1 00:00:07,810 --> 00:00:10,300 We've had people that have gotten sick. 2 00:00:10,300 --> 00:00:16,520 The NASA Kennedy Launch team has persevered through a global pandemic to get a Mars Rover 3 00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:20,560 named Perseverance to the launch pad on time. 4 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:23,570 But yeah, Perseverance, what a perfect name. 5 00:00:23,570 --> 00:00:31,180 The cloud of doubt the virus cast over the Mars mission and how NASA overcame it, next 6 00:00:31,180 --> 00:00:32,550 on the Rocket Ranch. 7 00:00:32,550 --> 00:00:36,360 EGS Program Chief Engineer verifying no constraints to launch. 8 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:39,720 Three, two, one, and lift off. 9 00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:41,500 Welcome to space. 10 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:50,360 The Mars Rover, Perseverance came to the Kennedy Space Center from JPL in California in mid 11 00:00:50,370 --> 00:00:56,430 February, just before it was confirmed COVID-19 was starting to spread in the United States. 12 00:00:56,430 --> 00:01:02,530 NASA's Launch Services Program, Senior Launch Director, Omar Baez is at the helm of a mission 13 00:01:02,530 --> 00:01:07,820 to launch the Perseverance to the red planet, and the current pandemic has made this already 14 00:01:07,820 --> 00:01:12,420 difficult and challenging task, that much more daunting. 15 00:01:12,420 --> 00:01:17,909 Omar took some time from his hectic schedule to share his team's journey to launch Mars 16 00:01:17,909 --> 00:01:20,030 2020. 17 00:01:20,030 --> 00:01:21,030 Hi everyone. 18 00:01:21,030 --> 00:01:25,149 I'm Darrol Nail, your host for today's Rocket Ranch, and we want to let the audience know 19 00:01:25,149 --> 00:01:30,479 first that due to the community spread of COVID-19 here in Florida, I'm here at my home 20 00:01:30,479 --> 00:01:35,979 and I'm speaking to Omar Baez of the Launch Services Program remotely. 21 00:01:35,979 --> 00:01:41,740 So it looks pretty spiffy there in your spot there, Omar, is that a NASA studio? 22 00:01:41,740 --> 00:01:42,869 Where are you? 23 00:01:42,869 --> 00:01:43,869 Yes. 24 00:01:43,869 --> 00:01:49,860 So, this is not a NASA studio this is actually my dining room. 25 00:01:49,860 --> 00:02:02,920 I've put, some logos around, and yeah, this is not a professional environment but it's 26 00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:08,020 much more comfortable than being in a stuffy studio somewhere with the lights on you. 27 00:02:08,020 --> 00:02:09,170 All right. 28 00:02:09,170 --> 00:02:11,400 Well, comfort is key. 29 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:14,770 And of course we appreciate the conversion of your dining room to a makeshift studio. 30 00:02:14,770 --> 00:02:19,810 I want to ask you first, how excited were you when you saw that you're going to be the 31 00:02:19,810 --> 00:02:25,879 launch manager in charge of sending the Perseverance rover on it's way to Mars? 32 00:02:25,879 --> 00:02:34,760 So I started seeing this mission come up on our manifest about five years ago. 33 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:43,900 And the excitement with the Mars missions is always elevated, especially for me. 34 00:02:43,900 --> 00:02:52,709 I was able to get in on the Mars missions beginning with Sojourner back in the 96, 97 35 00:02:52,709 --> 00:03:00,850 time period, follow it up with the Spirit and Opportunity mission, where I was Launch 36 00:03:00,850 --> 00:03:08,879 Director on those two, and also with Curiosity when it flew. 37 00:03:08,879 --> 00:03:18,010 So I've got a special relationship with Mars. 38 00:03:18,010 --> 00:03:29,120 My name's a one letter off of that name, Mars, so I enjoy that. 39 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:38,209 It's a cool place to go, and, and I know it's very hard to do it, and I have respect for 40 00:03:38,209 --> 00:03:40,290 everybody that's ever tried to do it. 41 00:03:40,290 --> 00:03:47,409 We've had a lot of failures in getting to Mars and it's not as easy as we make it look. 42 00:03:47,409 --> 00:03:51,990 And I'm looking forward to making this one a success too. 43 00:03:51,990 --> 00:03:54,480 And we are wishing you great success as well. 44 00:03:54,480 --> 00:03:59,959 Currently, Omar, the State of Florida is in the midst of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, 45 00:03:59,959 --> 00:04:00,989 as you know. 46 00:04:00,989 --> 00:04:06,359 Traditionally, it's very important that your launch teams work very closely together, so 47 00:04:06,359 --> 00:04:12,030 when did you know that this could impact the Mars 2020 launch? 48 00:04:12,030 --> 00:04:16,730 At first I was in denial that any of this was going to affect us. 49 00:04:16,730 --> 00:04:26,100 And then we happened to be working the Solar Orbiter Mission, which had a European contingent. 