Balloon Project Launch Video
Going through some documents today I stumbled across some onboard video footage from launch. Might as well make a movie out of it!
SpaceX is a GO!
Last week I woke up tremendously early, donned a nice jacket and slacks, and proceeded to hit the worst traffic I have ever encountered on the 405. I was on my way to SpaceX the company started in 2002 to create an inexpensive and reliable way to get cargo into space, and I was running ten minutes late.
I was there for an interview for the position of Systems Engineer. In fact I was there for 6 interviews that lasted a total of 5 hours.
The people I met, the mentality, the energy. It was quite an experience. The company has dotcom roots, meaning that Elon Musk the CEO/CTO was the former owner of such renowned internet startups as PayPal and Zip2. That unique energy of a startup company was there vibrating throughout the 5 buildings that are home to SpaceX– even though the company is now over five years old. People were cheerful and seemed to be enjoying themselves as they worked– I was even greeted by a friendly individual as I used the restroom. The kitchen was stocked with all sorts of goodies to munch on, and the cubicles were home to everyone– from vice presidents all the way down the ladder. The machine shop– at least the one I saw, seemed to be quite close to other offices. Hopefully that means that engineers worked very closely with machinists, which is fantastic because it’s a great dynamic.
The machine shop that I toured had giant mills and lathes shaping rocket nozzles out of huge pieces of copper. The scale of work being done there is gigantic in comparison to the minuscule parts the Balloon Project required. I got to see the full scale mock up of the Dragon capsule– which will be used to send people and cargo into space.
To make a long story short though, I had a great time there, and I’m proud to announce that a few days ago I was informed of some great news.
The company and I are working out a job offer right now, and it’s almost a done deal: Kosta Grammatis is going to be a Systems Engineer for SpaceX. What more could a boy of 21 fresh out of college ask for? Nothing else. This is a dream come true.
So what’s next you might ask? I will be packing my things, acquiring some sort of living accommodations, and moving off to El Segundo (close to the Los Angeles Airport). So much for the trip of destiny… I didn’t need to go very far for destiny to do its thing. There’s a bit of an irony here though, I was holding off on the trip of destiny because I was waiting for my personal business cards to arrive that I could use to give to potential employers. I guess you don’t need business cards.
Balloon Project LAUNCH!
This article is a bit old. For a full writeup on the project please visit the Balloon Project Page.
Carry on, and thanks for visiting iamkosta.org
The Balloon Project LAUNCH! was nothing less than a complete success in so many ways. If you’re not to sure what the project is feel free to explore the technical write up (pdf) and the movie of the systems in action, the launch video, and lest we forget the kajillion photos of the project being built.
On Friday the 11th setup began for the launch of the project the very next day. A photographer was there to document the pre-Balloon Launch adventure for an article that was published in the Ventura County Star. Obviously I had to look muy importante so I sported my cellphone for the majority of the photoshoot.
Actually that is a complete lie, I was on the phone with the FAA and I would have rather not been. To make a long story short, very short in fact, the waiver that gave the balloon clearance to fly at 2500 feet had a clerical error on it. Because of that error it was impossible for the waiver to go into effect because, well, I don’t know– ask the FAA. Basically planes would crash and people would die as far as I understood it.
This means that the Balloon Project could not fly legally on Saturday, under any circumstances. Fantastic…
You’d think I would have stopped doing whatever I was doing but to be perfectly honest, I had a mission, and with all that FAA talk aside I went back to what I was doing with the photographer on that Friday morning.
…and my roommate Pat was wearing his sexiest V-neck, just for me, so it was easy to get distracted from all the FAA mumbo jumbo.
We were doing a helium fill of a large balloon I had bought just two days prior. To make another very long story short, the Balloon that I had ordered a whole month earlier, a big fat yellow 13 ft diameter balloon that was being shipped from China, had been lost in the mail. In fact the
balloon had been lost a grand total of three times. Fortunately for me a wonderful man in Chatsworth California- a quick 30 minute drive from my location, just so happened to have an extra balloon he was selling on ebay. Granted the balloon was only ~10 feet in diameter but I had hoped it would have enough lift to do the job…
And of course because Murphys’ Law has to rear it’s ugly head at every turn, something went wrong.
The balloon did not have enough lift to carry the 13.5 lb payload… Greaaat. I’m in a panic. I run to my dorm room/lab, I check ebay for other balloons, try my hardest to call the freight company in Beijing China to see if the balloon will ever be arriving. I send e-mails, and I am just about to get in my car to drive to the Los Angeles Airport because the tracking information on one of the shipments says it has arrived in LAX and is just held up in customs.
