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[music playing]

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Peter Michaelson:  Well, the launch will be the most exciting thing.

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You know, I'm sure we'll all be breathless.

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Lynn Cominsky:  Launch is just very thrilling.

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It's a really exciting thing to go to and to experience.

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Dave Thompson:  But on the other hand, when you've worked on a project for many years

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as a lot of us have, and it's sitting out there on the launch pad

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you know that in 90 seconds, it could be all over.

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Kevin Grady:  On the day of launch you've turned this half-a-billion dollar piece of hardware

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that you've spent five years with, over to another group.

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And, they're putting it on this enormous rocket, and you relinquish total control.

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And so there's about an hour there where you're quite anxious.

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Neil Johnson:  There's a lot of ways a launch can go wrong. But, it's part of the risk you take.

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Jonathan Ormes:  It's worth holding your breath, crossing your fingers

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whatever you do to make sure it works.

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Chip Meegan:  You really are tense when those rockets go off

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because a lot is riding on it, a lot of work by a lot of people, and a lot of people's futures too.

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Dave Thompson:  But there's also the excitement of saying

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you know, we've worked on this for so many years

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and now it's going into space and now we're going to get to do what we really want to do

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which is learn about the universe.

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Luke Drury:  There's always a chance when you launch a new satellite

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or open a new window on the universe that you will see things that you hadn't expected.

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And those are the really exciting and interesting things.

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So, finally now, when it comes to a launch, it's really exciting to see the instruments

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and to see data coming in.