1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:03,840 George Diller, NASA Launch Commentator: This is Pegasus Launch Control. 2 00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:04,840 We're now 3 00:00:04,840 --> 00:00:12,599 18 minutes, 39 seconds into the flight of the CYGNSS mission which has launched 4 00:00:12,599 --> 00:00:17,020 aboard a Pegasus XL rocket. 5 00:00:17,020 --> 00:00:19,380 And we're being joined now by Tim Dunn, who is our 6 00:00:19,380 --> 00:00:23,970 NASA launch director for this Pegasus flight this morning. 7 00:00:23,970 --> 00:00:29,829 Tim, first of all, give us a quick summary about how the vehicle performed flight once 8 00:00:29,829 --> 00:00:30,829 we 9 00:00:30,829 --> 00:00:31,829 deployed. 10 00:00:31,829 --> 00:00:32,829 How did it look to you? 11 00:00:32,829 --> 00:00:35,270 Tim Dunn, NASA launch director: It looked beautiful George. 12 00:00:35,270 --> 00:00:36,270 We're very excited. 13 00:00:36,270 --> 00:00:37,270 You 14 00:00:37,270 --> 00:00:40,940 can probably sense a little of the excitement over our shoulders here in the launch 15 00:00:40,940 --> 00:00:42,760 directors center. 16 00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:43,760 Excellent. 17 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:45,920 Excellent performance by the team. 18 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:51,470 It's a great event when you have successful spacecraft separation and when you got 19 00:00:51,470 --> 00:00:54,810 microsatellites you get to multiply that by eight. 20 00:00:54,810 --> 00:00:57,130 So that's a lot of fun. 21 00:00:57,130 --> 00:01:01,420 For Pegasus, it was, overall it was a beautiful day. 22 00:01:01,420 --> 00:01:02,420 Gorgeous 23 00:01:02,420 --> 00:01:03,700 weather. 24 00:01:03,700 --> 00:01:05,439 Perfectly smooth with countdown. 25 00:01:05,439 --> 00:01:08,690 The Pegasus launch vehicle had no issues 26 00:01:08,690 --> 00:01:13,060 in preparing it this morning out on the Skid Strip at the Cape. 27 00:01:13,060 --> 00:01:18,140 Spacecraft CYGNSS, excuse me, the CYGNSS spacecraft had no problems in the prep 28 00:01:18,140 --> 00:01:19,970 for those either. 29 00:01:19,970 --> 00:01:25,120 L-1011 getting all of the activities, prelaunch, engine start activity, we're pleased that 30 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:26,120 all 31 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:32,060 On the range side, Eastern Range phenomenal job by the Air Force as usual. 32 00:01:32,060 --> 00:01:33,060 With all of 33 00:01:33,060 --> 00:01:37,570 their area support that they provide to us to enable us to launch. 34 00:01:37,570 --> 00:01:39,130 To stage out of the 35 00:01:39,130 --> 00:01:43,520 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip and then to launch off the coast in the 36 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:45,450 Eastern Range area. 37 00:01:45,450 --> 00:01:47,610 So, beautiful weather. 38 00:01:47,610 --> 00:01:49,320 Thank our launch weather officer. 39 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:50,870 We had some challenges flying 40 00:01:50,870 --> 00:01:56,840 around a lot of precip and dealing with the fog on the runway a couple of morning's ago. 41 00:01:56,840 --> 00:01:58,740 None of that present today. 42 00:01:58,740 --> 00:02:02,240 So hopefully everyone got to see some beautiful shots from 43 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:04,130 our chase plane. 44 00:02:04,130 --> 00:02:05,690 That was gorgeous. 45 00:02:05,690 --> 00:02:11,599 We had a nominal "hit the box" on time. 46 00:02:11,599 --> 00:02:13,200 And dropped the Pegasus from the belly of the 47 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:14,200 L-1011. 