Okay, I know I'm not a Student Ambassador, but they're not here yet, and the action has already begun here at Space Coast, Florida. Do you remember where you were 30 years ago on Tuesday? Anyone my age can: I was at a NASA tracking center near Madrid, Spain.

This is an exciting week for space. Kennedy Space Center is loaded with space enthusiasts, here to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 today, and Tuesday, the 30th anniversary of the first human step onto the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the two men who gathered rocks from the moon on that unforgetable trip and Gene Cernin, the last man to walk on the moon, were here and gathered with a who's who of Apollo astronauts for dinner at the Apollo Center on base. Tomorrow they will be at the visitor's center to greet the public.

Even as we reminisce about that first , the astronaut team that will take STS-93 into space arrived early this morning from the Johnson Space Center in Texas. Tuesday (in the wee hours of the morning) we celebrate the launch of this first shuttle to be commanded by a woman. We just got word that the First Lady will be here, as will the World champion U.S.A. women's soccer team. Scores of other VIP's (not the least of which are our Student Ambassadors!) will be arriving over the weekend and on Monday to witness the launch.

Meanwhile, Brandt Secosh, our NASA Quest correspondent here at KSC, and I have been preparing for the exciting webcast that will be coming to you from the Press Viewing Area. Though we've done this many time, we faced some challenges setting up equipment we'd not used before. I'd like to share a few pictures of that process.

The video signal worked like a champ! Brandt hooked it up, made the connection, and poof! I had to sit up straighter in the chair, because the video camera popped my picture onto the screen, so we started to test the audio. There was the glitch: As I attempted to find new clever ways to do the "Testing, testing, 1...2...3" we watched with anticipation for the familiar green indicator to show we were sending sound to appear. Nada!

We tried all kinds of setting changes - all suggestions were considered - even my very untechie inputs. We had time, we weren't really worried, just perplexed. At one point equipment for another project was delivered to Brandt's office, and at the suggestion from Karen Dodson, production assistant for that project, we dug through the shipment looking for an adapter that might fix the problem.

On left you see Brandt finding the pouch that contained the adapters - it took some digging, but thankfully Karen labeled things well. At right you see Brandt trying to find the appropriate part for our needs. It turned out that we improved what we could do, but the problem was not a hardware problem. Thanks to the help we got from Chris at Osprey, we were able to trouble shoot just about every setting, and by the time he and Brandt had finished a lengthy phone conversation, that little green indicator was working like a champ!

The next step was to try the same thing from the press site - a set up that looks a lot like bleechers for an athletic event, but in this case every other row is eliminated and the space is set up with working surfaces. We were very fortunate, due to the extraordinary interest that the Public Affairs Office has in education, to be front and center - a great vantage point from which to film the pre-launch show.

On the right you can see Brandt setting up the machine and making the connection - we connected easily to our NASA Quest line, and I got the word over my cell phone from Kate Weisberg at the office back in California, "I see you!" and at this point even more importantly, "I hear you!" Success! At this point I was able to turn around and look at the view that this was all about. Through a bit of haze, standing regally on the launch pad - Space Shuttle Columbia awaits the final countdown. Our Student Ambassadors will keep you posted on activities from tomorrow on.