Witty title about it not being rocket science

Discussed nozzle construction today, with some interesting launch and ground-testing videos, though I disagreed with the instructor that "circumferentially" was a word but hey he's the one with the mechanical engineering degree, come to me if you want to know who Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury was.

A bunch more hangar tours today, some cool, some not, with the highlight a view of a gigantic mixing mechanism, used to combine different explosive material in an 18,000 gallon vat until the correct propellant 'recipe' is formed. Built like a regular kitchen mixer, only each spinner was the size of the hood of your car yet calibrated to move within .330 of an inch of each other.
We also got a demonstration of the different explosive materials' sensitivity, watching a guy behind plate glass set fire to different football-triangle sized bits of propellant, whack a couple drops of nitroglycerin, and set off other mini-fireworks to demonstrate what makes a rocket go whoosh.

Spent this evening with an old friend of mine from the England half of high school, who lives here with her husband and three children, including one little 3-yr old girl she named Ainsley, inspired by our mutual LCHS chum who happens to be one of our wives. It was very odd to hear my wife disciplined all night. "Ainsley, don't pick your nose," is just not something I usually hear at home.