making ...communication nearly impossible -- my mind was going 100mph trying to juggle all of these without stopping the test. It wasn't panic or anything close to it, but it was an all-encompassing sense of frustration with the fact that, basically, nothing was working. But in the colder light of analysis now I know what went wrong, and can address each of the subsystems to prevent them failing again. That's progress! Photo (L to R) of Ben Wilson, Dorin Petean, me and Nicholas Walleri on Sunday. Haga naga, that was gnarly! Will be much streamlined by Sunday with a better procedure checklist.

This project has been a long battle, a grappling match, with frustration. I've learned to slow down and take problems apart, go at them analytically and in excruciating detail, rather than with wild, emotionally-driven actions that paint with too broad a brush. There's a place for those once in a while and in a limited range of situations, but not here, and that's also worth knowing.