Well it was a way longer trip than we were anticipating - having left Canberra at 3am on Thursday morning, we finally arrived in Orlando at midnight, six hours over schedule and seriously sick of flying - 30 hours of travel - bleargh.

Our international flight from Sydney was stuck on the run way for a couple of hours with baggage and computer problems which meant we missed our connecting flight in Los Angeles. Customs was remarkably smooth and efficient as hundreds of people wove through hundreds of metres of queue fencing. It was all very easy and friendly (we are of course very Anglo and on Australian passports!) The security gates were less friendly with the only consolation being that the staff seemed to dislike each other as much as they disliked all of the passengers.

As Dylan optimistically said when we were rescheduled on an additional two flights for our missed connection, 'At least we get to see more of America.' He was right in a sense - flying over the snow-capped Rocky Mountains and gorgeous circle crop fields was pretty amazing. And we found a little gem in the Charlotte, North Carolina airport - there was a beautiful avenue of trees planted inside with white rocking chairs sitting underneath for weary passengers.

But he underestimated how sick of it all we'd be after so many hours and continual delays. We seemed to encounter every technical and airport error we could today - including having to wait on the runway on arrival in Orlando because our hangar was double-booked!!

But we're here now, in a lovely hotel and looking forward to a NASA adventure tomorrow. Watch this space, it's gonna get exciting :)