BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: This is Atlas launch control at T-minus one hour 28 minutes and 55 seconds and
counting, and we are right at the point where we're beginning the loading of the Atlas stage with the
liquid oxygen. That should be commencing momentarily. We are about halfway full with our liquid oxygen on the Centaur stage.
I have with me right now Alan Stern who is the principal investigator for this mission. And Alan, welcome.
ALAN STERN: Good morning, Bruce. BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Thanks for joining us. And we've got a little tape with some animation of
what's going to happen with New Horizons as it leaves Earth and then heads up to Pluto. Would you mind talking us through that tape as we play it?
ALAN STERN: I'd love to. Let's see it. BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: All right, great.
ALAN STERN: It looks like this animation starts just after third stage, it's completed its 84 second firing, which will then stabilize
once we pick up the beginning of the third stages, you see spacecraft separation.
The spacecraft is going to continue to spin like that for some hours until we slow it down.
Now you see the depiction of the spacecraft going -- really speeding away from the Earth, much faster than a speeding bullet, obviously.
About five minutes, five-and-a-half minutes into flight after we've separated from that third stage, the transmitters will kick on and then we
expect acquisition of signal. Here we are already at Jupiter just a few months from now, next March, beginning our science
encounter with Jupiter. We're also going to be using Jupiter, of course, to get to Pluto and to slingshot us on to Pluto. This is like putting an
additional stage on the spacecraft at rocket stage and firing it at Jupiter where we get it for free, just from Jupiter's gravity well.
After eight years of cruise, we will be approaching the ninth planet. Here we are with a
depiction of a reddish Pluto. The spacecraft doing maneuvers to point various instruments in the various
directions at the planet back at the sun, the Earth, the occultations, et cetera.
This is a depiction of the spacecraft turning to observe Pluto's large moon, Charon, which is rather gray. As you see, reflects sunlight mutually.
There'll also be observations of the small moons. We'll make occultation measurements searching for any (inaudible) atmosphere at Charon.
Or any build-up of atmosphere pouring off Pluto there. Following that will be a firing (inaudible) heading
off to a Kuiper Belt object, one of the kinds of building blocks that Pluto and Charon were made
from. This is a depiction of that with the Milky Way Galaxy behind our ultimate destination out of the solar system and into the stars.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Great. Well, it's an exciting mission and I know you and your team are extremely excited about being here today.
It's been a long process to get this mission prepared for a launch attempt this afternoon.
Now, tell us again, what's New Horizons? Is out of Earth orbit? Just exactly what's going to be happening over the next several months?
ALAN STERN: Well, our job in the first two months is to get the spacecraft checked out,
commissioned, all the subsystems, the avionics, all seven of the instruments will be brought up, tested,
actually calibrated on astronomical objects, and then when we complete that process, we'll move into
rehearsal of the Jupiter encounter which will be coming this fall.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Okay. Great. And are we going to be able to stay in touch with New Horizons spacecraft?
It's going to be pretty far out when it gets to Pluto. Are we going to be able to stay in touch
with it through its entire journey? ALAN STERN: The entire way. We have communications capability that takes us at least
twice as far out as Pluto. We have to reconfigure the communication system a couple times, but we have plenty of capability.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: And it's a fairly long mission, too. I mean, this is one of the longest
missions that we're planning on. It's going to take us nine-and-a-half, 10 years to get to Pluto.
How long is the actual mission going to last even beyond that? ALAN STERN: Well, that depends upon the
health of the spacecraft and the health of the NASA budget at that time. Our mission after Pluto is technically an
extended mission that has to be approved by a future administrator. We know that we'll operate for at
least some months, because that's how long it takes to transmit the data back. If we go into Kuiper Belt
objects, those will fill the next five years. BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Okay, that is a long time.
Now, I found it interesting, I was doing some reading and I saw that you had, about nine years ago
yourself, had written an obituary for Nature magazine for a gentleman named Clyde Tombow and he
is the astronomer who first discovered this mission -- excuse me, this planet. That was an experience for you, wasn't it?
ALAN STERN: It really was. I remember that very well. I knew Clyde and I was honored when Nature asked me to
write the obituary to go in the record about Clyde. I'll tell you a little story about that no one
knows. The original title of the article was changed; Nature likes a rather dry article, but when
I thought of Clyde's life, I thought about how proud his parents would be of the life and what his
accomplishments were. Nature titled the obituary "Clyde W. Tombow" with the dates he was born and that he
passed. The original title of the article was "Myron's Boy," because his father's name was Myron.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: And he died nine years ago today, is that correct?
ALAN STERN: As a matter of fact, nine years ago today to our launch almost to the hour.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Okay. Well, it seems a fitting tribute to him as well.
ALAN STERN: Indeed.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Well, Alan, good luck to you. I know you've got a lot of work still to do
before we get off the ground today and you've got a lot of work ahead of you once we do get off the ground.
ALAN STERN: Thanks. We're raring to go. BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Thank you, sir. ALAN STERN: Alright.
BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Again, we're back with activities at the pad. We're at T-minus one hour
23 minutes and counting. And activities with the loading of the liquid oxygen into the Atlas
stage is going to begin shortly. We are about 80 percent full of liquid oxygen in the Centaur
stage, so operations there are going well. At T-minus one hour, 23 minutes and
counting, this is Atlas Launch Control.