Tracy Young/Launch Commentator: From the Mission Director's Center on Vandenberg Air Force Base,
this is Delta Launch Control at T minus one hour, 21 minutes and counting.
The countdown for this morning's launch of the Delta II rocket is proceeding as planned.
The launch team is currently working no technical issues and weather is favorable with a
100 percent chance of acceptable conditions at launch time.
The temperature expected at liftoff is about 52 degrees and visibility is expected to be about 2 to 3 miles due to fog.
NASA Launch Manager Omar Baez just completed a poll to verify the readiness the launch
team to continue with the count and proceed with the loading of liquid oxygen aboard the Delta vehicle.
And we are standing by to begin cryogenic loading of the Delta's first stage in a couple of minutes.
Our launch window extends for five minutes, with liftoff targeted at the opening of the window at 7:20 a.m. Pacific time.
Launching aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is the Aquarius science instrument and the SAC-D spacecraft.
The mission is a collaboration between NASA and Argentina's space agency,
with participation from Brazil, Canada, France and Italy.
The NASA Aquarius instrument will provide global observations of the concentration of dissolved salt at the ocean's surface,
enabling scientists to better understand the link between ocean circulation and Earth's climate.
The SAC-D observatory will carry seven other instruments that will collect environmental
data with a wide range of applications and science objectives.
The SAC-D satellite is provided by Argentina's space agency, CONAE,
and was built by the technology company INVAP in Argentina.
The Aquarius instrument was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.,
and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. At T minus one hour,
18 minutes and counting, this is Delta Launch Control.