WEBVTT

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Tracy Young/Launch Commentator: From the Mission Director's Center on Vandenberg Air Force Base,

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this is Delta Launch Control at T minus one hour, 21 minutes and counting.

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The countdown for this morning's launch of the Delta II rocket is proceeding as planned.

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The launch team is currently working no technical issues and weather is favorable with a

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100 percent chance of acceptable conditions at launch time.

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The temperature expected at liftoff is about 52 degrees and visibility is expected to be about 2 to 3 miles due to fog.

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NASA Launch Manager Omar Baez just completed a poll to verify the readiness the launch

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team to continue with the count and proceed with the loading of liquid oxygen aboard the Delta vehicle.

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And we are standing by to begin cryogenic loading of the Delta's first stage in a couple of minutes.

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Our launch window extends for five minutes, with liftoff targeted at the opening of the window at 7:20 a.m. Pacific time.

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Launching aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is the Aquarius science instrument and the SAC-D spacecraft.

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The mission is a collaboration between NASA and Argentina's space agency,

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with participation from Brazil, Canada, France and Italy.

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The NASA Aquarius instrument will provide global observations of the concentration of dissolved salt at the ocean's surface,

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enabling scientists to better understand the link between ocean circulation and Earth's climate.

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The SAC-D observatory will carry seven other instruments that will collect environmental

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data with a wide range of applications and science objectives.

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The SAC-D satellite is provided by 
Argentina's space agency, CONAE,

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and was built by the technology company INVAP in Argentina.

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The Aquarius instrument was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, 
Calif.,

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and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. At T minus one hour,

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18 minutes and counting, this is Delta Launch Control.

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