Christian Elliott

Yeah.

That's a pretty good line.

Speaking of good lines, this is too good not to share.

It takes maybe 10 minutes to get each astronaut safely into Orion.

So while the closeout crew were getting Reed Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen strapped into their seats, Taylor was standing in the white room for quite a while next to Victor Glover and Christina Cook.

He could detect some nerves, so he thought he'd try lightening the mood.

Then, time to close the hatch.

Taylor's one of the few people qualified to operate Orion's hatch.

It closes pneumatically, then with some latches.

Then the closeout crew stowed their gear and drove away from the launch pad, leaving the astronauts alone.

And the minutes ticked away toward launch.

GLS is go for ALS.

Roger, roll pitch.

As the rocket soared, Taylor was outside with the closeout crew, including backup astronaut Andre Douglas.

They were all sitting next to their box truck on folding chairs.

Once all you could see in the sky were the billowing white clouds of rocket exhaust.

Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the launch director, came up to Mike with scissors.

There's this tradition in the launch control center.

The launch director cuts off everyone's ties who's a first-time launch controller.

The rocket launched at 6.35.