Ian's Pictures from CSXT's Space Shot 2002

Tuesday, Sept 17, 2002 pictures

These are my pictures from Tuesday, September 17, 2002 at CSXT's space launch attempt.

The pictures begin with the camp site on Tuesday morning. There were no pictures from Monday because I arrived and set up camp after dark.

As a security volunteer, I was assigned to guard the Trego entrance. The US Bureau of Land Management had ordered the closure of the Black Rock playa in order to facilitate the FAA's order to clear people from the downrange safety zone on the lakebed. BLM didn't have enough staff to guard all the entrances. So it was the role of CSXT's security volunteers to help them. Though I'm not a member of law enforcement myself, I was given a radio with which I could have called BLM law enforcement if needed.

But the winds were too high. There was no launch that morning.

After the morning launch was scrubbed, we all went into town for breakfast. Upon returning, I was the first back at camp and found a Burning Man "Department of Public Works" pickup truck waiting there. The two occupants came to talk but became increasingly harassing. The passenger took repeated photographs of me while the driver questioned me on everything from our schedule to whether we intended to clean up our site. (Of course we did! And the volume of debris from Burning Man that we picked up made such a question an insult.) They claimed several times that we were in their "city limits". And as their tone kept getting shorter and angrier, it finally came out that the real reason they were there was to complain to us about the BLM's orders to close the playa since they were paying crews to perform their cleanup. Each time, I referred them to contact CSXT officials who would be arriving soon. They never seemed to get my point that I'm not a spokesman or official and couldn't do anything about their complaint.

After the harassment session, I let our people know what happened as they arrived. It turned out that Burning Man's permit to be on the playa had expired the previous day. And CSXT's permit was now in effect. The fact that BM was late in performing their cleanup made them understandably anxious to get it done. But the harassment was uncalled for, and unfortunately, that was far from the last we'd hear from them.

In the late morning, I took a bicycle ride to see what was going on nearby with the cleanup from Burning Man. I even got a great chance to chase a "dust devil" (large whirlwind) and get some pictures from alongside it. But as I got near one cleanup crew group site, two Pitbull dogs bolted out for me barking. Though running from dogs is often not advised, I was on a bicycle with nowhere to hide or defend myself if I had stopped so I turned and made a hasty retreat. The dogs had no difficulty keeping up with me but failed at countless attempts to bite my legs as I pedaled as fast as I could on the loose playa surface (probably about 20mph.) I resisted the temptation to kick them, turning all my energy toward pedaling. They eventually gave up. I snapped some (blurry/shaky) pictures of them after that and then returned to the launch site.

A friend of mine asked around at BM2003 about this incident. He was told, "oh, the dogs weren't Pitbulls and weren't even vicious", which makes me think someone had an unrelated incident in mind. But if someone has tried to cast doubt on this, I feel compelled to respond...

The dogs most definitely were Pitbulls. But actually that doesn't matter as much as what it says about the owners of the dogs.

The fact that undisciplined dogs were loose to attack me was at least gross negligence on the part of the dog owners and the Burning Man organization. They ran for 1/4 mile barking loudly before reaching me. And if by chance they were set loose on purpose when I rode my bicycle outside of the rocket launch site, then it amounts to a serious form of assault. Though this case can't be pursued against their organization, it should be completely understandable that I hold a grudge against Burning Man now and forever following this incident. If I had fallen off my bicycle (either if the dogs had succeeded in biting me or if I had hit a mini-dune the wrong way) I would have been out of reach of any rescue, since I was 1/2 mile from the CSXT flight line, and would have been killed.

We took group pictures in the afternoon. After that, the afternoon launch countdown never really got very far because of the winds. It was scrubbed and then plans were made for Wednesday morning.

Some special batteries for the rocket were going to need replacements before Thursday if we kept doing this. As it turns out, JP Aerospace uses the same batteries. With a quick call to the JPA shop on CSXT's Globalstar satellite phone, Owen volunteered to drive to Sacramento to pick them up. Jeremy volunteered to go along to help him, and to keep him safe and awake on the 6-hour round trip drive. The appreciation that everyone in CSXT felt toward them was hard to describe - they were treated like heros. I think everyone understood what an enormous inconvenience they had volunteered for in order to perform needed assistance for the mission.

I helped with much smaller things and then got some sunset photos of the launch pad. But it turned out to be a good thing that I stayed. Since most of the people stayed at Bruno's Motel in Gerlach, I was the only one who camped at the launch site who had a GPS. On the return trip, I was the first to return after dinner, and helped everyone else find the site by turning on my lights.

The wind picked up and then it started to rain. I had never camped in the rain at Black Rock before. I stayed dry in my tent, and eventually fell asleep to the ongoing sound of the raindrops. I thought everything would be mud for at least several hours into the day. Fortunately, that wasn't the case - the playa soaks it up much faster than I imagined. Owen and Jeremy arrived at 4AM and didn't know that it had rained for several hours overnight, until I told them.