50 00:04:26,100 --> 00:04:34,190 And this was back in February when we launched that, and I saw that what the effects of the 51 00:04:34,190 --> 00:04:44,840 virus was doing to that team as they came back from Europe during their holiday time. 52 00:04:44,840 --> 00:04:51,199 And it was affecting their families and their travel. 53 00:04:51,199 --> 00:05:00,490 And Corona wasn't a word we were using in the January, December, February time period. 54 00:05:00,490 --> 00:05:10,190 So, I didn't know the extent at that time of what it would do us. 55 00:05:10,190 --> 00:05:21,400 And when I saw the country shutting down, I thought, for sure there is no way we're 56 00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:25,000 going to be able to continue this. 57 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:33,020 Because we've been through missions where we're limited in people or we're remote. 58 00:05:33,020 --> 00:05:41,210 We're in a furlough, so we're down to minimal essential people. 59 00:05:41,210 --> 00:05:43,120 We did that through the Maven Mission. 60 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:47,500 Tomorrow's a couple of years ago, we worked through the furlough, we were able to get 61 00:05:47,500 --> 00:05:48,500 it done. 62 00:05:48,500 --> 00:05:50,580 But this was everybody. 63 00:05:50,580 --> 00:05:51,580 Everybody's shut down. 64 00:05:51,580 --> 00:05:58,870 The airlines have shut down, restaurants, it was hard to imagine that we would be able 65 00:05:58,870 --> 00:06:04,840 to do Mars 2020 in this year. 66 00:06:04,840 --> 00:06:09,720 I was seriously thinking Mars would be Mars 2022. 67 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:11,540 Wow. 68 00:06:11,540 --> 00:06:16,721 And that's because we can only launch a mission to Mars in about a month long window, every 69 00:06:16,721 --> 00:06:22,290 two years when earth and Mars orbits are aligned on the same side of the sun. 70 00:06:22,290 --> 00:06:24,460 So what'd you do? 71 00:06:24,460 --> 00:06:35,520 We worked to get an exception for Mars 2020, and what that meant is it was mission essential 72 00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:37,520 work only. 73 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:47,330 And so we immediately went through plans on what that would look like, and I think we've 74 00:06:47,330 --> 00:06:51,660 read that plan 10 times in the last couple of months. 75 00:06:51,660 --> 00:06:55,850 So it's been a learning experience as we go on. 76 00:06:55,850 --> 00:06:59,740 At first, you're hearing about this virus, but it's not really here. 77 00:06:59,740 --> 00:07:08,580 It's in places like New York, or Washington, or Washington state, and it hadn't hit Florida. 78 00:07:08,580 --> 00:07:11,199 It hadn't hit Brevard County. 79 00:07:11,199 --> 00:07:20,509 And so there was things that we were doing that we were planning for. 80 00:07:20,509 --> 00:07:24,600 We had to make shifts. 81 00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:31,330 We couldn't run a flight readiness review like I do in conditions where we don't have 82 00:07:31,330 --> 00:07:37,680 pandemic, where we have a bunch of people show up, we gathered together in a big meeting 83 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:45,139 room, we go over the presentation, we dry run the presentation beforehand with all the 84 00:07:45,139 --> 00:07:46,139 teams. 85 00:07:46,139 --> 00:07:50,889 I'm able to have small talk with the team to be able to adjust the presentation to what 86 00:07:50,889 --> 00:07:59,379 it needs to be for when we actually roll out that presentation in a launch readiness review. 87 00:07:59,379 --> 00:08:11,050 And so the idea of using online tools such as Microsoft Teams or WebEx was just foreign 88 00:08:11,050 --> 00:08:14,229 to that environment for us. 89 00:08:14,229 --> 00:08:18,819 And we quickly came up to speed. 90 00:08:18,819 --> 00:08:27,560 The applications for online collaborating are okay, they're not perfect, but we were 91 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:36,550 able to use them and use them effectively and get all the work that we needed done accomplished. 92 00:08:36,550 --> 00:08:43,470 Now, can I say that I took the opportunity to train a bunch of new people? 93 00:08:43,470 --> 00:08:47,350 No, it had to be the essential folks. 94 00:08:47,350 --> 00:08:53,390 There wasn't a lot of bench strength. 95 00:08:53,390 --> 00:09:03,029 If some of the people, and this is going further on, we learned from other programs as to how 96 00:09:03,029 --> 00:09:10,230 they would staff their control rooms and so forth, and we took a lot from the DM2 Mission 97 00:09:10,230 --> 00:09:18,230 and their rehearsals as to how we apply that to our work in Hangar AE, or the way the review 98 00:09:18,230 --> 00:09:23,220 process or the reviews end up taking place. 