Sat. Oct. 15, 2005 - As close as I can get so far

Hey Everybody,
I know it’s been a while... work work work. I just wanted to let people know that I’m still kicking. And screaming, definitely screaming. I’ve also got my next vacation planned, and I really just want to brag about that.
On the 29^th of October I plan on flying to Jordan and spending a week… I want to see some more stuff there and also take care of some mundane life things… new glasses, clothes, dentist, and I need to get an EKG exam done because…. (drum roll…) on the 6^th of November I’m going to fly to Moscow and participate in two Space Adventures programs! Space Adventures is the company that sent Dennis Tito to the International Space Station for $20,000,000 and that other guy, Greg Olsen, who just came back from there a few days ago. I’m signed up, paid, and confirmed for the Mig-25 Edge of Space flight and the Zero-Gravity parabolic flight experiences. The Edge of Space program involves two jet planes; a super-sonic acrobatic flight in an Il-39 Russian Jet and the actual Edge-of-Space flight at Mach 2.5 in a Mig-25 which goes to 82,000 feet, right to the edge of the atmosphere, like Chuck Yeager did in that movie “The Right Stuff”. The Zero-Gravity flight is like what they did for Apollo 13… if you watch the bonus features there’s a segment where Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon and all the other guys get in a cargo plane which goes up and performs parabolic flight arcs to simulate zero gravity. Here’s a link to their web page which goes into much more detail: http://www.spaceadventures.com/

I’m so excited that I’ve gone to the bathroom twice while writing this email.

Anyway, included in the package is a tour of Moscow and various extra little items. I also booked two extra days so that I could go up to

St. Petersburg. I leave on the 14^th back to Jordan, and from there, if I can swing it, I’ll fly back to the States for Thanksgiving. I may have to go to Romania for a couple of days first; My boss wants me to visit the headquarters and all that.
So that’s all… things in Baghdad are business as usual. I’ve updated my smugmug page with some minor changes and a couple of extra Baghdad photos if you haven’t checked it out in the last month or so.

That’s all. I’ll let you know how INCREDIBLY AWESOME it was!

Michael

Comments

[messiestobjects]

They cancelled the Zero-Gravity flight on me!! Grrrr. Some kinda mechanical issues that they are not sure they can fix before November 10th. But they offer the same program in Florida at Ft. Lauderdale, and they happen to have one going on November 19th! So after leaving Russia, I'll be flying over there. I'm already signed up.
So it's more a pain in the ass than I wanted this trip to be, but the important thing is that I'm still going to be weightless for twelve 30 second intervals. Woo Hoo! And I of course am still doing the Mig-25 flight, which is the show-stopper anyway.

[Fake Oakley Sunglasses]

messiestobjects' messy adventures: Sat. Oct. 15, 2005 - As close as I can get so far