GEORGE DILLER: With us here now in the Mission Director's Center is
NASA launch director and the NASA launch manager for Phoenix today,
Chuck Dovale. And Chuck, it, it appears to have been a very successful
countdown to launch, but can you give us some specifics in how you feel
about how things went?
CHUCK DOVALE: Yeah, I think we can say that now, George.
The count was very quiet and rather uneventful. The events really started happening
once we lifted off and got downrange and had a little bit of trouble getting
data back and so there was quite a bit of hand-wringing during the second
burn of the second stage, and also the third stage in spacecraft separation
where we didn't get data back, and we finally have gotten confirmation from
the spacecraft side that they have acquired the spacecraft from their tracking
station in Goldstone and it's power positive, and it's searching for the sun, so
everything appears normal. But it was a little bit of anxious moments there,
quite, it seemed like an eternity but it was about 20 minutes or so where we
weren't sure, we were hoping Phoenix would phone home and she did. DILLER: It did.
DOVALE: So we're very happy.
DILLER: Alright, well that, that pretty much takes us to where, I guess,
where we'll be watching over the next couple of hours to see how the state-
of-health checks go on Phoenix, but Chuck, we've got another Delta on the
adjacent pad. What can you tell us about the status of Dawn?
DOVALE: Well, we'll be quickly moving on to Dawn. We've got a range
date of Sept. 26 for that mission, so work hasn't really stopped on that. It was
just minor work being accomplished. We'll bring the spacecraft back onto
the launch vehicle once we're, once we ready the launch vehicle once again
for that event, and we'll march down to Sept. 26 and, and wish
Dawn off like we did Phoenix.
DILLER: Is there a possibility that launch could move forward any, or is
that pretty much going to be a firm date?
DOVALE: It's, it's firm on the range now and at this point, we don't
expect it to move. We're targeting Sept. 26.
DILLER: Alright. Well, thank you, Chuck, and we'll look, look forward to
the Dawn launch here in about a month or so. And congratulations on a very
happy countdown, and good launch today.
DOVALE: Thanks, George.
DILLER: And that will conclude our launch coverage for the Phoenix
launch this morning. Our next activity will be a Phoenix post-launch press
conference at 11 a.m. Eastern time. That will be carried live on NASA TV.
This is Delta launch control.