BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: This is Atlas Launch Control at T-minus 54 minutes and counting and everything continues to go well technically with
the vehicle. We have with us right now Mike Stelzer, who is the New Horizons mission integration manager. Mike, thanks for being here.
MIKE STELZER: My pleasure to be here.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: All right, good. Mike, you're going to talk to a short tape of the launch vehicle preparations.
We'll roll that tape right now, if you could just watch the monitor and tell us what's going on here.
MIKE STELZER: Okay, real good. We'll, I'd like to walk through how the rocket came together here at the launch site.
This is a video of the Antinob Transport Carrier coming into the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
This is the transporter used for both the first stage booster, the Atlas booster, and the second stage, the Centaur upper stage.
This is a shot of the Centaur coming off the Antinob booth, Antinob transporter and moving over to the Space Flight Operations Center
for Atlas V back here at Launch Complex 41. That happened at the beginning of September and about a week later, the booster came in from Denver
on that same transport carrier and here it's shown being erected out at the launch pad and being carefully lowered onto the mobile launch
platform. Once the Centaur finished its electrical checks back at the ASOC,
it was moved out to the launch complex to the Vertical Integration Facility, where it also was hoisted in position on top of the Atlas booster.
This is a shot of it being raised and the single RL-10 engine is shown there with the blue protective covering.
This is the stage that will take this mission from earth orbit and bring it planetary trajectory towards Pluto.
After it was lowered in place, we brought the five solid motors out to the Integration Facility.
This is a video of the last, the fifth of those solid rocket motors going into position and being installed on the forward side of the Atlas
booster. Following completion of the installation, we brought the vehicle out to the launch pad very similar today and did a tanking test where we
demonstrated that we could safely tank the vehicle, and all systems were working properly.
Once we knew we had a good rocket, we brought the encapsulated payload, including the New Horizon's observatory
and third stage, out to the launch pad.
This is a shot of it as it's sitting at the base of the Vehicle Integration Facility, ready to be hoisted up and put on top of the
Atlas and Centaur stack. This happened about a month ago, mid-December, and since then we have electrically checked out the vehicle.
It's ready for us today. And yesterday we've rerolled it out to the launch pad and we're sitting there counting down, ready
for a good T-0 later this afternoon.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Great. We're all hoping for that. Everything's continuing on schedule. In fact, we should be launching in
just about an hour from now.
Can you tell us a little bit about the complex integration of this vehicle? I know there was some aspects that made it a little more
complex than normal. What was going on there?
MIKE STELZER: Yes. This mission brought together three very different elements. Lockheed Martin provided Atlas vehicle,
the largest of their fleet, the top of a Delta II rocket, a Boeing third stage, and on top of that we put this small, lightweight
1000-pound, state-of-the-art observatory.
So bringing those three items together, making sure each item worked with the other so we could have a
successful launch today and trajectory towards that pinpoint location in space three billion miles away past the planet Pluto.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Well, it is a long ways away and I know it's going to take a very large rocket to get us to Pluto.
And, of course, this being a very tall vehicle, can you give us a little perspective on just how big it really is?
MIKE STELZER: Yes, sometimes it's hard to realize how big it is unless you're standing right next to it or have something to judge it against.
And as you see today, it's sitting out on the launch pad and there's not really anything out there you can judge as height,
so the vehicle itself is about 200 feet tall. And so to help give us a reference point,
I asked my daughter and son last night what they could -- what they knew of that was about 200 feet tall so that would put this in perspective,
and they both responded
"Oh, Dad, that's easy. This new roller coaster, the Sheikra, that opened over in Tampa, is 200 feet tall."
So here we have a rocket very tall, tall as the tallest roller coaster in Florida and hopefully that will help put it in perspective for us.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Well, it certainly does. And this will be somewhat of a roller coaster ride for this spacecraft as we go out past lunar orbit in
just about nine hours and then past Pluto in about, what, 13 months? I'm sorry, Jupiter in about thirteen months?
MIKE STELZER: Jupiter in 13 months. So, yeah, once again this will be the fastest moving thing we've ever launched,
so we look forward to lightin' her off at 1:24 this afternoon and seeing a safe and successful flight.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: All right. Well, in just under an hour we'll be watching that. So thank you very much for joining us and good luck to you and your
team. MIKE STELZER: Okay. Thank you, Bruce.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Right. Everything is continuing well at the Launch Pad Complex 41. We are at T-minus 48 minutes and counting.
This is Atlas Launch Control.