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GEORGE DILLER: With us here now in the Mission Director's Center is

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NASA launch director and the NASA launch manager for Phoenix today,

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Chuck Dovale. And Chuck, it, it appears to have been a very successful

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countdown to launch, but can you give us some specifics in how you feel

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about how things went?

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CHUCK DOVALE: Yeah, I think we can say that now, George.

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The count was very quiet and rather uneventful. The events really started happening

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once we lifted off and got downrange and had a little bit of trouble getting

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data back and so there was quite a bit of hand-wringing during the second

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burn of the second stage, and also the third stage in spacecraft separation

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where we didn't get data back, and we finally have gotten confirmation from

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the spacecraft side that they have acquired the spacecraft from their tracking

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station in Goldstone and it's power positive, and it's searching for the sun, so

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everything appears normal. But it was a little bit of anxious moments there,

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quite, it seemed like an eternity but it was about 20 minutes or so where we

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weren't sure, we were hoping Phoenix would phone home and she did. DILLER: It did.

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DOVALE: So we're very happy.

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DILLER: Alright, well that, that pretty much takes us to where, I guess,

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where we'll be watching over the next couple of hours to see how the state-

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of-health checks go on Phoenix, but Chuck, we've got another Delta on the

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adjacent pad. What can you tell us about the status of Dawn?

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DOVALE: Well, we'll be quickly moving on to Dawn. We've got a range

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date of Sept. 26 for that mission, so work hasn't really stopped on that. It was

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just minor work being accomplished. We'll bring the spacecraft back onto

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the launch vehicle once we're, once we ready the launch vehicle once again

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for that event, and we'll march down to Sept. 26 and, and wish

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Dawn off like we did Phoenix.

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DILLER: Is there a possibility that launch could move forward any, or is

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that pretty much going to be a firm date?

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DOVALE: It's, it's firm on the range now and at this point, we don't

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expect it to move. We're targeting Sept. 26.

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DILLER: Alright. Well, thank you, Chuck, and we'll look, look forward to

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the Dawn launch here in about a month or so. And congratulations on a very

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happy countdown, and good launch today.

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DOVALE: Thanks, George.

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DILLER: And that will conclude our launch coverage for the Phoenix

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launch this morning. Our next activity will be a Phoenix post-launch press

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conference at 11 a.m. Eastern time. That will be carried live on NASA TV.

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This is Delta launch control.

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