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GEORGE DILLER, NASA COMMENTATOR: This is Pegasus
Launch Control.

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We're being joined now here in

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the Mission Director's Center by Tim Dunn,
who is our NASA launch director from Launch

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Services

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Program, who has been involved in the countdown
today and following the troubleshooting of

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the issue

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that developed that brought about having to
scrub today's launch attempt.

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Tim, first of all I wonder if

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you can tell us exactly what the problem is
that we saw, which I gather developed en route.

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TIM DUNN, NASA LAUNCH MANAGER: Yes, George,
thank you for having me.

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What happened was, I

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guess when we were in that last, oh, I guess
about 25 minutes prior to initial drop, we

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had a problem

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with the hydraulic system on board the L-1011,
and it's the hydraulic system not for the

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aircraft

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operation of the plane, but the hydraulic
system that enables the release of the Pegasus

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from the belly

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of the plane.

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So it's a part of the launch release system,
it's the hydraulics that control that.

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So it was not

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meeting the prescribed launch release pressures,
indicating a problem with the hydraulic pump.

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Fortunately we had a little bit of launch
window to work with, so we did a lot of valiant

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troubleshooting

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in the air.

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As you can imagine, everyone really wanted
to preserve every opportunity to have another

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launch attempt today.

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We did circle around the aircraft once, resetting
breakers on board the aircraft,

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doing what we could in flight to try to get
that system back and functional again, and

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as you saw, we

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continued that troubleshooting right up until
about the L-4 minute period where we did not

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want to get

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into all of those critical switch actions
that enable Pegasus for flight if we knew

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we had this remaining

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red condition.

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That's why we didn't launch today.

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A little bit disappointing for the team.

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Obviously you

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love to go on the first attempt.

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We did battle a lot of weather today, and
we were able to fly around,

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over and under a lot of precipitation and
bad clouds on the way out to the drop point.

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Fortunately we

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got a very dynamic system in Pegasus, it's
a beautiful launch system to allow you that

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type of flexibility.

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But however, just like any other launch vehicle
system that we use, you do have hardware issues

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that

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crop up.

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DILLER: Something just chose this point in
time not to be good to us.

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DUNN: And while disappointing that we don't
go today, it's part of our business, we're

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used to it.

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The

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team behind me is putting into steps all of
the actions to return us to base successfully.

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We're going to

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come back to the Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station Skid Strip, we're going to safe all

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the systems on both

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the Pegasus and the L-1011, and then we'll
really be able to dig in and find out why

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this hydraulic system

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did not function as designed today.

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Ideally we're going to get that resolved today
and we've already

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made arrangements so we're leaning forward
as if we can go tomorrow.

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We have the range scheduled,

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so that will not be an issue.

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Weather looks slightly better for tomorrow,
so that looks like it won't be as

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troubling of an issue as it was today.

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But really the open item is will we be able
to resolve this hardware

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anomaly and then get our folks the necessary
crew rest later this evening to get back on

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console in the

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early morning hours tomorrow.

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DILLER: All right, Tim, that pretty much sums
it up, I think.

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When we get back we'll hit the ground into

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troubleshooting and kind of see if we can
find out what it was that didn't work in that

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hydraulic system

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and if that can be fixed before tomorrow morning.

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And meanwhile don't burn any bridges toward
a

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tomorrow-morning launch attempt.

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DUNN: That's affirmative.

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Yeah, we're going to keep everybody leaning
forward to preserve every

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opportunity to go tomorrow.

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DILLER: And the launch time will be the same
time as today?

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DUNN: It will be an identical time.

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DILLER: All right, well thank you, Tim, that
kind of sums up where we are.

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We see now on the L-1011

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that the wheels are down so the runway must
be in sight and we'll just stay tuned for

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further status

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throughout the day to see how they do on fixing
the problem and getting us back in the morning

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for

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another takeoff and launch.

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Tim Dunn, our NASA launch director from the
Launch Services Program.

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This is Pegasus Launch Control.

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We'll stand by now and hopefully get some
brief video of the landing of