Return To Flight

America is celebrating ‘Return to Flight’, STS-114, (albeit many are worried about the safety of the shuttle during the return journey). Won’t it be nice for me to recall our NASA connection?

My wife Veena lived in Huntsville, Alabama during her college days (1992-1996). She got an internship at Rockwell International which was a major contractor to NASA Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville. Basically that facility developed propulsion technologies for the shuttle. Veena participated in debugging and testing software that controlled fuel flow and participated in a simulated test of shuttle launch!

Veena’s brother Raju also did an internship there (not sure what he did exactly). After his graduation, he joined Loral Space Systems (Veena, am I right about the name??), another major contractor to NASA and worked at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, better known as Houston Control. He was a team lead that developed software that is used aboard International Space Station. He has worked with Astronauts (his users!) on usability etc!

Currently he is a NASA employee at Fairmont, West Virginia! (What does he do there now anyway? I have no idea.)

We visited the Houston Space Center during 2001 December and took a tour. Among other things, we got to see astronauts in training in the pool (the largest indoor pool in the world), mockup shuttle and flight simulator for training. (Kalpana Chawla and rest of Columbia crew, were you there?) See some pictures from our visit below.

Good luck STS-114. Come home safely.

விண்ணோடம் டிஸ்கவரியை வானில் செலுத்தியதை அமெரிக்கா கொண்டாடும் இத்தருணத்தில், எங்களுக்குள்ள நாசா (அமெரிக்க விண்வெளி அமைப்பு) தொடர்பு பற்றி சில வார்த்தைகள்.

என் மனைவி வீணா, கல்லூரியில் பயின்ற காலத்தில் (1992 - 1996), கோடை விடுமுறைகளில், நாசாவை சார்ந்த ராக்வெல் கம்பெனிக்கு, எரி சக்தி, உந்து சக்தி சம்பந்தமான சாப்ட்வேரில் வேலை செய்திருக்கிறாள்.

வீணாவின் அண்ணண் ராஜு, கடந்த ஒன்பது ஆண்டுகளாக நாசா சம்பந்த பட்ட வேலையிலேதான் உள்ளார். கடந்த நான்கு வருடமாக அவர், நேரடியாக நாசாவில் வேலை பார்க்கிறர்.

At the Visitor Center at Johnson Space Center, NASA, Houston, Texas.December 2001.

ஜான்சன் ஸ்பேஸ் சென்டர், ஹூஸ்டன் (டெக்ஸாஸ் மாநிலம்). இங்கிருந்துதான் நிலாவில் மனிதன் கால் வைத்தது முதல், நேற்றைய விண்ணோட ஏவல் வரை கட்டுப்படுத்தப்படுகிறது! நாங்கள் 2001 டிசம்பரில் சென்ற்றிறுந்தோம். மேலும் சில படங்கள் கீழே.

Inside the mockup of Shuttle cockpit with Joe uncle and Jay.

An old rocket on display (Titan??).

A blurry picture of mockup Shuttle and Flight Simulator in the background.

Us, at the JSC Visitor Center.

A poster in one of our bedrooms. The poster has the emblem of each of the shuttle launch from STS-1, Columbia, 1981 to STS-81, Atlantis, 1997. Each emblem has the names of all the Astronauts on that mission. (Sorry about the poor picture quality.)

Closer view of the Poster.

Poster of Endeavour launch (don't know which mission).

One of three of our Balsam Pear (a.k.a Bitter Gourd or பாகற்க்காய்) vine, when it was few weeks old. Also, see all the Pepper (மிளகாய்) plant seedlings that were waiting for replanting. Summer 2005.

Another vine with a flower.

 minerva said...

Beautiful flower-and-vine:)

& Nice place (& baby pics!) U've got here.
Keep writing & Wishes all,
Minerva*

July 28, 2005 8:53 AM

 Indeterminacy said...

