GEORGE DILLER: Steve Cox, who is the operations manager for the Mission Director's Center. We're now seated at these consoles.
And this is the last launch that this Mission Director's Center will be supporting because ST5 is a transition mission into a completely
new Mission Director's Center and a launch vehicle data center. So, Steve, tell us, first of all, the current facility -- how long has it been a
Mission Director's Center here at Vandenberg Air Force Base? STEVE COX: This facility was started around 1964 with a Thor Agena
launch. Since that time, we've supported a little over 110 launches. As, as part of that, we've also supported both Air Force and
commercial launches during that time period. DILLER: Well, why'd it become necessary to develop a new Mission Director's Center
here at Vandenberg? COX: Well, technology increases pretty rapidly and we've gone through three or four upgrades of this current
facility. During this last upgrade, we also looked at how we would improve our way we did operations. And so, when we improved the
technology, we gave us opportunity to build a new room and improve the way we functioned as a launch crew. DILLER: Well, what
we're in now, as we see here on NASA TV, is the Mission Director's Center that we're using today, that is being used for the launch of
ST5. When we go to the new facility, there will be in addition to the new control room, two other adjacent control rooms which are part
of it. What are they called? How are they going to be supporting launches in the future? COX: These are launch vehicle data centers.
We have two of those on this coast and actually three of them on the West Coast, and they are primarily for our engineering team to sit
and monitor data. LVC, that is LVC 2, LVC 1 is where our launch contractor team sits and/or spacecraft team. For this mission, that
control room is set up for Orbital Sciences and that's where their launch team is. Additionally, we can actually tie the five control rooms
of both East and West Coast together so that we can have launch crews on both coasts supporting. DILLER: When did design and then
the construction of the new Mission Director's Center and the two launch vehicle data centers start? COX: The design for this started
about three and a half years ago when we started negotiating for space over in Building 836, where they're currently located. We went
into a design effort for about a year, and construction on this facility started January of last year for about, that lasted for about 10
months. Then we started outfitting the room with the ground-support equipment. That took about three or four months, so we finished up
in December of, of this year. DILLER: So, when will be the first launch that the new facility will be fully operational? COX: The first
launch support will be Cloudsat/CALIPSO in April. Shortly after that, we'll be working with the NRO to support a launch there, as well.
DILLER: If we could go back to some video of the new facilities, Steve, maybe you could tell us which ones that we're looking at as we
kind of go through the shots, if they can bring them back up for us. COX: This is LVDC 2. This is where the engineering team sits. We
host about 24 seats in there, nominally. DILLER: Now, is this the NASA or the Orbital team? COX: This is the NASA engineering team. And
we have that equivalent facility on the West Coast, and we try and keep the two facilities as similar as possible so that their concept of
operation can be just picked up and used both on East and West Coast. DILLER: Let's see, if we can go to another shot. This would be...
COX: Yeah, this is the back view of an engineering area, LVDC 2. DILLER: And this is very similar to LVDC 1, and I think that's
where the Orbital team is today. COX: That's correct. DILLER: Where the launch conductor is, and the... COX: We try and keep the
two rooms as similar as possible because that allows us the maximum flexibility as to how we support. We can actually configure them,
either room to support either team if we need to. And we can set them actually up to support individual operations as needed.
DILLER: Well, Steve, thank you very much, and we'll be looking forward to the CALIPSO/Cloudsat launch when all of these new
facilities will be up and running. And hopefully, today's launch will affirm that it's ready to go. COX: Thank you.
DILLER: Thank you. We're now at one hour, 21 minutes, 47 seconds and counting. This is Pegasus Launch Control.