NASA Launch Commentator Mike Curie: We are very pleased to be joined by NASA’s GOES-S
launch manager and a member of the Kennedy Space Center Launch Services Program, Tim
Dunn.
Congratulations, Tim.
GOES-S Launch Manager Tim Dunn: Thank you so much, Mike.
Glad to be here.
Curie: It seemed to be a picture-perfect countdown.
Dunn: Wow.
This was smooth.
They don’t all come this way, but when they do, we truly appreciate them.
Really, we did not say one word on the Anomaly Net the entire day.
And so, you like that.
That’s a good countdown.
Curie: And weather cooperated with you as well.
Dunn: Gorgeous weather.
Obviously, if you saw any of the outside shots here in the local Cape Canaveral area, you
knew it was a “chamber of commerce” day.
So really appreciate that.
You may have heard some discussion on upper-level winds; that was really about the only thing
we were discussing.
Had a little bit of a disturbance at about 45,000 feet that we had to just model correctly
to ensure that Atlas V could smoothly fly through that regime and maintain its controllability.
So once we got that well in hand, about the last half hour or so of the countdown, there
was really nothing else to monitor, other than an exceptional team – a tremendous
team.
I’ll tell you, working with the United Launch Alliance team on Atlas V is a real pleasure.
Watching the NASA Launch Services Program engineering team manage a countdown, watching
what our chief engineer and his team do, seeing how our spacecraft customer from Goddard Space
Flight Center, the GOES-S project program, how they come and they integrate in for that
last few months leading up to launch, and then to execute all of that on launch day,
and to receive tremendous range support that we get from the United States Air Force here
with the 45th Space Wing, just watching this multi-disciplined team do its thing, it’s
just so rewarding to watch.
I love it.
I feel so honored to be a very small part of this team.
It’s just a thrill, especially when it all ends in launch success, and mission success,
for GOES-S and this cutting-edge weather capability that our nation will now have.
Curie: Yeah, all of what you said is very true.
It is an amazing team of people that stretches across the country with United Launch Alliance
and the NASA teams.
How long has this whole launch process been for GOES-S?
How long have you been working this launch?
Dunn: Well, specific to GOES-S, we’ve been working about 15 months, just on GOES-S, because
15 months ago we were here launching GOES-R, its predecessor, which is now on orbit and
providing great weather data for our use.
So, kind of, GOES-R and -S together, has been a multi-year development that’s been in
work for probably about the past five to seven years.
So, all of that, there’s a lot of work that goes into a launch day like this.
Curie: Will you be our NASA Launch Manager when we come around to GOES-T?
Dunn: We’re not sure.
Looking forward to GOES-T. Looks like that’s going to be in a couple of years, in 2020.
Omar Baez, our other program launch director, and I, we sort of flip coins and decide who
does which launch.
But if it’s my turn, I’d be honored to do it.
Omar would, likewise.
Curie: Okay.
Well, this will be a great process watching that all develop, and we’ll be standing
by for the solar array deploy on GOES-S.
The beginning of about a 22-day timeline as it gets ready to get into action.
But up until this point it’s been a terrific launch campaign.
Dunn: Right.
So I’ll just say for a moment this is a huge year for Launch Services Program.
This is the first of six launches that our program has this year, so very busy year for
us.
Working from both coasts, here at the cape as well as Vandenberg, and downrange in the
Pacific at Kwajalein.
So, Pegasus will fly a payload for us.
Our first flight on the Delta IV Heavy vehicle, we’ll go out to Vandenberg and do another
Atlas from Vandenberg with a Mars mission from the west coast of the United States – we’ve
never gone interplanetary from the west coast.
That’s going to be a thrill.
And we’re launching a Falcon 9 here from the cape with SpaceX, just next month, in
April.
And then one that’s a little close to my heart, the very final Delta II, will launch
this year from Vandenberg carrying the ICESat-2 mission.
Curie: You’re very fond of Delta II.
Dunn.
I am fond.
I love Atlas V, I love them all, but Delta II will always have a special place in my
heart.
Curie: I remember you talking about you can love just one of your children – you do
love all of your children, but you do have a special place in your heart for the Delta
II.
Well, thank you again for stopping by, Tim, and congratulations again today on such a
culmination of a wonderful launch campaign and a beautiful launch of GOES-S.
Dunn: Great.
Thank you, Mike.
Curie: You bet.
Thank you.