BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: This is Atlas Launch Control at T-minus one hour, 14 minutes and counting. Everything continues to go well today.
We have a full load of liquid oxygen on the Centaur stage and we are about 23 percent full of
the liquid oxygen on the Atlas stage at this point. I have with me right now Dave Kusnierkiewicz,
who is the New Horizons mission systems engineer. And Dave, thank you for coming.
We have a tape that we're going to show and then we're going to come back and ask a couple
questions. So let's go ahead and roll that tape and we'll let you talk to it.
DAVID KUSNIERKIEWICZ: I think this tape shows some of the processing of the spacecraft that we did once we arrived
here at KSC. This is us coming into the facility where we process. There was a protective covering to guard against
dust contamination when we came into the facility. There were a couple of components that did not
make the trip down here with the spacecraft; they went to various places and then they joined back up
with the spacecraft here at KSC. You're seeing the reinstallation of the SWAP
instrument for Solar Wind At Pluto back on the spacecraft and now some final panel closeouts.
It's sort of interesting, you'll see those projections coming off of the panels. That's to hold
the thermal blankets off a couple inches from the structure of the spacecraft to help protect the
spacecraft from damage from micrometeorites during the cruise out to Pluto.
This is a top panel going on top of the spacecraft and final closeouts at that point. After
the panels go on the spacecraft and are secured mechanically, then the thermal blankets are dressed out.
The thermal blanketing is very important in maintaining the thermal environment of the spacecraft during the long mission life; the
spacecraft basically uses a lot of the waste heat that's dissipated from the internal electronics to
maintain the inside of the spacecraft in room temperature for the life of the mission.
Now the thermal blanketing is complete. Everybody takes a step back to admire their work.
And this is the first time that we mated the flight power system, the nuclear power source to the spacecraft. This operation here served as both a
mechanical fit check and, at that time, we also mated the power source electrically with the spacecraft and
then put the spacecraft through a series of electrical tests to ensure the compatibility of the entire flight system.
What you're seeing here is a mechanical simulator on the end of the spacecraft in place of the flight power source.
We put that simulator in place for lift-and-move operations of the spacecraft to keep the spacecraft properly balanced so it didn't
tip over when we lifted it up, which as you might imagine is a very careful operation. It's done very gently, so as
not to jar the spacecraft or impart any mechanical shocks into it.
At this point, we're getting ready to mate the spacecraft to the third stage, the Boeing-provided third
stage of the Star 48 motor. You'll see the third stage there inside that scaffolding and so
the spacecraft was lifted, transported over, and then gently lowered down on top of the third stage, mated
together mechanically, and then that assembly was placed inside of the launch vehicle fairing and that's the operation you're seeing here.
That's actually just the top half of the fairing that sits on top of the Atlas launch
vehicle. The fairing is 68 feet total in length and this is the portion of it that was transported out to the assembly building to finish
mating with the launch vehicle. BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Good. And, of course, after the tape ended, of course everything continued to
mate up to the top of the launch vehicle and as of right now, since that time, we've been in launch configuration.
Dave, tell us a little bit about any issues or concerns that we had. Were there any for the processing of the spacecraft here at Kennedy, or did
everything go smoothly? DAVID KUSNIERKIEWICZ: Everything went pretty smoothly. There's always a lot of work involved,
there's no getting around that. But thankfully, the operations were pretty smooth. I think the major hiccup we had was when
Hurricane Wilma came through. That required us to put the spacecraft back into the shipping container
to keep it safe during that period. And the team had to stand down for a couple of days. They had a
couple of unexpected days off during that time. But we were able to recover. Fortunately there was no
damage after Hurricane Wilma to the spacecraft and we had enough time in our schedule that it didn't
affect us the couple days off that we had. BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Okay. So just one little
hiccup, but really no issues as far as processing goes at all.
I know the team has -- it's got a diverse team that you have that you put together to help with
this spacecraft processing. Tell us a little bit about that. DAVID KUSNIERKIEWICZ: Well, we did all the
spacecraft design work and the development work at APL. The instruments, of course, came from various
institutions around the country, including Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Ball Corporation
in Boulder, Colorado, and a couple other places. It's an experienced team. As you might
imagine, it takes a lot of work and, of course, there's a fairly large-sized team in order to
accomplish this. It really helps when everybody knows their job, what has to be done, and a lot of
people are basically self-starters; they don't need a lot of motivation. They do need some supervision.
But everyone pretty much enjoys the effort. It's a terrific program to be involved with. Terrific project.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Good. And with the spacecraft on top of the Atlas V now, we're not
looking at any issues with it today, are we? DAVID KUSNIERKIEWICZ: No, things have been very smooth during the whole launch countdown
process and we're looking forward to a 1:24 p.m. Eastern time.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: We are, too. So thank you for coming and joining us and good luck to you today.
DAVID KUSNIERKIEWICZ: Thanks, Bruce. BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: All right. Thank you.
Again, everything continues to go well at the pad at T-Minus one hour, eight minutes and counting.
This is Atlas Launch Control.