Thursday, May 15, 2008

cheating

Well, the moon came up today, and it's so easy to see outside that it feels like you're cheating walking around and working on gear outside. I actually missed the darkness somewhat in that the great sweep of the Milky Way was significantly with all that extra light bouncing around the atmosphere now.

I made a step toward a potential future option yesterday. Last year I applied for a really cool job with United Space Alliance in Houston, Texas. The position works with Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVAs, a.k.a. space walks) and has a whole lot of cool requirements once you get hired. You must get SCUBA certified within a year, foreign language skills are highly preferable, you get crew rated on the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU = rocket pack) used in orbit, and you also get certified to fly in the weightless simulating aircraft (the famous old one was dubbed the Vomit Comet). On top of that, the job requires 3-month stints to be spent working with international partners in Moscow, Russia. Hello...awesome! Anyhow, hopefully I'll hear something positive back from USA, because this would be pretty much as good as I envision it getting working in Houston, save as an astronaut. I updated my resume and submitted it, and I guess it's just yet another waiting game from here on out.

3 comments:

Carol Rivard said...

Ethan:

You ROCK!!!!! I love your blog, which I may have mentioned before. I get so motivated just hearing all the great things you are doing. You are so positive and I sincerely hope you are having the best time.

I miss you guys...I hear a lot about what is going on down there from Terry.

Maui is fabulous, still....maybe I will come back next year after Pole!!

Can't wait to see you guys again.

Carol

Becky said...

I will think positive thoughts for you! Should either of these jobs come through you'll be having fun. Hi to the gang-

EthanG said...

Hi ladies,

Thanks for the support as always. If anything positive happens about either job it will be announced rather loudly and enthusiastically by yours truly.

Take care.
E