48 00:02:14,200 --> 00:02:15,560 Then had a nominal flight out. 49 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:18,540 All three stages performed beautifully. 50 00:02:18,540 --> 00:02:19,540 No issues 51 00:02:19,540 --> 00:02:22,109 at all with Pegasus launch vehicle performance. 52 00:02:22,109 --> 00:02:24,690 And then spacecraft separation with all 53 00:02:24,690 --> 00:02:28,219 of the eight paired spacecraft went right on time. 54 00:02:28,219 --> 00:02:30,919 George Diller, NASA Launch Commentator: Sounds like we had good data from our 55 00:02:30,919 --> 00:02:33,779 partners in South America that were tracking this for us. 56 00:02:33,779 --> 00:02:34,779 Tim Dunn: Absolutely. 57 00:02:34,779 --> 00:02:36,719 We actually had two teams in South America. 58 00:02:36,719 --> 00:02:37,719 We had some 59 00:02:37,719 --> 00:02:44,829 redundancy, but our friends from CNES, European Space Agency, linked in there at 60 00:02:44,829 --> 00:02:49,730 French Guiana, they aided us in acquiring that telemetry. 61 00:02:49,730 --> 00:02:51,930 In addition, we had Wallops, a 62 00:02:51,930 --> 00:02:58,769 NASA center here off the Virginia coast, deployed all the way down to French Guiana, 63 00:02:58,769 --> 00:03:00,280 and set up at the airport. 64 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:02,210 We got perfect data from both sites. 65 00:03:02,210 --> 00:03:04,319 So I'd like to thank them 66 00:03:04,319 --> 00:03:05,319 for their support. 67 00:03:05,319 --> 00:03:08,209 George Diller: Data continuity all the way through. 68 00:03:08,209 --> 00:03:09,459 Tim Dunn: Absolutely. 69 00:03:09,459 --> 00:03:13,529 George: Well, we're not finished with Pegasus by a longshot. 70 00:03:13,529 --> 00:03:14,779 There is another flight 71 00:03:14,779 --> 00:03:15,809 coming up next year. 72 00:03:15,809 --> 00:03:16,809 Is that right? 73 00:03:16,809 --> 00:03:17,809 Tim Dunn: Yes. 74 00:03:17,809 --> 00:03:20,730 As a matter of fact, our next mission on Pegasus will be the IKON 75 00:03:20,730 --> 00:03:21,800 mission. 76 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:25,900 And that will stage out of, will process at Vandenberg Air Force Base (in 77 00:03:25,900 --> 00:03:26,900 California). 78 00:03:26,900 --> 00:03:30,980 But we'll do a ferry flight down to the Pacific Ocean to the Kwajalein Atoll 79 00:03:30,980 --> 00:03:32,640 and launch out of Kwaj. 80 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:35,739 So that is scheduled for mid-June of 2017. 81 00:03:35,739 --> 00:03:38,519 George: Well Tim, thank you very much. 82 00:03:38,519 --> 00:03:40,099 And congratulations. 83 00:03:40,099 --> 00:03:41,139 And we'll be talking again 84 00:03:41,139 --> 00:03:42,650 before then I'm sure. 85 00:03:42,650 --> 00:03:44,239 But definitely from Kwajalein. 86 00:03:44,239 --> 00:03:45,239 So thanks very much. 87 00:03:45,239 --> 00:03:46,239 Tim: You're welcome George. 88 00:03:46,239 --> 00:03:51,609 George: Tim Dunn, our NASA launch director for the CYGNSS Orbital ATK Pegasus 89 00:03:51,609 --> 00:03:53,340 flight today. 90 00:03:53,340 --> 00:03:58,419 Standby, we have some more interviews coming up with some of our spacecraft 91 00:03:58,419 --> 00:04:03,559 personnel to tell us how the deployments are looking. 92 00:04:03,559 --> 00:04:04,890 And hopefully our principal 93 00:04:04,890 --> 00:04:07,579 investigator may have some comments as well. 94 00:04:07,579 --> 00:04:08,849 That will be coming up here we hope in 95 00:04:08,849 --> 00:04:10,760 the next few minutes. 96 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:15,049 So we're no 22 minutes, 45 seconds into the CYGNSS mission.