After working so hard for more than 3 years, I literally had tears of joy as I saw the successful launch at 9:39a today!
These photos were taken by my very supportive husband, Greg Merrell. He has had to take up so much of the slack around the house while I have been gone and working tons of hours to get this project to this point. Although we are clearly celebrating today, our work is only just beginning. We will again be at the lab at 4a tomorrow to load the ground control specimens into spaceflight hardware as they are delayed 3 days so we can see what happens in space and mimic the same thing on Earth.
Off to a well deserved celebration dinner where all of those involved will finally get their mission patch and sticker as well as a great certificate that Shatoria created after getting approval from NASA which was signed by Dean Hess and the Orthopaedic Surgery Chair, L. Daniel Wurtz.
Congratulations to all for a job well done! This was certainly a huge team effort and I am very thankful to each and every one of my outstanding team members! I know they will all have great memories for years to come!
Written by Melissa
