WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.000 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:06.000 GEORGE DILLER: Sixty-six minutes, 45 seconds now into the Dawn mission, 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:11.000 with Dawn now on its way to the asteroid belt. 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:17.000 And we're joined here at the console with our NASA launch director, Omar Baez, 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:22.000 who will give us a brief recap on how the countdown went this morning. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:27.000 I guess we went into it a little bit concerned about the weather, 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:33.000 but I guess that didn't really pan out to be too much of a concern, did it? 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:36.000 OMAR BAEZ: We were expecting it to get a little bit 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:38.000 worse and get some of those showers over the pad, 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:45.000 but Mother Nature worked with us and kept it down toward Patrick. 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:50.000 That's about as close as it got to us, so the weather cooperated, 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:56.000 a really quiet count and had no excitement up until the end, 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:01.000 when we had a ship out in the drop zone for the solid motors. 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:07.000 And we held and retargeted the middle of the window, 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:11.000 worked through all the resets to get there, and -- 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:18.000 DILLER: And what affected the closure, the collision avoidance? 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:21.000 BAEZ: Well, we had the International Space Station cutting 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:26.000 out a couple of minutes of our window. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:39.000 It was from 7:27 to about 7:33 where we had a conjunction with the 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:45.000 International Space Station, so we were still targeting the middle of the window, 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.000 which was outside of that range. So that really didn't affect us much. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:54.000 DILLER: And I guess what's a little bit interesting is in the countdown dress rehearsal, 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:58.000 we actually practiced how we would manage a boat coming into the area. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:01.000 That's why we do these simulations, I guess. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:04.000 BAEZ: That's why we do these simulations, so that we're cool and 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:07.000 collective and able to react on the fly. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:12.000 DILLER: So what, so far, can we say about the trajectory of the spacecraft, 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:18.000 in terms of how the Delta II performed and where it put it in terms of its mark? 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:26.000 BAEZ: The Delta II Heavy has performed well. We're exactly where we want to be. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:30.000 The first stage, the second stage and the third stage were all nominal. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:37.000 Nothing funny in the data so far. And from what we see in the orbits, 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:42.000 we're right on the money and just waiting for the spacecraft to 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:48.000 get over their ID ascent stations and make sure they're doing alright. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:53.000 DILLER: Well, we have, interestingly, another Delta II Heavy as our next launch coming up. 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:55.000 Can you tell us a little bit about that one? 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:01.000 BAEZ: That will be GLAST, and that should be the first quarter-ish of next year, 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:06.000 and will be from the same pad here, 17-B. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:09.000 And that will be a Goddard Space Flight Center mission. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:12.000 DILLER: Well, Omar, thanks very much and congratulations, 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:16.000 and we'll look to being back here again early next year. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:17.000 BAEZ: Thank you, George. 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:25.000 DILLER: Thanks a lot. That will conclude our coverage now of the Dawn mission. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:28.000 As we said, there will be a post-launch press conference 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:33.000 to give us the Dawn state of health at 1 p.m. Eastern time. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:40.000 And at this time, we are awaiting contact with Dawn through the 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:44.000 Goldstone tracking station in California, which will come somewhere 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:51.000 between 90 minutes and two hours after launch. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:56.000 This concludes our launch coverage for Dawn. At 70 minutes, 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:02.000 40 seconds into the mission of the Dawn spacecraft, this is Delta Launch Control.