And as I mentioned, we had a good spacecraft separation of both of our spacecraft for a successful launch. I have with me Chuck Dovale,
who is our NASA launch manager for this mission. And first of all, it's good to see that we had a good launch tonight,
but we had a couple of attempts that didn't work out quite like we wanted to.
We were on the ground a little bit longer than we hoped to be. But I'm sure the team's thrilled that we got this one off today.
Absolutely. When we lifted off, you could just feel the release. Not only watching the vehicle leave the pad, but just the,
the release that the folks had in the center here was just incredible.
You know, this is the 50th launch for the Launch Services Program and it was, it was quite a difficult mission almost from start to finish,
and the last week to 10 days certainly wasn't any different. We had quite a few scrubs. You know,
we came in and actually counted all the way down and scrubbed. And in between, we had days where we, we, we called it off early.
So this was technically the fourth attempt --
Right.
-- and a great success -- Right.
-- and the team is just ecstatic.
Well, we had a, you know, we had a good day. Like I say, we launched on time, 3:02 in the morning Pacific time.
But it seemed like a pretty smooth count today. We didn't work, did we work any particular problems of any sort?
Very minor things. There was a water pump issue at the pad, brought into question whether or not they were working properly,
so we did a quick water test. That was for the deluge system, make sure it was going to work at liftoff.
A, a balloon, late in the flow, was going to come in with noisy data, so we had to switch to another one.
But overall, it was a fairly quiet count, especially considering the, the last few that we had.
Right. And with a successful launch, I mean, the vehicle performed beautifully, and we didn't see any issues during the ascent at all.
I, I imagine, I mean, the spacecraft is separated now, so...Is that the case? Everything worked well?
That appears to be the case. Of course, this mission's never been easy. We didn't get data in real time from a few of the downrange stations.
They were recording it there, so there was a bit of a delay in confirming milestones that were happening.
But we have confirmed CALIPSO separated and we're getting, we're getting telemetry from them.
The depath separated and CloudSat just came off, so everything looks awesome.
So really, the only thing we're waiting for now is the acquisition of the CloudSat.
Correct.
Alright. Well, before we sign off, just give us a heads up. What's up next for the LSP?
Well, we get to fly back to our families who miss us quite a bit.
Right.
We're looking forward to STEREO, another Delta. And luckily, that's going to be taking off from the Cape, hopefully in July.
Okay, great. Well, Chuck, congratulations to you and the team.
Thank you, Bruce.
And everything, as we just heard, went extremely well for the launch of this, this,
for the CloudSat and CALIPSO spacecraft aboard the Boeing Delta II.
The data coming in to the telemetry lab has indicated there are no problems with either of the spacecraft so far,
and we anticipate that's going to be the case through the day.
We will issue a press release a little bit later to confirm that we have acquisition from all, from both of the spacecraft.
So, from Vandenberg Air Force Base at the Mission Director's Center, this is Delta Launch Control. Thank you.