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GEORGE DILLER: This is Delta Launch Control at T-61 minutes, 27

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seconds and counting. Joining us here now at the console of the Mission

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Director's Center is Ed Sedivy, who is the Phoenix program manager from

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Lockheed Martin for the Phoenix spacecraft, and he has been with Phoenix

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since, essentially since the spacecraft began. Is that right, Ed?

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ED SEDIVY: Pretty much. About 10 years ago.

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DILLER: Ten years ago. So the, the spacecraft's had a lot of testing out at

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Lockheed Martin in Denver, so the tape we're going to see right now really

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is almost at the end of the process. Is that right? Because we're, when you

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get to the Cape, it's almost ready to launch.

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SEDIVY: That's, that's very true. We've done most of the work by the time we ship.

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DILLER: Well, if we could go ahead and roll the tape, we'll be able to see,

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we'll be able to see some of the activities since the spacecraft arrived.

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SEDIVY: Yeah. We're at, what we've got here on the tape right now is the

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C-17 transport plane touching down. We arrived at KSC on the shuttle

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landing strip just before sunset and we took our time and rolled out the

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Phoenix spacecraft in the shipping container, pushed it across the tarmac,

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loaded it up on the semi and transported over to PHSF, rolled it into the

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truck lock and waited till overnight, put it in the clean room, and what you're

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seeing here is operations the following day, on May 8, where we uncrated it,

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rolled it in on the dolly, took off the plastic wrap that we had on it and

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readied it for the KSC ops. One of the first things we needed to do was

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remove the heat shield, which you see happening there, to gain access to the,

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to the lander itself within the backshell. What you see right there in that test,

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firing the sep. nuts for the crew solar array, the explosive bolts were fired

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and then the floor crew walked out the solar array by hand. And in flight,

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we're in a zero-G environment and you don't need to worry about supporting

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the hinge load by hand. All of our lifts are done with the utmost of care and

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everything's dry run. Here you can see us fitting the vehicle up onto the

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turnover fixture. The turnover fixture allows us to slew the vehicle through a

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lot of different angles and it's primarily used for access in a hang-down

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configuration that you see being established right now. What was, what we

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were doing on this particular activity here, after the solar array was walked

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out, was we did illumination test on a cruise solar array, and that provided

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confidence for us that the energy that the cruise solar arrays would produce

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was, in fact, consistent with prior measurements. We did get confirmation of

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that and that put us in good shape to go ahead and restow the arrays, put the

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flight sep bolts back in, torque them into position and ready the cruise array

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for the launch itself. You'll notice everybody is, is fully gowned, gloves

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taped, wrists, full planetary protection criteria were maintained in the high

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bay the entire time -- very tight constraints on the deliverable hardware to

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the planet to meet the NASA planetary protection criteria. OK, this is a lift

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onto our spin-balance table and the team's getting it aligned here. The Delta

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third stage is an unguided, spin-stabilized stage, so getting a very, very good

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dynamic balance on the spacecraft is very important to injection accuracy.

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So we had done a series of spins before we came to KSC and we did a set of

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dry spins and then a final wet spin after we had loaded the prop tanks, both

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with and without the heat shield. What we found was that our, our weight

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calculations that were done before and after the spin that we performed in

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Denver at Lockheed Martin and down here at KSC, our calculations were off

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by less than a quarter of an ounce, and that made it really very, very

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straightforward for us to ballast up the vehicle.

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DILLER: That last thing we saw being installed there was...

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SEDIVY: That was the flight radar that was being installed. You could see

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the team working underneath and they were working on the antenna suite. In

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some of the views, when you see the spacecraft lifted like that, the center

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area within the cruise stage looks kind of shiny, and that's an additional solar

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panel that we added to the configuration for Phoenix because of the larger

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solar range that Mars is at at arrival. It's about 1.67 astronomical units.

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DILLER: So we just mated the spacecraft to something. What was...

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SEDIVY: We just mated the spacecraft to the third stage and that's the, that

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was the flight mate. The heat shield has to go on last because the structure of

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the vehicle is, is only accessible through three lifting points on the heat

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shield. What we're showing now is the, the canning operations where the

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spacecraft is fully flight-readied, all the testing's been done and we're

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lowering the transportation canister over the vehicle and then it is clamped

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down to that base collar assembly that you see, that's mounted at the bottom

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of the transport fixture. The canning operation went very smoothly. It was

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done on a Friday and then the following Monday, on the 23rd of July, we

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began the trip to the pad before dawn, and that's what you see going on right there.

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DILLER: Well, Ed, for, for the Lockheed Martin team, in a way, this is just

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the beginning, because you're involved with it as it's going

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to the planet from Denver, are you not?

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SEDIVY: Well, that's right. It's another milestone. It's a big milestone.

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Launch is obviously a very important event. There is certainly some risk

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with launch, but it's something that we do on a regular basis with every one

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of our spacecraft, so we're looking forward to getting it off the ground and

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flying, and checking on the engineering data for the spacecraft later this

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morning. The cruise to Mars will be about nine-and-a-half months, and then

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we will go through the entry, descent landing, which is the big enchilada, if

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you will, for the mission. That's where a lot of things have to happen,

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have to happen well.

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DILLER: And that happens when, about how far...

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SEDIVY: That will be May 25th of 2008, will be landing day. And then

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from there we begin the surface operations. So yeah, we have, from launch

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forward, we have well over another year of work where we transition to the

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operations phase.

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DILLER: Well, Ed, thank you very much. We appreciate your discussion as

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we looked through your, your work and achievements here to get ready for

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the launch today, and best of luck.

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SEDIVY: Oh, you're very welcome, George, and thanks for the opportunity

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to talk about the program a little bit.

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DILLER: Thank you.

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SEDIVY: You're welcome.

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