Intro music.
GEORGE DILLER: This is Delta Launch Control now at T-1 hour, 10 seconds and counting, leading to our launch tonight
at 8:38 for STEREO. We're going to keep the flow going now. We have with us here at the console
in the Mission Director's Center, Rex Engelhardt, who is the NASA mission integration
manager from the Kennedy Space Center,
and Rex has been following this mission for a long time because his primary responsibility
is what all transpires, what is required to have a successful match, a mate and interface,
between the STEREO spacecraft and the Delta II rocket.
But what he's going to do for us now is to kind of take us through what's been done to get
the Delta II launch vehicle ready for flight and bring STEREO out and mate to it.
So, Rex, we're going to roll the tape now, and if you could kind of talk us through what's been going on.
REX ENGELHARDT: Be my pleasure. Looking right here is bringing the first stage of our Delta II rocket
into the tower and they're getting ready to erect that for assembly on the pad.
What you see is we're using the mobile service tower, the, the Delta Complex 17 Pad has a mobile and
a fixed portion. This is the mobile tower. They're using the crane at the top to pick the first
stage up, and we see it there. They're picking it up with the crane up top and then they will,
just a second, you'll see they'll drive the tower forward to help erect it and get the stage to a
vertical configuration. That's what you're looking at now, is the drive wheels in the bottom of the mobile tower.
And what they do is they get that first stage vertical, you can see it's almost there now,
and they'll get it mounted down on the launch mounds, now you're looking at it now with the first stage
erected and bolted down to the launch mounds. And we'll start assembling the rest of the rocket around that now.
DILLER: So that's the launcher there, actually.
ENGELHARDT: That's correct. And what you're seeing here is the, they're lifting up the first
of the solid motors. This is a 79/25 rocket, which means it's a Delta II with nine solids.
They also have a three- and a four-solid configuration. And what they do is they take the solid motors
and they pick them up with the tower crane and they mount them on the mobile service tower,
and then you'll see in a few minutes, they get about three at a time.
They will take that tower and roll it up around the vehicle and transfer the solid motors from the service
tower onto the rocket, where they'll be bolted on for launch.
And what you're seeing now is you got three mounted on to the service tower.
In a minute, you'll see that rolling up and around the vehicle. This is all part of the build;
they have to do that three times. They do three at a time and we've got nine this time.
And we have, there's actually two different flavors of, of solid motors.
You have the ground lit; six of them light on the ground when the rocket launches
and when those burn out, you light the other three. And they put all nine of those on.
DILLER: So that's what's happening for this launch tonight?
ENGELHARDT: Correct. You can see the tower moving up now. If you look at the rockets,
you see that there's no solids on it yet, so this is the first set of three that they're
getting ready to put on. It comes in very close, there's not a whole lot of clearances,
but they bring those, those solids in and around and then transfer them onto the vehicle
and then roll the tower back and get three more.
We had some challenges getting this far this time because we had some problems with the crane
a little bit, but we got past them and got the rocket built up.
What you're looking at now is the second stage of our rocket.
It's being lifted up the side of the tower and they will pick it up and then they will mount it
on top of the rocket. They carry it kind of up and over to the payload area.
It's up to about the top of the tower right now, and then they'll bring it, translate it across and drop
it down into the top of the rocket. Actually, what you're putting it into actually mates what's
called the inner stage, which is basically a long cylinder which allows room for that engine sticking down,
so it doesn't get banged on by the first stage when the rocket's performing.
They're lowering it down now and getting it close to the rocket.
And then what'll happen is in a minute you'll see they'll open the payload, and that's where it bolts right
to the top of that second stage. This is where we start getting serious.
We're bringing the spacecraft out, and this is, usually we leave the Payload Processing Facility usually
around midnight to avoid the bad weather, and the winds are calm and we bring it out early in the morning.
Usually, the, the spacecraft is up and on the rocket by like 5 or 6 in the morning.
They got at the base of the pad, you see it's in a metal canister which is wrapped in plastic for
contamination reasons, and they attach it again to the crane and they pick it up the side of the tower.
If you look real close, you'll see there's actually rails there to help give you protection from winds.
It kind of controls it a little bit.
You get to the top of the tower and they, they translate it across again to the white room,
and they start setting it down through the levels and move it down to the top of the rocket.
The bottom, you see what we call a direct mate adaptor.
It allows us to actually bolt the spacecraft and the transportation can all as a unit now
on the rocket. It's handling a lot easier.
What you're looking at now is they're starting to disassemble that can.
They can't quite get the whole thing
off with the crane, but they go one level up and they pick the whole cylinder up off the top,
just lift it right up over the top of the spacecraft and they sit it back down
and take it apart up in the white room. And what you see right now is they're taking the bottom part,
the leaves, and they'll disassemble it and remove it.
Conical section coming off around right there. And now they've got the bags coming off the spacecraft.
It's got two or three bags on it that you can take off at different times in the flow as you get closer
and closer to launch to get whatever dirt you've picked up. Now we've jumped ahead about 10 days
and we have, all the bagging is off the spacecraft, we're lifting platforms in the white room,
getting ready for putting the fairings on.
This is an extended fairing. This is the first time we've launched the 10L fairing,
which is, what's happened is they've extended the cylindrical section of the fairing to give you more room
for spacecraft inside. And we're putting those fairings on around the satellites right now.
It's a pretty picture of both the spacecraft. All of the bagging is off
and we're very close to a flight configuration.
DILLER: Appears to be a very large fairing, compared to what I'm accustomed to seeing anyway.
ENGELHARDT: It's very long. It's actually the same total length as the normal fairing,
but what you've done is you've made it more blunt at the top and extended the cylindrical section.
Gets you a long, exposed open area inside.
DILLER: Well, Rex, a little bit on the, the second stage. That's,
today, that was fueled before today, wasn't it?
ENGELHARDT: Yes, that was fueled a few days ago. It's very critical that we do that because
once you fuel that second stage, you've only got a limited amount of time that's,
I can't remember exactly, it's like 27 days or so that the, the fuels up there are corrosive
and they start softening up the seals and the motors.
So you have to, you have to launch within that time or you have to rebuild the stage.
DILLER: And I guess the fact that the propellants are storable really means that you can load
them on a day or two before launch and not have to go through that hazardous process
on launch day in addition to what we're already doing.
ENGELHARDT: Correct. We're doing the cryogenic ones because they evaporate,
so you can't really do them early. The hypergols are storable, but again they're
also corrosive, so you've got a little bit of a balancing act.
But it makes for a smooth flow to get those out of the way a couple
days earlier and then get into the count.
DILLER: Well, Rex, thank you very much. I know we're glad to have the inside
here on how we got to this point today. And I guess we've only got, let's see here,
a little more than an hour and a half left and it's what we've all been working toward.
So thanks very much.
ENGELHARDT: It's going to be a good launch. Thank you, George.
DILLER: Thank you.