While preparations for our Launch-2 🚀are in full swing (launch date NET 21 April), we still have to cover some tasks originating from Launch-1: Most importantly the webcast of the event. As a quick reminder, weather circumstances were so gruesome that we had to rush things through in order not to freeze. And freeze they did, our devices on the ensuing test launch.

aSpIrM is an as-if SpaceX Iridium Mission which means we try to emulate as much as possible from those launches. Needless to say that this applies to the webcasts as well. An integral part of those is the commentary by Falcon 9 Principal Integration Engineer John Insprucker. We cannot imagine one of those launches without him.

So how to go about it? Should we try to steal him from SpaceX? Of course we considered this option, counting on our own awesomeness. Nonetheless we concluded that the odds probably weren’t really stacked in our favor. So our HR whizz Freya got imaginative once again and flew in our own version of John Insprucker: His name is Joe Pregenzer. Although he does not live up to the original (sorry, Joe!), we have really fallen in love with him and he has become a valuable and cherished team member. The poor guy is used to Californian weather and suffered more than anyone else because of the cold. Joe’s only comment on the temperature was: 🎶 “In hell I’ll be in good company.” 🎶 Which we took as a compliment. He still didn’t leave the car though. But we love Joe’s sense of humor and his taste in music.

It has taken all of us and poor Joe in particular quite some time to regain our body temperature, but we’re back now 😉 with the webcast of Launch-1 and Joe’s first commentary for OxidanSky.

We think he was off to a great start but told him it wouldn’t hurt to slow down a little bit. Same old story: When people are nervous before a presentation, they tend to talk too fast. We’re already looking forward to Pregenzer’s ideas for Launch-2. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and finally watch the webcast of Launch-1 first: