Good Weather - Finally...

The really bad weather has finally ended and has been replaced (at least temporarily) by the best weather we have had since I've been in Antarctica. Today the temperature is 23, with little wind and mostly sunny skies - all in all, pretty nice. Actually seems warm outside. It does, however, look like another round of bad weather will be coming in this weekend. Hopefully it won't be as bad as this past weekend. This past storm had some pretty dramatic effects out a work, mainly in the form of snow drifts. The storm actually got quite a bit worse after we left work on Saturday. When we returned Sunday morning, we literally had to dig our way into a couple of the buildings. There were several drifts 5 feet high, and our galley was almost completely covered in snow, and it is about 9 feet tall. All of this happened in one day.

5 foot snow drift behind the building I work in

That's one of our rigging guys, Curtis, digging out the galley. The drifts on the side of the building are about 8 feet tall.

Things got back to normal at work yesterday, and we actually made quite a bit of progress towards a launch. Of course we still have to wait for the winds to properly set up, but now the CREAM payload is officially ready to be launched. Yesterday, we did a hang test on CREAM. A hang test is when we pick the payload up with the launch vehicle , hook all the electronics up, and test to make sure everything works okay. Basically the payload is hooked up and put into launch configuration - all that is missing is the balloon. The payload passed the test, and now can be launched whenever the winds set up. Below is a picture of the fully assembled CREAM payload hanging on the end of the launch vehicle. The ANITA payload is suppose to be ready for a hang test on Friday, but it looks like the weather will be too bad for that.