1 00:00:02,950 --> 00:00:07,470 \h George Diller/IRIS Launch Commentator: This is Pegasus Launch Control at an elapsed time of 21 minutes, 2 00:00:07,470 --> 00:00:12,700 \h 42 seconds into the flight of the IRIS spacecraft. 3 00:00:12,700 --> 00:00:19,780 \h And now joining us here at the console is Tim Dunn, our NASA launch director for tonight's mission. 4 00:00:19,780 --> 00:00:28,780 \h And, Tim, first of all tell us briefly what you know about the spacecraft at this point. 5 00:00:28,780 --> 00:00:31,420 \h Tim Dunn/NASA Launch Manager: So, George, we're thrilled. 6 00:00:31,420 --> 00:00:35,990 \h We're very excited Spacecraft � we've made initial contact with it through the TDRS network. 7 00:00:35,990 --> 00:00:38,930 \h Gotten good data back. 8 00:00:38,930 --> 00:00:45,290 \h The solar arrays did begin to deploy and everything is proceeding right on track with the nominal, 9 00:00:45,290 --> 00:00:49,540 \h expected timeline after spacecraft separation from Pegasus. 10 00:00:49,540 --> 00:00:53,480 \h Diller: Tell us about the flight. Early on it seemed to go well. 11 00:00:53,480 --> 00:01:00,170 \h And then it got interesting toward the end in terms of what we were able to learn. 12 00:01:00,170 --> 00:01:01,950 \h Can you give us some insight on that? 13 00:01:01,950 --> 00:01:06,950 \h Dunn: It was a thrilling afternoon here at Vandenberg Air Force Base as we watched the 14 00:01:06,950 --> 00:01:10,160 \h L-1011 prepare to take off and head out over 15 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:14,680 \h the Pacific Ocean and head northwest, make its turn. 16 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:20,790 \h We had relatively few issues. One minor range asset, 17 00:01:20,790 --> 00:01:23,820 \h located down at Point Mugu, gave us a little bit of trouble, 18 00:01:23,820 --> 00:01:27,100 \h but were were able to bring that back in online. 19 00:01:27,100 --> 00:01:33,500 \h We experienced a little bit of signal issue with our FTS system. 20 00:01:33,500 --> 00:01:37,210 \h You may have heard the AGCs were erratic at times. 21 00:01:37,210 --> 00:01:46,690 \h the aircraft in relation to the ground assets here at Vandenberg and the Western Range. 22 00:01:46,690 --> 00:01:53,300 \h Once we made the turn, coming back toward the south, AGCs locked in very well. 23 00:01:53,300 --> 00:01:56,340 \h We were able to do those final FTS checks � no problem. 24 00:01:56,340 --> 00:01:57,650 \h Diller: Automatic Gain Control � 25 00:01:57,650 --> 00:02:01,300 \h Dunn: Yeah, Automatic Gain Control on those AGC values, right. 26 00:02:01,300 --> 00:02:05,340 \h So, that put us minutes away from launch. 27 00:02:05,340 --> 00:02:10,200 \h One of the critical events that happen with Pegasus is activate a 28 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:17,580 \h thermal battery onboard Pegasus that is able to move the fins on the rudder of the vehicle. 29 00:02:17,580 --> 00:02:24,520 \h So we made that activation at approximately 45 seconds prior to drop. 30 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:30,310 \h And you may have heard the repeated call about "fin sweep, fin sweep." 31 00:02:30,310 --> 00:02:36,370 \h That's not fully unexpected. We don't typically see that in flight, 32 00:02:36,370 --> 00:02:43,380 \h but the procedure does account for it. And we reissued the can't man numerous times. 33 00:02:43,380 --> 00:02:47,700 \h And, I think it was on about the fifth reissuance of that command we did get 34 00:02:47,700 --> 00:02:50,850 \h movement of the fins. And once you get initial movement verified, 35 00:02:50,850 --> 00:02:53,230 \h you know you're going to be good for flight. 36 00:02:53,230 --> 00:02:56,210 \h So, we got though that, it was a very tense moment, 37 00:02:56,210 --> 00:02:59,120 \h as you can imagine, here in the control center. 38 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:05,960 \h But once we cleared that, we were about 30 seconds away from launch. 39 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:11,560 \h Had a nominal drop from the L-1011. We had a nominal ignition. 