Kevin's Journal: May 27, 2005

Okay, so here we go again, five years later. This time for sure. Nuthin' up m'sleeve.

Once More, With Feelin'

And so it begins, aboard UAL 877 to Osaka, where we will spend the night waiting for a connection to Kagoshima airport. Then a two hour bus ride to Kanoya, and a 40 minute taxi ride to the launch site in beautiful downtown Uchinoura. Apparently there's a new tunnel which cuts 20 minutes off that taxi ride. Yay!

Uchinoura is a small fishing village of about 5 or 6 kilopeople, in the Kagoshima prefecture. Advance information indicates that the one Western-style hotel in town now takes credit cards, so I don't have to walk around with thousands of dollars in cash like last time.

Oddly, the laptop power on this plane appears to do nothing, even though the little green lights are on. [time passes] After much scurrying around by the flight attendants, it's working properly. With any luck, all the green lights on the rocket console will actually mean what they say.

News of the World

There are four of us (Rich, Gary, Juli, and me) in Uchinoura now, starting preparations. I'll keep sending these sorts of updates, but also too you can find news and photos at the updated XRS website.

More as the story develops.

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