(1536x1024 1955K) (500x333 19K)	This is the campsite at the east end of the flight line on Tuesday morning before the first launch attempt. On the left is a tent belonging to a gentleman from Seattle named Clark Larsen. His son Jerry is Program Manager of CSXT. On the right are three tents. The two smaller tents belong to Jeremy and me (left to right). The larger tent behind them was supposed to be the "social area" tent, a place which we could use as a shelter from the wind while talking or eating together. A Swiss college student who arrived at Black Rock without a tent or any arrangements of where to stay ended up using the social tent as his own. At first I felt sorry for him but I later wished I'd made the purpose of this tent clearer to him. He didn't understand my request to keep his stuff out of the way during the day. He ended up leaving his stuff in the way preventing the use the tent for any social gathering, leading us to call it the "antisocial tent". It still ended up useful for storage of our coolers and my bicycle in the shade and out of the wind.
(1536x1024 2003K) (500x333 20K)	Vehicles park in front of the CSXT launch control trailer Tuesday morning during preparation for the first launch attempt.
(1536x1024 1998K) (500x333 16K)	People work on the rocket at the launch pad. The flag is just one sign that the wind is too high for a launch. Preparations continue in case the weather changes.
(1536x1024 2079K) (500x333 32K)	Tuesday morning I was assigned to close and guard the Trego entrance to the playa at the railroad crossing. This view from Trego shows dust from the wind storm in progress at the launch site nearly 5 miles away. Wind is nearly calm at Trego.
(1536x1024 2109K) (500x333 31K)	The road from Trego toward the Black Rock Desert playa.
(1536x1024 2260K) (500x333 40K)	The railroad crossing at Trego.
(1536x1024 2117K) (500x333 33K)	The wind storm at the launch site is visibly getting worse from the size of the dust cloud.
(1536x1024 2041K) (500x333 30K)	After Tuesday morning's launch attempt was scrubbed, I stopped on the way back from Trego to take a picture and GPS waypoint at this dune.
(1536x1024 1864K) (500x333 26K)	The flag flies proudly atop the launch tower Tuesday afternoon.
(1536x1024 2244K) (500x333 37K)	CSXT member Dr Phil Martin smiles for my picture in between taking his professional-quality pictures of the rocket.
(1536x1024 1921K) (500x333 27K)	I took a bicycle ride to look at the nearby cleanup from Burning Man. These are some of the workers making organized searches for debris.
(1536x1024 1852K) (500x333 21K)	During the bike ride, a dust devil (large whirlwinds often seen in the desert as they pick up dust) formed near me so I followed it and snapped some pictures.
(1536x1024 1826K) (500x333 21K)	View of the dust devil from my bicycle.
(1536x1024 1902K) (500x333 26K)	The dust devil harmlessly strikes the porta-potty for the BM cleanup crews.
(1536x1024 1887K) (500x333 22K)	I rode around to get a shot from the other side of the dust devil. But the lighting didn't make this easier to see.
(1536x1024 1949K) (500x333 55K)	This picture shows how eddy currents around surface disturbances (such as these pieces of litter from Burning Man) causes mini dunes (a.k.a. "playa serpents") to form.
(1536x1024 1947K) (500x333 19K)	A picture taken from my bicycle after fleeing from the two Pitbull dogs now pictured returning to the cleanup crew who owns them. It was a subject of debate whether these people simply left the dogs unleashed or deliberately unleashed them on me. Combined with other behaviors we observed, some of our people were quick to jump to the conclusion that the dogs were deliberately unleashed on me. All I can say objectively is that I was too far away to clearly see whether it was intentional. The same dogs chased the BLM law enforcement officer in his vehicle the next day. These dogs were a recurring nuisance for others as well.
(1536x1024 1818K) (500x333 14K)	Another shot of the Pitbull dogs returning to their owners at the BM cleanup crew. I'd be really curious to know if the dog's owner was saying "good dog" or "bad dog".
(1536x1024 1816K) (500x333 15K)	Another BM cleanup crew.
(1536x1024 2050K) (500x333 34K)	Ky and Jodi Michaelson at the launch pad.
(1536x1024 1802K) (500x333 27K)	The CSXT launch control center.
(1536x1024 1787K) (500x333 19K)	Ky Michaelson prepares his rocket bike for a demonstration ride by his wife Jodi. Bruce Lee stands nearby and talks with Ky during the preparation. Any rocketeer who doesn't recognize the names of Ky Michaelson and Bruce Lee is assigned homework to watch the episode of Junkyard Wars where the American teams built rockets for the season finals, which first aired in early 2001. Ky (originally a Hollywood stunt man) was the judge for the episode. Bruce was the expert for the "Long Brothers" team who succeeded in launching and recovering intact a rocket with an Ostrich egg payload.
(1536x1024 1927K) (500x333 25K)	Jodi rides the rocket bike.
(1536x1024 1926K) (500x333 27K)	Jodi rides the rocket bike.
(1536x1024 2058K) (500x333 29K)	Jodi rides the rocket bike.
(1536x1024 1898K) (500x333 30K)	The CSXT launch control trailer.
(1536x1024 1864K) (500x333 23K)	An impressive dust devil forms near the launch site.
(1536x1024 1850K) (500x333 21K)	An impressive dust devil forms near the launch site.
(1536x1024 1596K) (500x333 24K)	Video crews record a statement by Ky Michaelson.
(1536x1024 1976K) (500x333 28K)	The CSXT core crew during the group photo shoot.
(1536x1024 2036K) (500x333 30K)	Now other volunteers have been allowed in for the second round. I'm in the picture on the right in the back. I'm not sure whom to credit with taking the picture with my camera, but one likely candidate is Nadine of "Photos by Nadine" since she was among the ones taking the photos.
(1536x1024 2018K) (500x333 32K)	Preparations continue inside the launch control center. ToSpace CEO Laurie Wiggins watches other preparations on the right.
(1536x1024 2018K) (500x333 22K)	The CSXT flight line on Tuesday evening near sunset, after weather caused a scrub early in the launch preparations.
(1024x1536 1976K) (500x750 47K)	The CSXT Primera rocket and launch pad at sunset on Tuesday.

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This page is copyright (c) 2002 Ian Kluft