The whole launch schedule is in flux. On Monday they decided the launch would be no earlier than Saturday, June 7, but another Flight Readiness Review was to be held Tuesday evening. I was very hopeful. I waited for hours on Tuesday for good news, only to hear that the launch had been pushed to no earlier than Sunday, June 8, and that I would find out more the next day. There was supposedly another review this morning, but no official word was released. However, rumors are flying that the launch is now no earlier than Monday, June 9. A new issue was discovered today, a problem with a battery on the rocket, which takes a few days to fix.

Who knows if GLAST will launch next week, or even this month. Because of this uncertainty, and the fact that the supposed launch date is creeping towards my mid-June vacation, I have canceled my trip to Florida. I'm very disappointed. If the delay is substantial (months), I may still be able to go at a future date. If it launches next week, I'll watch it on TV. There's no point in getting too upset over something I can't control. I trust that the engineers and program managers working on the issues have the expertise to launch the rocket safely.

Meanwhile, I've been working days I didn't expect to be here. I'm still learning how to program, although I haven't made much progress this week. I'm still analyzing GRBs and organizing data. I started writing my dissertation. I only created a short outline, but it's a start. I think I will be able to write a few paragraphs by the end of this week. I'm starting early because I am firmly committed to graduating by May 2010. This has been my goal from the beginning of my grad program, and I'm even more convinced now than ever that I can achieve that goal.