…and then I get a phone call from my favorite faculty advisor Phil Hampton: The balloon from China has arrived.
FRANTICALLY Phil and I build a system to pump the two tanks of helium (thank you praxair for your generous donation) from the already filled balloon into the new yellow balloon. We started by using a small pump, then we moved to a bigger pump, then we just got a large piece of PVC, connected the balloons together, and squeezed the helium from one balloon into the other. Does that even make sense? I hope so.
And then it got complicated. Well, it was already complicated– it just got more complicated. I don’t know who’s bright idea it was to fill the balloon away from the launch site (probably mine) but driving a huge partially inflated balloon up the windy and windy (windy as in wind and windy as in wind, oh wait, that doesn’t make sense either…) hill in the middle of friday evening traffic was a terrible idea.
The wonderful (and hot) Liz was generous enough to donate her truck to help facilitate the transportation of the balloon. She doesn’t know this yet but none of us can really drive stick shift.
As bad as I felt for stalling her truck after every stop I felt worse for Zack in the bed of the truck doing the honors of acting as a human tie down.
Of course Kyle and I pretty much spent the whole drive laughing at the silliness of the situation as a line of cars piled behind us. Every once in awhile we did the ol’ pull over to let them pass, it wasn’t often enough though, I can guarantee that.
Once we arrived at the launch site, the Santa Monica Mountains National Park and Mountain Range (that’s a mouthful) we proceeded to unload Kyle who had made his way to the back of the truck and Zach.
blog/arrival.jpg
We topped off the balloon with helium
And then we somehow managed to get a tarp over the balloon, setup a few things, and then we called it a day.
Now, if you do recall, a while back I mentioned that the FAA had not cleared me to fly due to some small clerical error. That was still a bit of an issue. Well it was a big issue. I wish it had magically gone away but I ended up working with the wonderful Robin from the Camarillo Tower till 11:30 in the evening. I wish I could be more descriptive about the experience but to be perfectly honest, it was stressful beyond belief and if I could delete it from my memory I would die happy. In the end we finally got the approval to fly from a sleepy manager somewhere in a land far away.
SATURDAY, 4:30 IN THE MORNING MY ALARM CLOCK DISTURBS MY REST. I grab my lamp from my room, evacuate the air sampler with a giant vacuum I borrowed from the chem department. If you’re wondering why I grabbed my lamp– it was dark outside I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to see.
I get to the launch site. I fire up the generator. Damnit. I turn off the generator. I get in the van and I drive back the dorms because I forgot something. I drive back to the launch site.
I start setting up. I was surprisingly easy. It was if I had setup and torn down the balloon project systems for the last 2.5 years. Strange.
The parents showed up with the good eats and then the paparazzi entourage arrived. The good thing about being friends with photographers is that they are down to shoot any cool thing you’re doing–and they make it look even cooler because they always have high end equipment that makes the whole thing look important. The bad thing about being friends with photographers is that you have to sort through gigs of photos (because they shoot in RAW) trying to find the best ones, and then when you’ve gotten everything out of order and mixed up you remember that it’s very important to give them photo credit. So here goes… Many thanks to: JR Goleno, Eric Suliga, Shawn Mulchay, and my parental units.
Another tank of helium arrived courtesy of the CSUCI Chemistry Department and we proceeded to top off the balloon whilst Phil brought himself back to prepubescence.
With all the systems up and running…
We sent the balloon on its way to explore really high places.
And then the winch jammed and the bottom of the gondola cracked in half…
And if that wasn’t bad enough, a very upset park ranger started asking very loudly to see our permits. Apparently we were trampling the native California grasses.
But all was not not lost. Duct Tape came to the rescue and saved the gondola.
and we befriended the park rangers enough to have them come out with the balloon for a photoshoot– trampling their own precious native grasses which was kind of funny. They were really great though, you could tell how dedicated they were to their jobs.
We prepared to launch the balloon again with the gondola repaired. Zach was prepared also.
It went up, we took a sample, cheered wildly, and then we called it a day.
I want to give a very big thank you to everyone who showed up at 7 a.m. for the launch when they should have been sleeping, all of the folks at the FAA and the National Park Service, the faculty and staff of CSUCI, World Class Manufacturing, my roomates who lived amongst balloon project paraphanalia for far too long, and everyone else who helped me over the last 2.5 years to bring this project to life. It’s been an amazing experience.
Check out the gallery for some sweet pics.
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Balloon Project LAUNCH [comments]
These are the comments for this entry. <3
There is no venom in these words.
A reporter called me from the Ventura County Star today. She asked about the Balloon Project and I ended up telling her my educational philosophy.
