Journey to the land of the (almost at this time of year) midnight Sun.

Although this is a much shorter and easier journey than getting to Antartica, it is a bit of a trek. But it's easy enough to get to that ESRANGE is in some books. From the states, it's just a quick plane ride or two and then a bit of a drive to your final destination. As always I would suggest sitting on the Northern side of your plane in the hopes of catching a flips of the Northern lights.

This time I wasn't able to follow my own advice, but there wasn't much darkness at this time of year anyway and I caught a thunderstorm instead. It was actually pretty cool from the plane! 

Once we landed, it was a quick trip through customs and then the long layover. At least there was coffee to try to help keep me awake. The views from the plane ride up north were beautiful, even through a smudged window. 

It was a very short drive to ESRANGE from the airport. We did see a herd of raindeer but I was unable to get photos of them. It was beautiful though!

We saw some reindeer in the woods but as you can see I missed the photo opportunity. 

By the end of a long first night we had most of a payload ready for launch and the first HiT&MIS instrument put together. Today is more of the same, getting all the instruments ready for our first possible launch date of August 7th. 

And with that I should get back to work...