However, I have a fantasy that 7/31 will be "hands off", so that makes 24 days...

I am happy with the progress, but still lots to do. Finalizing the drive train, and still looking for the "just right" motors. I am using a conveyor to lift material into a hopper, and stumbled upon a key piece of information that finally led me to an excellent design. Preliminary testing yesterday gives the green light...

I received 500 lbs of JSC-1A in March, and built a 4x8 sand box. It doesn't allow driving around much, but makes a big difference for testing mechanisms. I suspect that others bought some, but I don't know. A five month lead time didn't help matters.

It sounds like everything will start Saturday morning, I'm not hearing about a Friday night mixer like last year. With the quarantine at the start of inspections, it doesn't look like there will be much time for on-site, last minute tweaks.

I was reflecting about the absoluteness of the whole thing while thinking about actual NASA missions. We get one shot; put the machine in the box, hook up the power, say "Go", and hope for the best. It was the same with the early Apollo rockets, some went up, some blew up. I'm sure the engineers were gritting their teeth before launch just like we will be… ;-)