BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: This is shuttle Launch Control at T-9 minutes and holding,
with about 28 minutes remaining in our scheduled built-in hold. And I'm pleased to have with me Jim Kennedy,
who is the center director at the Kennedy Space Center. Jim, thanks for joining us tonight.
JIM KENNEDY: You're welcome, Bruce. Pleasure to be here.
BUCKINGHAM: Thank you. We've got a lot of operations that have been going on here at Kennedy for preparation
for a launch tonight, tonight at 9:35, and over the past several months,
how have things gone with preparing Discovery for launch?
KENNEDY: Let me start with tonight. Things are looking real good, actually, for a launch.
I know we all worried about the weather. There've been virtually no hardware problems. The weather is trending in
the direction, so I think all of the labor over the last many months are going
to come to fruition tonight with the launch of Discovery.
But you mentioned how have they gone for the last several months. I must say that the entire shuttle team,
government and contractor alike were challenged by Wayne Hale, the program manager, to see if we can't
pull this date back, get away from the end of the year, get into a time
where our people can take some much-deserved vacation.
And he challenged them to pull it all the way back to December 7, and here we sit on the seventh of December,
after many months of hard work and I, I think it's going to be a big reward tonight.
BUCKINGHAM: Well, we're certainly hoping so. Now, you've been center director here for the past several years at
Kennedy, and this is your last launch. This is your last shuttle launch. You've,
you've announced your retirement plans at the end of the year. Any thoughts or feeling
KENNEDY: Well, yeah, I feel good about it. It's been a tremendously rewarding four years for me at the Kennedy Space Center.
Bill Parsons is poised and ready to take over as director and will lead this center beautifully into the future.
And I will go into retirement knowing that it was a privilege and an honor to serve with these fine men and women
at the Kennedy Space Center and across all of NASA. It's a tremendous organization
and one that I take great pride in having been a part.
BUCKINGHAM: Great. And of course, you, you're a resident here in Central Florida at Cocoa Beach.
What are your plans for the future? Are you going to be hanging around?
KENNEDY: Yeah. We definitely won't leave. The way I put it, Bruce, we found our piece of paradise and we
plan on staying here in our Cocoa Beach condo, and I'll be watching these launches
maybe from a balcony next, next March when we launch STS-117.
BUCKINGHAM: Right. Exactly. We've got five launches next, next year.
So, we wish the best to you, sir, and hopefully, we have a good launch tonight.
KENNEDY: Thank you, Bruce. It's been a pleasure.