Main Entry:
disappointment
Part of Speech:
noun
Definition:
saddening situation; letdown
Synonyms:
bitter pill, blind alley, blow, blunder, bringdown,bummer, bust, calamity, defeat, disaster,discouragement, downer, downfall, drag, dud,error, failure, false alarm, faux pas*, fiasco,fizzle, flash in the pan, impasse, inefficacy,lemon, miscalculation, mischance, misfortune,mishap, mistake, obstacle, old one-two, setback,slip, washout
The “old one-two”. Yup, that’s an apt description of how it has felt to work on the Glory mission. At precisely 2:09am PST this morning, Glory literally rocketed up into space. Except it didn’t quite make it into space. From what we all know right now, the rocket fairing was unable to separate which prevented the Glory satellite from achieving orbit.
It is a truly sad day for hundreds of dedicated people who staked their bets in this high risk enterprise. We have collectively created something amazing over the course of a decade and lost it in an instant. However, we all knew the game when we got into this. It’s not for the faint hearted. As in life, you don’t get a second chance.
But right now, I remember that things aren’t so terrible. There was a machine- a robot of sorts on this rocket, albeit a very beautiful robot. However, there was no loss of human life, just a sizeable dose of disappointment. It’s important to distinguish what matters, and what really matters.
So now we sit tight. That’s all we can do in the very near term. There will be press conferences, there will be investigations, and for our LASP team leading the charge on solar irradiance measurements , there will be an adamant campaign to accelerate the bureaucratic wheels to get the TIM instrument into orbit as soon as possible!
One-two. Down, but not out.
Here is an interview I did today with the Denver NBC affiliate, 9NEWS, and the associated website link.
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