Rocket Scientist

Okay so much for anonymity, I just have to share this experience! I am now a rocket scientist, granted I have only been a rocket scientist for 5 days but nonetheless I am now a rocket scientist. Today I went to a live firing of a rocket. I will be a good employee and not tell you what kind of rocket it was but it was amazing!

I was taken .75 miles up the mountain from where the rocket was fired. The rocket was clamped down along the front at the igniter. The clamp is enormous, and stabilized with 30 by 15 by 100 feet of concrete. I felt like I was at a NASA launch, broadcasted over the load speaker was t minus 30 minutes to fire messages, arm the igniter, start live feed cameras, initialize sensors, t minus 10 minutes to fire and so one. Until the t-minus 80 seconds count and then the announcement were continuous until finally t minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 then a huge fire ball erupted out the back of the rocket. 4 seconds later the sound wave hit me and I screamed! Yes, the calm, cool, collected scientist screamed. Now I know that light travels faster than sound and logically I should have expected but it was loud and the sound wave associated with the noise knocked me off balance. It was so loud and the sound wave continued to beat against my body. It continued to burn for another 90 seconds, and ever time it was extra loud I jumped repeatedly. Even though I was .75 miles away and it was firing into the side of the mountain I felt like it was going to blow apart the entire place. It was so cool!!! I have never seen anything like it. When it was over, I was like “Oh do it again.”

I love my new job!