Announcing, da da da daaaaaaaa:
Our dear, sweet rocket baby number 3: Apollo or “Ollie” as he’s affectionately called around here.
Yes, we named our child Apollo. Yes, it may just be the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission when humans walked on the moon. Yes, we may have drunk too much NASA kool-aid. If you must know, there’s more to his name than the rocket-related, but, we may as well own it. I mean, we wrap him up in a super awesome rocket and satellite print swaddle blanket; we totally posed our sweet one-week-old next to the Saturn V LEGO set; and my rocket-scientist husband sent the following email to his co-workers announcing Apollo’s birth:
“Dear All,
Yesterday afternoon, the Sauders began their newest mission, baby boy #3: Apollo. In selecting a mission name, it has become apparent the parents drank too much of NASA’s freeze-dried lemonade. But given it is the 50th anniversary of the agency’s most famous mission, they really didn’t have another choice.
Apollo began his mission with a mass of 3684 grams and a length of 560 mm, although he is expected to quickly gain mass and length through in-situ resource utilization for the next 18 years. All systems have been confirmed as functional, and can be confirmed by the lack of sleep his mission controllers, Jonathan and Kali, are getting. Apollo (or “Ollie” for short) is the third in a series of missions, joining Eddie and Xander, who are quite excited to have another mission join them in the vastness of space. As the mission continues, mission science data will be publicly archived at: https://launchingrocketbabies.com/ (Note: most data sets are qualitative).
Due to the support Apollo requires during this mission critical stage, Mission Controller Jonathan has allocated at 100% FTE towards this endeavor for the next 6 weeks, before coming back to work on other tasks. Mission Manager Kali is projected to stay at 100% FTE for much, much longer.”
He has too much fun! Everybody loved it, of course!
So, yeah. Little Ollie’s pretty much destined to be a rocket scientist when he grows up (Remember what Launching Rocket Babies is all about?). Here are a few fun links to some of Apollo’s journey to joining our family:
We’re busy and semi-sleep-deprived, but adjusting well and super excited to embark on this adventure! Glad you’re along for the ride!
Launching Rocket Babies 