Delayed Entry

This bus is very near where we waited for word that we could enter the building. On the day the car park was empty. I took this photo several days after the Presidential visit.

Just after noon the media pack was bussed over to the KSC industrial area.

Remembering my astronaut walkout experience I had sneaked aboard the first bus there, which I later found out had been designated for those media with urgent set-up requirements.

Outside the High Bay Building (the one where there is a large vacuum chamber and where the Hubble Space Telescope was prepared for flight) we had to wait because the White House security people had not finished scouring the cavernous building.

Several television presenters and producers were already whingeing before we left the KSC News Center's car park, but this additional delay caused a producer from CBS Television to explode with anger. She and her two colleagues started remonstrating with the NASA Public Affairs Officers, who were unable to do anything as White House security was out of their jurisdiction. The CBS folks couldn't accept this and busily began using their Blackberry phones to call their New York office to put some pressure on NASA to let them in immediately. But it was White House security that caused the delay.

Part of the reason why the CBS crew were agitated while the rest of us waited with shoulder shrugging resignation was that they were due to go live-to-air, and were obviously going to miss this schedule.

When the "go" finally came I let them off the bus ahead of me and wished them a successful broadcast. When we got into the building we were met with airport type screening and bag search. The CBS lady again started squawking, so I put my camera bag, backpack and minidisc recorder ahead of her equipment. Mean spirited, maybe, but by now everyone was fed up with her. I went through security well before she did, picked up my things and raced to secure a good vantage point.

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