WEBVTT

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Tracy Young/WISE Launch Commentator:  From the Mission Director's Center on Vandenberg Air Force Base,

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this is Delta Launch Control at T-one hour, 37 minutes and counting.

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The countdown for this morning's launch of a Delta II rocket is proceeding as planned,

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the launch team is currently working no 
technical issues and weather is favorable

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with an 80 percent chance of acceptable conditions at launch time.

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The only weather concern for this morning's 
launch attempt is for a chance of

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cumulus cloud coverage within the vicinity of the launch pad.

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The launch window extends for 14 minutes with liftoff targeted at the opening of the window at 6:09 a.m. Pacific time.

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Launching aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, spacecraft.

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WISE will survey the entire sky in infrared light with sensitivity hundreds of times greater than ever before.

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The space telescope will pick up the glow of millions of objects too dim to be seen by previous observatories.

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Among the objects that WISE will uncover are dark near-Earth asteroids,

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distant galaxies and the nearest stars too cool to shine in visible light.

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The WISE mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

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The spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado., and the science instrument was built by the

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Space Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.

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The WISE science team is comprised of 
scientists from various organizations

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and educational institutions throughout the country.

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The WISE principal investigator, Ned Wright, is based at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA).

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The Delta vehicle that will carry WISE into space consists of several major assemblies:  the first stage,

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which includes three strap-on solid rocket boosters; the second stage;

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and the two-piece composite payload fairing encasing the spacecraft on board.

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In just a few minutes, the launch team will receive a weather update from Launch Weather Officer Captain.

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Andrew Frey of the 30th Weather Squadron on the status of conditions for this morning's launch attempt.

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At T-one hour, 36 minutes and counting, this is Delta Launch Control.

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