I found your blog quite by accident. I like how you present the two languages. And the pictures are exotic and homey all at the same time. I'm not familiar with Eastern culture, but I think your blog is a nice place.

July 28, 2005 9:38 AM

 Shan R Shanmuganathan said...

Thanks minerva and indeterminacy for the compliment. Keep visitng.
Cheers,
Shan

July 28, 2005 6:05 PM

So, what's new with Srinidhi? He started doing something new this week. He uses his secret voice, i.e. hushed tone to amuse us. Funny Boy! I wonder where he learned that from!

ஸ்ரீநிதி என்ன புதுசா செய்றான்? ம்ம்ம்... ரெண்டு நாளா, அதுவும் நாங்க கவனிக்கிரோம்னு தெரிஞ்சா, எதுவும் பேசுறப்போ, ரகசிய குரலில் பேசுறான்! நல்ல வேடிக்கை!! எங்க கத்துக்கிட்டான்னு தெரியலை!

Punniya Thaanam, May 2003

Traditionally, we do a Punniya Thaanam and Naming Ceremony on the 16th day after the baby is born. Sometimes, the day varies depending on baby's and mother's health. For Srinidhi, we did Punniya Thaanam on the 16th day. It fell on a weekday, so we didn't bother anybody with an invite. Instead, we held the Naming Ceremony part on the weekend and invited whole lot of people.

Proud and healthy mother and healthy and happy baby.

Balaji Priest is getting ready to do the Punniya Thaanam.

Balaji Priest conducting the Punniya Thaanam.

He did a very elaborate pooja. He chanted hymns for more than an hour. His pious reading and the pooja was a fulfilling religious experience for us.

Aarathi.

Proud parents.

Happy grandmother.

Christmas 2002 Gettogether

[Part of] Veena's immediate family + Our Extended Charlotte Malayalee Family. The occassion was Christmas 2002 celebration at our home.

Relaxing after prayer and fun and food, Christmas 2002.

Veena's brother Vijay and SIL Alice drove from Huntsville, Alabama. Other SIL Lucy, brother Raju and mother drove from near Pittsburgh.

Veena And Mother.

Me!

Food! Veena loves to cook. (for big crowds too!)

Chatting (Yes, I feel the baby kick etc.)

Chatting too!

Gifts.

TV Time

TV time was always limited for Srinidhi. He never cared for it much either. (Just like his mom! Before she met me, she only had the minimum six channels and watched less than 15 minutes of TV per day. I spoiled her and got her hooked on Sun TV :-). Even now she watches may be an hour of soap a day at most.)

For the first one year, we hardly showed Srinidhi any TV. Little bit of Teletubbies, little of Boohbah, an average of less than an hour a week, that's all. We deliberately avoided TV during feeding times.

When he turned one, we introduced Sesame Street and Jay Jay the Jet Plane and his TV time slowly increased up to an hour a day. Of course his most favorite was Elmo. He was hooked on Elmo for many months.

We soon discovered Noggin, which became our favorite channel. He watches many programs on Noggin; his most favorite is Maisy. Next favorites are Dora the Explorer and Blue's Clues.

Since turning two, his average TV time has increased to more than an hour a day. We allow him that for several reasons. First of all, when ever we ask him, he loves to turn off the TV to play with us or to go outside. (Only exception is during Maisy. Since he is so much in to Maisy, just yesterday we decided to ban Maisy for a month.) Second, he loves outdoors more than TV; he spends equal or more time playing outside in the deck and driveway. Third, he loves reading (with us) much more than watching TV; when we start reading to him, he won’t let us stop for hours.

We had not introduced any commercial channels (Disney, Nick etc) yet. Some other programs he watches occasionally:
Calliou
Little Bear
Franklin
Between the Lions
Dragon Tales
Barney

He does not like Connie the Cow and we keep him away from Oobi. Couple of characters he loves, even though he hardly ever watched them are, Thomas the Train (timing), Clifford (timing) and Winnie the Pooh (commercial channel).