George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: This is Delta Launch Control; 95 minutes 53 seconds into the flight of the
Delta II and joining us here now is Garrett Skrobot.
He is the ELaNa mission manager from the NASA Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center.
And,Garrett we are coming up on the first ejection of the first P-POD.
Show us what it is that is coming out if you can.
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: Yeah George it is great that we are almost here to eject our first CubeSats.
As you saw earlier Roland showed you the P-POD and what will come out on
the first one is this small four inch cube the size of a beanie baby.
There is three of them in the first ejection.
And then on the second P-POD ejection 100 seconds later you gonna have a full 3U,
which we have three of these lined up together to make a full satellite.
And, then the last P-POD when ejects it is gonna have what you call two 1.5 Us,
which is a little bit longer and these two will do experiments together.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: So, tell us which one is going to come out here in about another minute and a half.
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: Now in just about a minute we have the three,
first three universities, Montana, Auburn University and Michigan.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: And, how much time is there between when
those deploy and when the next set comes out?
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: Approximately about 100 seconds in between each one of them.
And, we have about 100 seconds between them for what we call collision avoidance between the cubes.
We want to ensure that we don't re-contact the cube from another POD ejecting.
So, we have a short duration between each one of them to vary the orbits a little bit so they will be safe to everybody.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: And, we are going to be listening here to I think Steve Agid in just a
minute to confirm that we have had the first ejections from the P-POD carrier that Roland showed us.
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: In just about 30 seconds,
you know we showed them at the press conference that the POD is actually mounted on the second stage,
just below NPP which successfully separated earlier this evening.
And, now there is kids all around the United States waiting to hear the sounds.
Steve Agid: Standing Bye: And we see the break wire for P-POD one.
P-POD one has separated and so obviously that one M-Cubed and Explorer-1 [Prime]
have separated from the Delta II Launch Vehicle.
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: (Clapping in the Delta Launch Control)
Alright, it sounds like we got the first one open.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: First one's out. So now let's see?
Steve Agid:One minute 15 seconds now for P-POD 2 separation.
P-POD 2, the Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployers number 2,
an experiment that quote tracks the Radio Aurora Ionosphere Experiment from the
University of Michigan. Located 190 degrees?
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: So now we are counting down to the second one. We have just about one minute to go.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator:O.K., this is the University of Michigan.
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: Yeah, one of the things George, is we still have to wait 45 minutes
after the cubes and all separate before we can turn the RS systems on and that is to
ensure that we don't interfere with the launch vehicle and the RF.
We already have confirmation from our ground stations in South Africa and Spain and France
that they're ready to pick up those signals for us.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: So we'll know that the P-PODS have deployed,
but it will be some amount of time before we have contact with them.
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: It will be about another hour before we start getting some beacons from them
to see the likeness of them and then the primary ground stations at the universities
will start collecting the data and start initiating the science.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: Alright, let's listen to Steve Agid again who will be calling about the next deployment.
Steve Agid: We are 3 hours 35 minutes and 45 seconds in. About 15 second now until P-POD 2 deploys.
And we have deploy of P-Pod 2, the RAX experiment, the Radio Aurora and
Ionosphere Experiment from the University of
Michigan experiment has successfully separated from the Delta II Launch Vehicle.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator:Alright, which one is coming up finally?
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: The last one is DICE from Utah State University .
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: That's the big one right?
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: That's two together, but they have the very complicated mechanisms
on them that they have had some tough times getting through,
but they made it and we are anxiously awaiting for their science to come through so we can gather it up.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: OK, we are about a minute away and each of these
spacecraft have their own ground station somewhere to get ?
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: Yeah they all have their own ground stations,
but there is a community of students around the world that gets the initial beacon
data from them to get some power and voltages just to make sure they are alive.
And, then their main ground stations will commission them and download their main data.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: And, so they can start getting science?what almost right away I guess?
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: Practically right away. Usually?Probably in the fifth orbit today they will
be going over U.S. ground stations and the team is already tailored up to collect that data for them.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: OK, let's listen to Steve Agid once again to get confirmation on the third one, on DICE.
Steve Agid: We have P-POD 3 separation. (Clapping in the Delta Launch Control)
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: Alright. There it is!
Steve Agid: P-Pod number three is successfully separated from the Delta II second stage.
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: ELaNa is now in orbit.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator:So, that I guess is something that all of these students?
and I guess they have been in a lot of locations all around the country watching this right?
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: They are all over the United States in their ground stations preparing to
collect the data and my team is going to go get ready for ELaNa six in end of July timeframe.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: And, that will be launched on?
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: It will be on the West Coast on an Atlas V with the NRO.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: So, it's another one here at Vandenberg.
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: Yes.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: Alright. Alright, Garrett thank you very much
our mission manager for the ELaNa program.
Garrett Skrobot/ELaNa Mission Manager: Thank you George.
George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: And with that we will conclude our launch coverage for NPP and the ELANA
mission at 102 minutes into the flight of the Delta II. This is Delta Launch Control.