Derrol Nail, NASA Communications: All right, thank you very much, Joshua. And while we wait
for that solar array deploy, we want to chat with NASA’s launch services provider Omar Baez,
a launch manager himself. Thanks for coming out here and joining us.
We’re awaiting, of course, solar array deploy, but you mentioned something interesting about
the deployment of these solar arrays. There’s not a mechanical or electrical trigger for this.
Omar Baez, NASA’s Launch Services Program: No. Usually, it’s just a little bit of paraffin holding
them in – wax – and you wait for it to be in the proper attitude to get the Sun and have it melt
at a certain temperature, and the solar arrays will spring out and be in their position.
Marina Jurica, NASA Communications: So, once it melts, then the
solar arrays just pop right out. Omar: There’s other mechanisms at times where
you do an electrical deployment, but this is very simple. The simpler you keep it, the better.
Derrol: Simple to study the ocean. So, we like it. The launch from our perspective, viewing it,
it just looked magnificent from out here. And Omar, I can’t help but notice the booster’s back
there too. It’s sitting there at the pad. Omar: It’s a nice sight to come over the hill and
see the booster sitting there without the second stage and the payload fairing. And, what a sight.
This is very unusual for Vandenberg to have this beautiful, non-marine layer type of launch, and
it was a pleasure to watch from the control room – we actually had a window where we could see it
launch, and we actually saw the landing from it too.
So, usually as a launch director, I get to see it on a TV monitor.
This time, I had both – I had the TV monitor, I could look out the window and watch it,
so it was a pretty cool thing to watch. Derrol: Yeah, your colleague Tim Dunn of course
is the launch manager for this mission, and he’s back there working it, so we appreciate
you popping out. And then of course, you talk about the clear sky – we were looking at it,
we could see the separation of the first stage, from the second stage, I mean it
seemed like for like three or four minutes. It was amazing just how clear the sky was.
Marina: Crystal clear blue skies. And like you said, I’ve had a dozen launches here before, and
it’s just that marine layer gets sucked into this valley here, and usually,
we can’t see a thing. I remember InSight very well – we heard it, but we didn’t see it.
Now, the last launch here was ICESat-2 from Vandenberg in 2018, so how does it feel to be back
to launch another Earth science mission today? Omar: So, ICESat was Launch Services Program’s last
NASA mission out of here – another of Dr. Freilich’s missions. And that was on the last mission of the
Delta II vehicle. It’s great to be out here. Those long periods of time – even for SpaceX, their pad’s
been down for roughly, almost a year-and-a-half from their last launch there. So, to get the
tempo going again – we’ve got missions coming up next year out of here, starting with DART,
which is the double asteroid redirect test. Derrol: That’s a neat one.
Omar: That is gonna be so cool, because this is one where
we’re gonna be catching up to the asteroid Didymos and going after one of its moonlets
that’s about one hundred and sixty meters across � we’re gonna impact that moonlet and try to impart
energy to redirect it. So, pretty cool planetary defense-type mission.
And that’ll be coming out of here in July on a Falcon 9 rocket.
Derrol: And then of course, five years from now, we’ll have another – Sentinel-6B will then
go up to follow on with this mission. Omar: That’s right. And shortly after this
summer in the fall, September 16th, we’ve scheduled Landsat for out of here. So that continues with
our partners at the geological survey, the mapping of the land surfaces and water surfaces for almost
50 years now. So, it’s a continuous measurement of real scientific data that’s available to all to
look at and to analyze and to speak the truth. Marina: Earth science missions so exciting over
the next couple of years. And then after Landsat, we’ve got NISAR and SWOT launching as well, so it’s
gonna be great. Great for Earth science. Derrol: That’s right. Omar Baez, Launch Services
Program launch manager, appreciate you coming out here and joining us. Congratulations.
Omar: Thank you. Marina: Congrats, Omar.