40 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:14,960 \h First, second and third stage burns were all very good. 41 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:18,680 \h You may have heard, we did loose downrange telemetry real time. 42 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:23,760 \h We did have an aircraft in the Pacific Ocean downrange that was scheduled � 43 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:26,480 \h that did pick up telemetry data from Pegasus. 44 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:32,190 \h However, due to an onboard issue, they were not able to retransmit that data to us live. 45 00:03:32,190 --> 00:03:35,140 \h We do have that recorded on the aircraft and we'll be reviewing 46 00:03:35,140 --> 00:03:38,580 \h that when the plane lands and we get those tapes. 47 00:03:38,580 --> 00:03:42,150 \h Diller: Alright, I think were watching for some video from the 48 00:03:42,150 --> 00:03:48,400 \h L-1011 about to touch down back here at Vandenberg. 49 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:56,020 \h The indication, though, we had a good flight actually came in from the 50 00:03:56,020 --> 00:03:59,600 \h Tracking and Data Relay Satellite told us the satellite was, 51 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,800 \h I guess, the satellite where it should be when it should be. 52 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:07,970 \h Dunn: We were able to conform we had a nominal spacecraft separation from Pegasus, 53 00:04:07,970 --> 00:04:10,770 \h even though we didn't have the downrange telemetry asset, 54 00:04:10,770 --> 00:04:14,340 \h we did have the on orbit TDRS network of satellites. 55 00:04:14,340 --> 00:04:18,250 \h And they were able to pick up and confirm spacecraft separation and turn 56 00:04:18,250 --> 00:04:23,430 \h on and give us that initial indication that all the initial sequence, 57 00:04:23,430 --> 00:04:36,150 \h including solar array deployment was nominal. 58 00:04:36,150 --> 00:04:43,190 \h Diller: That's our chase plane coming back, that provided the video to us of the deployment and drop. 59 00:04:43,190 --> 00:04:49,430 \h Dunn: I'd like to thank our friends at Dryden for supplying us with the beautiful, 60 00:04:49,430 --> 00:04:55,190 \h onboard chase video that we were able to see all afternoon. 61 00:04:55,190 --> 00:05:00,190 \h Diller: So the chase plane is on the ground, the L-1011 won't be far behind. 62 00:05:00,190 --> 00:05:05,040 \h So, Tim, we'd like to thank, thank you very much for giving us a status. 63 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:08,590 \h It appears we've had a successful launch. And, at this point, 64 00:05:08,590 --> 00:05:12,000 \h it appears we've got a happy spacecraft on orbit. 65 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:14,230 \h Dunn: We've got a very happy spacecraft on orbit. 66 00:05:14,230 --> 00:05:17,190 \h We've got a thrilled launch team on the ground. 67 00:05:17,190 --> 00:05:22,080 \h And this has been just a great couple of weeks we've had here at Vandenberg. 68 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:27,160 \h Would like to thank Col. Boltz, 30th Space Wing commander. 69 00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:29,790 \h His team provided exceptional support to us. 70 00:05:29,790 --> 00:05:32,820 \h We worked through a couple of difficulties on the range, 71 00:05:32,820 --> 00:05:38,330 \h but only cost us one day. And here we are with a successful launch on a backup day. 72 00:05:38,330 --> 00:05:42,880 \h We're very happy. Would like to give a shout out to Albert Sierra. 73 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:49,560 \h Albert, I hope you are still watching us from Brevard County. We miss you and we love you. 74 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:53,710 \h Diller: Albert Sierra is one of our mission managers at 75 00:05:53,710 --> 00:05:57,090 \h Kennedy Space Center and is key to the Launch Services Program. 76 00:05:57,090 --> 00:06:04,810 \h And he has had a setback, but hope will bring him back on to the team very shortly. 77 00:06:04,810 --> 00:06:06,580 \h Dunn: Absolutely. 78 00:06:06,580 --> 00:06:11,480 \h Diller: So, at this point we are getting ready to show our launch replays. 79 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:16,960 \h And we're also going to keep an eye out for the L-1011 arriving back here at Vandenberg.