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George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: This
is Delta launch Control. We're now

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one hour, three minutes, 58 seconds into flight
of Delta II with the SMAP spacecraft.

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And at this time, we are joined by Tim Dunn,
who is our NASA launch manager in

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today's countdown and the flight of the
Delta II.

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And Tim, first of all take us right from the
top, what have we just seen as far as the

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spacecraft and the vehicle . . . and what
do we look like?

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Tim Dunn/NASA Launch Manager: We look great,
George. I guess most people saw

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that wonderful spacecraft separation video
that we had transmitted back to us from our

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African ground station.

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George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: Clear
as a bell, clear as a bell.

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Tim Dunn/NASA Launch Manager: It was spectacular.
So you saw a clean spacecraft

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separation from the Delta II second stage.
And then a few, about 30 seconds later or

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so,

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you saw the solar arrays begin to deploy.
So we�ve got good telemetry from the

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spacecraft so we're in contact with SMAP.
Everything looks good right now. The initial

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sequence of deployment of solar arrays is
underway. And we just couldn't be happier.

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George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: And
Delta II, from liftoff to the second

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stage, how did that perform?

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Tim Dunn/NASA Launch Manager: Delta II, it's
a workhorse. That's what we call it.

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And it's performed yet again. Had a beautiful
performance during first-stage flight. We

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had an initial burn of the second stage to
put us into our insertion orbit. And then

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we

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coasted for roughly 40 minutes or so prior
to an adjustment burn of the second stage

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and then proceeded into spacecraft separation.

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George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: Well,
the countdown was certainly like

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our first attempt. And I mean all the way
down to the last couple of minutes.

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Tim Dunn/NASA Launch Manager: It was very
similar, very similar. I just can�t say

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enough about the team that we have. We had
zero launch vehicle problems on Delta II.

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We had zero spacecraft problems. The 30th
Space Wing continues to provide rock-solid

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support. Not a single range, piece of instrumentation
went down. Absolutely spectacular

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performance from all of the agencies contributing
to the SMAP mission.

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George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: And
who all is involved in that last

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discussion about the upper-level winds and
know we actually had a 'go' condition?

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Tim Dunn/NASA Launch Manager: So obviously
we were 'red' throughout the

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countdown, like we were on our first attempt
for upper-level winds. We had four

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balloons that were released. All were returning
'red' data. Indicating that we just could

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not find the correct trajectory and flight
path to get through that maximum dynamic

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pressure region of flight.

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However, on that fourth balloon, we begin
to see a little bit of improvement, although

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the

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that

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we could then get the appropriate curve-fits
in and find our way. So we had indications

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10 minutes prior to launch. We went ahead
and adjusted the T-0 almost two minutes to

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the right to give us just a little more time
to do that processing.

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But that�s a combined team of balloons being
released here at Vandenberg Air Force

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Base by the 30th Space Wing weather folks.
And then that data is being collected here

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locally, transmitted to the ULA Denver winds
team in Denver, Colorado. They�re

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crunching the numbers and finding us a way
forward. So roughly at about L-10 minutes,

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L-8 minutes, we saw that we were going to
get some green data. And you immediately

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saw us be able to tell that to the launch
team and begin processing toward our T-0.

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George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: So
it was a very coordinated effort there

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in the last 10 minutes or so to get us to
that last point where we knew we were �go.�

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Tim Dunn/NASA Launch Manager: It was coordinated
and it was even practiced. We

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actually went through the same methodical
techniques with the ULA Denver winds team

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and the LSP winds analyst, working side by
side evaluating that data. We did that on

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the first attempt, but that last push that
we made on that �remained �red� � today

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was a

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totally different story we were able to go
green with that upper-level wind data and

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it

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resulted in us being able to have a successful
launch.

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George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: Well
Tim, it�s good that we�ve had

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practically back-to-back successful Delta
II launches. And we have a little gap here

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now.

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And then we got a couple of more I believe.

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Tim Dunn/NASA Launch Manager: We do. On the
heels the OCO-2 success last

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summer here at Vandenberg, we now have SMAP,
we have two remaining Delta II

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NASA missions that are manifested. The first
is a weather satellite called JPSS-1.

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Currently we�re targeting November of 2016
here from Vandenberg, at SLC-2. And then

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about six months to eight months after JPSS
we have a mission called ICESat-2 that

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we�re going to launch on Delta II.

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George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: Well
Tim, thank you very much and

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congratulations to you and the LSP team and
we�re looking forward to seeing you back

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at the Cape.

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Tim Dunn/NASA Launch Manager: Oh great George,
thank you so much.

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George Diller/NASA Launch Commentator: Thank
you. And we�re now at T-plus one