This is Atlas Launch Control.
And after a successful launch today and the successful deployment of the TDRS-M
satellite, we are very pleased to be joined by our NASA Launch Manager from NASA's
Launch Services Program here at Kennedy Space Center, Tim Dunn.
Thank you Mike.
Great to be here.
It was a beautiful launch and a great mission.
We had a little bit of a delay earlier on, and I wondered if you could just give us an
overview of what that was all about.
Oh sure, be glad to.
So, obviously there's a lot of relief from the team right now.
A lot of celebration.
A lot of excitement.
Loved spacecraft separation.
It's the best part of a launch campaign.
So many hours are put in to getting to this exact point when you know you have a healthy
satellite that you've just separated from the launch vehicle about to go do its mission
it was intended for.
So, we had a beautiful morning, great weather, great rocket prop loading with the cryos.
No problems there.
Power-on sequence went really well.
And as we were chilling the Centaur engine down we noticed one of the chilldown parameters
on the thermal conditioning for the LOX side was not quite getting cold enough in time
to meet the original 8:03 a.m.
T-0.
So, we needed a little extra time, so you heard a little bit of discussion on the net.
What we wanted to do was maximize our opportunity and try to preserve as much of our 40-minute
window as was possible.
So you heard us kind of stepping through from a 8:03 to about an 8:15, 8:16, 8:18, and then
we knew it was probably out around the 8:30 timeframe.
So that's what you heard as we were marching through that, because should we not have launched
on that opportunity, we wanted to leave ourselves 10 or 15 minutes on the backside to get another
potential recycle.
So, appreciate everyone's patience.
I know those, when you're not part of the team that's working the anomaly, and you're
not, you don't look at the data, it's gets a little bit frustrating and you're not sure.
Wait, are these guys going to launch today.
Are they not.
We don't know.
But ULA did a magnificent job of managing the situation.
Diligently mapping out and extrapolating the data to give us that opportunity and let us
all target in on that 8:29 opportunity.
There was a lot of conversation going on nets behind the scenes.
Absolutely.
You and Bill Cullen, the United Launch Alliance Launch Director, and Ed Kitta, the launch
conductor, and the teams, along with the TDRS-M spacecraft team, in working your way through
that and coordinating a new T-0 time.
Yes.
You may have heard my discussions with the spacecraft side.
Because TDRS-M was rock solid in the payload fairing, ready to launch at any point during
our 40-minute window.
But, I need to give the spacecraft mission director a heads-up so that he can prepare
the downrange assets to know when the new T-0 is.
So you heard a lot of that discussion.
But, I'll just take a moment to extend your comments about the team that you may just
hear guys like a launch director, an NLM talking, but there are thousands of people that we
represent, from ULA, to NASA Goddard, NASA KSC, NASA Headquarters, and then Boeing, who
built the spacecraft.
They've got a wonderful team that built this satellite and got it ready for today, and
it's going to operate on orbit for what we hope is 10 or 15 years.
So, a great day for the team.
It's always a great day when you launch.
And we're going to really celebrate this one.
And one thing Mike I've got for you here is, you know I love the NASA meatball as much
as any other person in our agency, but I also brought you something here.
Thank you very much.
It's the TDRS-M pin.
And I got a second one, because I was watching you and Josh.
You guys, I want you to put these on.
You're part of our team.
We will do that.
Tim, thank you so much.
And thank you once again on a very successful launch today at 8:29 a.m. eastern time.
It was a beautiful day and congratulations.
Great job managing the team.
Thank you.