WEBVTT

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Intro music.

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GEORGE DILLER: This is Delta Launch Control now at T-1 hour, 10 seconds and counting, leading to our launch tonight

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at 8:38 for STEREO. We're going to keep the flow going now. We have with us here at the console

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in the Mission Director's Center, Rex Engelhardt, who is the NASA mission integration

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manager from the Kennedy Space Center,

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and Rex has been following this mission for a long time because his primary responsibility

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is what all transpires, what is required to have a successful match, a mate and interface,

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between the STEREO spacecraft and the Delta II rocket.

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But what he's going to do for us now is to kind of take us through what's been done to get

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the Delta II launch vehicle ready for flight and bring STEREO out and mate to it.

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So, Rex, we're going to roll the tape now, and if you could kind of talk us through what's been going on.

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REX ENGELHARDT: Be my pleasure. Looking right here is bringing the first stage of our Delta II rocket

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into the tower and they're getting ready to erect that for assembly on the pad.

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What you see is we're using the mobile service tower, the, the Delta Complex 17 Pad has a mobile and

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a fixed portion. This is the mobile tower. They're using the crane at the top to pick the first

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stage up, and we see it there. They're picking it up with the crane up top and then they will,

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just a second, you'll see they'll drive the tower forward to help erect it and get the stage to a

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vertical configuration. That's what you're looking at now, is the drive wheels in the bottom of the mobile tower.

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And what they do is they get that first stage vertical, you can see it's almost there now,

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and they'll get it mounted down on the launch mounds, now you're looking at it now with the first stage

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erected and bolted down to the launch mounds. And we'll start assembling the rest of the rocket around that now.

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DILLER: So that's the launcher there, actually.

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ENGELHARDT: That's correct. And what you're seeing here is the, they're lifting up the first

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of the solid motors. This is a 79/25 rocket, which means it's a Delta II with nine solids.

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They also have a three- and a four-solid configuration. And what they do is they take the solid motors

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and they pick them up with the tower crane and they mount them on the mobile service tower,

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and then you'll see in a few minutes, they get about three at a time.

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They will take that tower and roll it up around the vehicle and transfer the solid motors from the service

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tower onto the rocket, where they'll be bolted on for launch.

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And what you're seeing now is you got three mounted on to the service tower.

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In a minute, you'll see that rolling up and around the vehicle. This is all part of the build;

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they have to do that three times. They do three at a time and we've got nine this time.

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And we have, there's actually two different flavors of, of solid motors.

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You have the ground lit; six of them light on the ground when the rocket launches

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and when those burn out, you light the other three. And they put all nine of those on.

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DILLER: So that's what's happening for this launch tonight?

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ENGELHARDT: Correct. You can see the tower moving up now. If you look at the rockets,

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you see that there's no solids on it yet, so this is the first set of three that they're

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getting ready to put on. It comes in very close, there's not a whole lot of clearances,

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but they bring those, those solids in and around and then transfer them onto the vehicle

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and then roll the tower back and get three more.

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We had some challenges getting this far this time because we had some problems with the crane

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a little bit, but we got past them and got the rocket built up.

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What you're looking at now is the second stage of our rocket.

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It's being lifted up the side of the tower and they will pick it up and then they will mount it

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on top of the rocket. They carry it kind of up and over to the payload area.

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It's up to about the top of the tower right now, and then they'll bring it, translate it across and drop

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it down into the top of the rocket. Actually, what you're putting it into actually mates what's

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called the inner stage, which is basically a long cylinder which allows room for that engine sticking down,

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so it doesn't get banged on by the first stage when the rocket's performing.

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They're lowering it down now and getting it close to the rocket.

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And then what'll happen is in a minute you'll see they'll open the payload, and that's where it bolts right

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to the top of that second stage. This is where we start getting serious.

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We're bringing the spacecraft out, and this is, usually we leave the Payload Processing Facility usually

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around midnight to avoid the bad weather, and the winds are calm and we bring it out early in the morning.

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Usually, the, the spacecraft is up and on the rocket by like 5 or 6 in the morning.

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They got at the base of the pad, you see it's in a metal canister which is wrapped in plastic for

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contamination reasons, and they attach it again to the crane and they pick it up the side of the tower.

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If you look real close, you'll see there's actually rails there to help give you protection from winds.

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It kind of controls it a little bit.

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You get to the top of the tower and they, they translate it across again to the white room,

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and they start setting it down through the levels and move it down to the top of the rocket.

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The bottom, you see what we call a direct mate adaptor.

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It allows us to actually bolt the spacecraft and the transportation can all as a unit now

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on the rocket. It's handling a lot easier.

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What you're looking at now is they're starting to disassemble that can.

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They can't quite get the whole thing

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off with the crane, but they go one level up and they pick the whole cylinder up off the top,

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just lift it right up over the top of the spacecraft and they sit it back down

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and take it apart up in the white room. And what you see right now is they're taking the bottom part,

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the leaves, and they'll disassemble it and remove it.

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Conical section coming off around right there. And now they've got the bags coming off the spacecraft.

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It's got two or three bags on it that you can take off at different times in the flow as you get closer

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and closer to launch to get whatever dirt you've picked up. Now we've jumped ahead about 10 days

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and we have, all the bagging is off the spacecraft, we're lifting platforms in the white room,

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getting ready for putting the fairings on.

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This is an extended fairing. This is the first time we've launched the 10L fairing,

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which is, what's happened is they've extended the cylindrical section of the fairing to give you more room

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for spacecraft inside. And we're putting those fairings on around the satellites right now.

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It's a pretty picture of both the spacecraft. All of the bagging is off

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and we're very close to a flight configuration.

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DILLER: Appears to be a very large fairing, compared to what I'm accustomed to seeing anyway.

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ENGELHARDT: It's very long. It's actually the same total length as the normal fairing,

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but what you've done is you've made it more blunt at the top and extended the cylindrical section.

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Gets you a long, exposed open area inside.

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DILLER: Well, Rex, a little bit on the, the second stage. That's,

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today, that was fueled before today, wasn't it?

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ENGELHARDT: Yes, that was fueled a few days ago. It's very critical that we do that because

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once you fuel that second stage, you've only got a limited amount of time that's,

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I can't remember exactly, it's like 27 days or so that the, the fuels up there are corrosive

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and they start softening up the seals and the motors.

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So you have to, you have to launch within that time or you have to rebuild the stage.

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DILLER: And I guess the fact that the propellants are storable really means that you can load

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them on a day or two before launch and not have to go through that hazardous process

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on launch day in addition to what we're already doing.

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ENGELHARDT: Correct. We're doing the cryogenic ones because they evaporate,

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so you can't really do them early. The hypergols are storable, but again they're

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also corrosive, so you've got a little bit of a balancing act.

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But it makes for a smooth flow to get those out of the way a couple

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days earlier and then get into the count.

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DILLER: Well, Rex, thank you very much. I know we're glad to have the inside

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here on how we got to this point today. And I guess we've only got, let's see here,

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a little more than an hour and a half left and it's what we've all been working toward.

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So thanks very much.

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ENGELHARDT: It's going to be a good launch. Thank you, George.

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DILLER: Thank you.

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