December 10, 2007—Here’s the good news. The astronauts set to fly Space Shuttle Atlantis will get to spend the holidays with their families. The bad news is that they won’t be able to send "season’s greetings" from space. The mission of Atlantis won’t go until maybe January 2^nd, and that’s a big maybe.

Kennedy Space Center engineers will spend the coming hours at the launch pad, trying to figure out why another round of engine cut-off, or ECO, sensors ruined two liftoff tries in a row and left NASA hoping that the problem can be resolved a the launch pad without a time-consuming roll back from the pad to the protection of the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB.

We’ll see about that.

I, for one will be spending part of the holiday season with the Rotary Club of Orlando and the Kennedy Space Center Visitors’ Complex. I’ll be giving a talk before the Rotary on Thursday, which C-SPAN plans to videotape for its BookTV program. Then, on December 22^nd, I’ll be at the bookstore of the KSC Visitors’ Complex, signing copies of my book "Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle program". It’s a great chance to share stories and meet friends and make new ones. During the signing event at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, I was surprised and flattered to have NPR newscast unit editor Carol Anne Clark-Kelly and her two boys drop by to talk and get their books signed.

More to come.