WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 GEORGE DILLER: Garrett Skrobot, who is the mission integration manager. 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:12.000 And Garrett, first of all, tell us so far this morning how you believe that the countdown has been going. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:12.000 GARRETT SKROBOT: Well, George, it seems like everything's been going well. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:22.000 At one point, we were a little bit ahead of schedule and at a stopping point and caught up, 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:27.000 and aircraft took off and we're on our way to the drop point. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:32.000 DILLER: Well, let's look now at some of the processing of the ST5 and the Pegasus rocket. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:39.000 We have some of the Pegasus being integrated, and perhaps you can walk us through this. 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:47.000 SKROBOT: OK, George. What we're looking at here is the Pegasus aft skirt being assembled onto the first stage of the launch vehicle. 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:53.000 These are Orbital technicians and engineers performing this work. 00:00:53.000 --> 00:01:02.000 Here in a minute, you'll be seeing the installation of the rudders and the fins. And as you remember from previously, that this was the area we had an issue 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:11.000 with a few days ago that caused us to wait until today to, for an attempt. So here they are, they're lining up the fins, 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:19.000 and making careful that nothing inside the area is damaged or pinched or, make sure the clearances are proper. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:24.000 And then they push it right up against there and they start bolting it in. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:33.000 This takes quite a bit of time. Here we're going to take a look at the first stage being mated to the 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:36.000 second stage of the Pegasus, what we call stage two 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:40.000 and then this is stage three, going on with the avionics section on the front end of it. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:49.000 This is carefully aligned and the technicians get ready to bolt it in, as you can see here. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:56.000 Careful measurements are made at all the interface points to make sure everything's properly assembled. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:05.000 And they bring the second stage into the first stage area here, and then they're slowly installing once again. 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:16.000 They'll attach it and bolt it in, and then flight separation point. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:21.000 These are also Orbital engineers and technicians. Here we have the spacecraft being uncrated 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:27.000 over in 1555 and this happened about approximately January, mid-January time period. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:32.000 DILLER: And 1555, I guess, that's the hangar, where the hangar is. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:35.000 SKROBOT: That's the Orbital facility, yes. Previously the facility was over in 836, which is a NASA facility, 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:38.000 and they were right there about a month before this happened to 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:45.000 do their checkout. And they got loaded onto their dolly. This is the payload separation support structure 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:50.000 with the three spacecraft being moved over into their support dolly, 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:59.000 which will be able to maneuver the spacecraft around the facilities a little better. Once they get this bolted down, they'll remove the slings, 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:05.000 as you see here, and they'll move it over into the clean room tent and start what they call their functional testing, 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:11.000 to make sure that the spacecraft are still healthy after the transport 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:15.000 to transport from the previous facility. Resistive checks are made, and then flight functional checks are made. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:19.000 And here we have what they call the "pop and catch test," 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:24.000 is they're checking out their separation systems to make sure they work properly when they get on orbit. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:27.000 DILLER: That's the separation mechanism of deployment. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:33.000 SKROBOT: Yes it is. Here we see them taking the payload support structure and attaching it to the avionics section. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:41.000 This is a unique system, because we're not separating from the Pegasus. The spacecraft's actually separating from their hardware themselves. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:43.000 So, where this is a hardbolt to the Pegasus first stage... 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:45.000 DILLER: So they're on a carrier that's on top of the rocket and separating from that. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:50.000 SKROBOT: Yes, the payload support structure, we call it. Once they get integrated onto the 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:56.000 Pegasus, they go into a black light to make sure the area's very clean and 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:06.000 there's no particles in. And you see here, we've got the first part of the fairing on. And the technicians are aligning it very carefully to make sure there's no 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:18.000 interference with the spacecraft and all the clearances are proper. This takes about a day to get this portion of the work done. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:32.000 And then they'll slowly move it in, line it up and put it in position and then they'll bolt it in. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:41.000 Now there's two parts of the fairing. You see here one half, the second half is over in the other clean area and it'll be wheeled over momentarily, 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:48.000 you'll see here. Doing the black light inspection once again and finishing up the bolting of the first half. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:58.000 Here's the second half of the fairing, and you can see there's a liner inside of it. This helps with contamination and environmental constraints for the, 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:15.000 the spacecraft. The technician here, you can see, has got a wipe, they put alcohol on to remove any contamination that was on the fairing. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:25.000 This is a slow process, and then the second half of the fairing is installed and then 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:32.000 the vehicle is put onto the transporter, in which it gets transported over to the L-1011 vehicle. 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:37.000 DILLER: And that's about how far, you'd guess, from the hangar out to the runway? 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:40.000 SKROBOT: I'm not sure there, George, on that one. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:44.000 DILLER: I think it's probably on the order of at least a couple of miles, I think. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:57.000 SKROBOT: Yeah. The, as you can see, that day was a weather climate day. It was raining a little bit on us and there were some delays, 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:05.000 but the team hung in there and was able to get the vehicle up underneath the L-1011. 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:13.000 It's a very slow process, make sure everything goes in and aligns very properly. 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:21.000 As you can see here, the L-1011 is jacked up so the Pegasus can fit up underneath it, and also the rear rudder has also been removed, 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:32.000 so it can also have clearance underneath the L-1011. And it gets put up inside the L-1011, and then the vehicle is lifted up from the carrier up to the 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:45.000 L-1011 and mated, and then they go back and install the rudder here. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:57.000 And once again, these are the Orbital technicians and engineers performing these tasks for us. 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:03.000 And then they make sure that everything's ready, and then they'll take the L-1011 and lower it down off the jacks, and -- 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:10.000 DILLER: And then is there a round of tests that they perform to make sure that it's connected? 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:16.000 SKROBOT: Yeah. Once the vehicle's connected to the L-1011, they do the CST test, combined systems testing, which verifies all the 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:23.000 mechanical electrical systems are operating properly for, for launch today. 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:34.000 DILLER: Well, Garrett, thanks very much, and it looks like we're, we're off on a good mission here today. No issues are at work and the aircraft continues to climb 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:41.000 to its 39,000-foot altitude. So, once again, thanks very much. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:43.000 SKROBOT: Thank you, George. 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:45.000 DILLER: Our next, we have another Pegasus this year, later on? 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:51.000 SKROBOT: Later this year, the AIM mission is coming up. And it's end of fall this year. 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:56.000 DILLER: And then at that point, we'll be back. And thanks once again 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:01.000 SKROBOT: Alright, thank you, George. 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:10.000 DILLER: And we're now at 28 minutes before the launch of the Pegasus XL with ST5. This is Pegasus Launch Control.