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BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: And our last question today is from Stuart in Charlottesville, and the question is: "Why the tight launch

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window for a weather satellite?"

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ANDRE' DRESS: Okay, that's a really excellent question. And it has to do, it gets down to the configuration of the spacecraft

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and orbit geometry, so a lot of factors in here. So the spacecraft is actually buttoned up in a certain way, we have a

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solar array panel that's mounted on the spacecraft, so it's very important to actually point that panel towards the Sun.

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At the same time, we actually have constraints on when we can do maneuvers orbitally in those certain locations,

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as well as maintain communication with the Earth. Okay, so with all those three factors defined, okay, the spacecraft has to

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be at a certain place, at a certain location and a certain attitude, and at a certain place where the Sun is actually pointing

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at the panels, and so all those things just happen to line up at a certain time, and so getting it there at that point and

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that time is a tight constraint. And that's kind of what's defining our window and getting, launching in that window

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and making sure that we have the proper orientation for all these maneuvers.

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BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Well, thanks, Andre, for answering our questions. It's been a real pleasure having you here in our studio.

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ANDRE' DRESS: I'm happy to be here.

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BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Thank you.

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