99 00:09:23,220 --> 00:09:32,430 And so putting that package together where I normally would have a team of folks that 100 00:09:32,430 --> 00:09:40,880 I could get in a room, we'd all decide how everything goes, where we put everything, 101 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:42,350 we have to do all that virtually. 102 00:09:42,350 --> 00:09:43,810 It's not the same. 103 00:09:43,810 --> 00:09:44,810 You lose some of it. 104 00:09:44,810 --> 00:09:54,090 So I have to balance, is the material worthy of making it into a NASA flight readiness 105 00:09:54,090 --> 00:09:56,130 review? 106 00:09:56,130 --> 00:10:03,120 Are we going to inform our stakeholders the correct way, at the same time balancing it 107 00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:06,050 with not getting a team sick? 108 00:10:06,050 --> 00:10:11,190 And that's a tremendous amount of pressure on me, but I have to have the data. 109 00:10:11,190 --> 00:10:19,010 I don't want to get the team sick, and I don't want anybody to get their family sick or any 110 00:10:19,010 --> 00:10:20,010 of that. 111 00:10:20,010 --> 00:10:27,550 So it's a delicate balance, it's based on the data that we have at that moment. 112 00:10:27,550 --> 00:10:35,310 We are exercising what we know we can with regards to mask, hand cleaning, spacing, et 113 00:10:35,310 --> 00:10:36,300 cetera. 114 00:10:36,300 --> 00:10:40,520 Well, it must've helped because the Rover made it to the launch pad in time. 115 00:10:40,529 --> 00:10:46,540 And now I'd like to ask you to reflect on the name of this Rover, even before the pandemic 116 00:10:46,550 --> 00:10:52,350 was spreading rapidly in the United States and also Florida, a seventh grader from Virginia 117 00:10:52,350 --> 00:10:55,649 gave it the name, Perseverance. 118 00:10:55,649 --> 00:11:02,290 At first I was like, eh, when I first heard it, and then this thing struck and man, it's 119 00:11:02,290 --> 00:11:03,399 been perfect. 120 00:11:03,399 --> 00:11:04,810 What a name. 121 00:11:04,810 --> 00:11:09,970 It's wild that that's the name that was picked because I don't think you could pick a better 122 00:11:09,970 --> 00:11:14,540 matching description of what the team is doing. 123 00:11:14,540 --> 00:11:16,110 They have persevered through this. 124 00:11:16,110 --> 00:11:19,320 Nobody has given up, everybody's fighting through it. 125 00:11:19,320 --> 00:11:27,350 We've had people that have gotten sick, and people are still wanting to come in and work. 126 00:11:27,350 --> 00:11:31,750 And they've got to go through the quarantines, they got to go through getting the testing 127 00:11:31,750 --> 00:11:36,730 done, and everybody wants to work through it. 128 00:11:36,730 --> 00:11:42,850 And that is the whole spectrum, I have not heard anyone say, we don't want to go through 129 00:11:42,850 --> 00:11:43,850 with this. 130 00:11:43,850 --> 00:11:48,649 Yeah, I don't want to be in a room with a hundred people, but yeah, I want to go get 131 00:11:48,649 --> 00:11:50,130 this mission done. 132 00:11:50,130 --> 00:12:01,720 And I think the team, and it's the broad team, it's from public affairs to the range, ULA, 133 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:09,779 our spacecraft customer and all the supporter organizations that feed us so that we're able 134 00:12:09,779 --> 00:12:11,440 to do this job. 135 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:13,790 And I think we have persevered through this. 136 00:12:13,790 --> 00:12:15,769 We will get this mission done. 137 00:12:15,769 --> 00:12:18,760 We will get it done through the pandemic. 138 00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:26,470 And hopefully when this thing does get to Mars and lands in February, we'll be able 139 00:12:26,470 --> 00:12:34,290 to do it in an environment where everybody can be together without a mask and so forth. 140 00:12:34,290 --> 00:12:37,480 I hope that that is where we end up. 141 00:12:37,480 --> 00:12:41,020 And all of us here at NASA shared that same hope. 142 00:12:41,020 --> 00:12:46,339 Omar Baez, with NASA's Launch Services Program, thank you very much for joining us. 143 00:12:46,339 --> 00:12:50,019 Well, I'm Darrol Nail, and that is our show. 144 00:12:50,019 --> 00:12:55,190 And thanks for stopping by the Rocket Ranch, and special thanks to our guest, Omar Baez 145 00:12:55,190 --> 00:12:56,690 with Launch Services Program. 146 00:12:56,690 --> 00:13:03,990 Now to learn more about LSP, you could visit NASA.gov/launch services, and to learn more 147 00:13:03,990 --> 00:13:08,690 about everything going on at the Kennedy Space Center, go to NASA.gov/Kennedy. 148 00:13:08,690 --> 00:13:13,990 You can check out NASA's other podcasts to learn more about what's happening in all of 149 00:13:13,990 --> 00:13:14,990 our centers. 150 00:13:14,990 --> 00:13:15,990 Just go to NASA.gov/podcast. 151 00:13:15,990 --> 00:13:24,089 A special shout out to our producer, John Sackman, our sound man, Loren Mathre, editor, 152 00:13:24,089 --> 00:13:28,639 Mike Chambers, and a special thanks to Mary MacLaughlin and Kenna Pell.