I don’t think the Balloon Project ever had anything to do with research in the conventional sense. I’ve come to realize that as I’ve sat down and reflected on the achievements of the project over the last few days. It was about something much more important:
In high school I had a teacher named Mr. Thaler. He was a young yet staunch chemistry professor who taught from the book and expected a cooperative classroom. I was a wild child and I took great pride in the fact that I was basically uncontrollable. I had an attitude, an inability to hold still, and ironically– a passion for learning new things. Chemistry was one of my many interests and I sought it out on my own time. Whether it was reading about the history of the periodic table, exploring the wild world of molecular structures, or just plain blowing things up in my garage I was hooked on the subject because of the fun it provided me.
Some things I learned in my garage:
- Hydrochloric Acid (pool cleaner) and Ammonium Nitrate (cold compress) when mixed will create quite a sensory jarring amount of pure ammonia. Ammonia, when inhaled, will knock you out of your socks and into the next room. The art of the waft was mastered in that series of experiments.
- No matter how much force or fire you subject to dads Nitro Glycerin heart medication(dads) they will not explode. (more…)
Good Morning!
So I’m about ready to head off to bed but before I crash (it’s 5:15 a.m.) I want to let you know that the Photo section has just had a ton of Balloon Project photos added to it. Some things to look forward to if your into the whole engineering in a dorm room thing:
- The testing of the winch on the fourth of July.
- A ton of pictures of World Class Manufacturing where I spent more time than I would ever consider acceptable whiling away the hours fabricating parts. (Thank you very much Mr. Carnan!)
- Me blowing my eyes out with super powerful LED’s
- But mostly you will see how I have lived like a caged hairy and unshaven animal in my dorm room creating things.
In other news, if you decide to come to the launch this Saturday you might find yourself face to face with some members of the press! Check out the fantastic Balloon Project pres release here.
Also: I have neglected to bathe for the last three days. Disgusting–I know, I hope all those who have experienced my scent (and I truly mean experience) will accept my humble apology. If someone feels like feeding me also, that would be fantastic. For some reason I keep forgetting to eat. It’s silly, I know. I’m just working hard.
Goodnight! (and good morning to some of you)
Balloon LAUNCH! This Saturday!
Welcome to Launch Week ladies and gentlemen. We are exactly 1 week away from the launch of two-and-a-half years of hard work.
It has been a journey. Here’s the itinerary:
Thursday May 10:
- Receive tables, chairs, sandwich boards, and other event supplies from the division of student life. Say thank you.
- Call the Hawthorne Automated Flight Service Station and request to have a Notice of Airmen issued in regards to the balloon launch.
- Frantically make sure all systems are working on the ground. Pull hair out in frustration.
- Verify the deliverage of liquid and gaseous helium. Build some system to turn the liquid helium into gaseous helium. (it’s a long story how that one worked out…)
Friday May 11:
- Wake the ground crew up and feed them. Feed them until they are full and happy because it is going to be a long day.
- Fill up the balloon (which is somewhere between here and China) with helium. Try not to accidentally let it go.
- Drive the 13 ft diameter balloon very slowly up the windy Portrero road. (Question: how do I differentiate between windy as in “wow it is really windy today, it feels like I’m in a shampoo commercial” or windy “this road is so windy, I may soon vomit.”
- Call Camarillo Airport Traffic Control, ask for clearance for a test flight.
- Setup everything, make sure everything works, test test test test.
- Cry tears of joy when everything works. Cry tears of frustration when the reality of “everything that can go wrong will go wrong” sets in. Pray frequently.
- Take everything down and pack it up. We’re going home
- Go to sleep at 6 in the afternoon.
Saturday May 12:
- 5:00 a.m. Curse loudly at alarm clock. Fumble for snooze button.
- Repeat in five minute intervals.
- 6:00 a.m. rush out door failing to brush teeth or comb hair.
- Setup.
- 7:00 Launch.
And if all goes as plans I’ll probably be seeing you there. I can barely contain my excitement.
COMPLETE AND UTTER DOMINATION
…at the CSU Undergraduate Research Competition
Click on the picture to go to the gallery!
1st place and no survivors.
Balloon Project: The Movie
Music By: Andy McKee
The Balloon Launch is just one short week away. I’m extremely excited and very scared. Yesterday I gave a presentation about the project to a panel of judges for the CSU Undergraduate Research Competition. I’m not sure if I won, I think I did a pretty ok job though. Below is a short video I made to show the judges how all of the systems of the project work. I hope you enjoy it.
For those of you who are new to the Balloon Project, feel free to peruse the formal write up.
This is the first formal post in iAmKosta.org. I hope you enjoyed it. Expect more to come and visit often!
