Upbeat music. Upbeat music.
Malissa Reyes: We are here at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California where a large team of engineers and scientists are getting ready to launch the NPOESS Preparatory Project, better known as the NPP satellite. It is the Nation's first attempt to combine weather and climate observations on the same platform. It's also here at Vandenberg where the NPP spacecraft is sitting on top of Delta II rocket and we are going to take you inside, talk to the project scientist about what this mission means and follow the engineers in their final steps leading to countdown.
What are the goals of the NPP mission?
James Gleason: We want to continue the scientific measurements that NASA satellites have been making over the past decade and improved the that will be used for weather forecasting.
Malissa Reyes:What's special about launching here from Vandenberg?
JamesGleason: Vandenberg is a verys pecial place, it's where we can do the polar orbiting launches, we can launch South into a safe zone over the ocean.
Malissa Reyes: Why apolar orbit?
James Gleason: With a poler-orbiting satellite we are able to view the entire Earth twice a day, which is very important for our measurements.
Malissa Reyes: Describe what weare seeing here in the tower.
Michael Marosco: Ok the building on the left is theMobile Service Tower or MST. It's a 177 feet tall and its on wheels. Once the tower is retracted, you'll seethe rocket in all its glory. It's very exciting. The building on the right is the fixed umbilical tower. That provides the air conditioning, and other umbilicals over to the vehicle that are required all the way throughT0.
Malissa Reyes: What's going tobe witnessed here on the ground after the count reaches zero?
Michael Marosco: Aaah, you seethe engines ignite, the rocket lifts off very quickly, after about two minutes, the rocket is pretty much out of sight. It goes really quick. This is Mobile Service Tower level 2. This is an8-foot diameter tank. The Delta II carries ten thousand gallons of RP-1 fuel. So, this is what a ten thousand gallon fuel tank looks like. We are standing now on the level C level of the Mobile Service Tower. The forward end of the solid rocket motors. They are 40-inch diameter and each solid motor is 42,5 feet long. These solid motors each put out a hundred thousand pounds of thrust. Underneath in the red blanket is the rocket RS-27A main engine and that puts out about 250 thousand pounds of thrust. So, in this configuration at lift off 850 thousand pounds of thrust. These motors will be jettisoned after about a minute and a half, two minutes of flight and they will end up in the bottom of the ocean.
MalissaReyes: We are here outside the Mission Director Center and we are joined by Jerry Nagy, theNPP Launch Operations Manager from Goddard SpaceFlight Center and Jerry, what happens here on the day of Jerry Nagy: Ok, well, this is really the hub of communication where the various management organizations from UnitedLaunch Alliance, NASA Kennedy Space FlightCenter, NASA Goddard SpaceFlight Center, and Ball Aerospace will take inputs from all the people that are supporting the launch and give the ok to actually launch the rocket.
Malissa Reyes: How far are we from the tower right now?
Jerry Nagy: We are approximately 12 miles from the launch pad.
Ken Schwer: This is where the entire launch management team at the night of launch assembles. Each one of these rows have what we call back rooms so we have people in other parts of the facility in Vandenberg who are doing the engineering aspect of what they are doing so this all feeds together, we integrate and as we get closer to launch, each one of these groups has a person who says Go!
Malissa Reyes: So how do the people in this room prepare for launch day?
Ken Schwer: We actually have an event called a Mission DressRehearsal. So, we are all here,we have the countdown script, and then there is a team that has developed simulated anomalies for us. And each one of those groups needs to try to work through those and get them back to a "go"criteria and then continue on.Tim Dunn: ...it is fully operational again...
Malissa Reyes: So, the final Go! is given in this room? Ken Schwer: Yes, the final Go! is given in this room.
Malissa Reyes: How do you think it is going to feel for you emotionally when you actually see that reaching into orbit?
Ken Schwer: The safest place for a satellite is in orbit. The emotions of making sure it's finally in its home, it finally gets to do its job,it is hard to describe. What makes the aerospace industry so exciting is that one day a person can have a concept to meet our Nation's needs, which leads to many dedicated people working for quite a few years through the entire developmen tuntil one day a satellite like NPP is ready for launch. Closing music. Closing music. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.