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Live From...
Counting Down to Space Shuttle Discovery Launch; Space Shuttle Discovery Has Lifted Off from Cape Canaveral
Aired July 04, 2006 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: He's giving me a hard time today.
And I'm Betty Nguyen from the CNN headquarters right here in Atlanta.
This hour we are counting down to the launch of the shuttle Discovery. Miles O'Brien leads our coverage from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The second hour of LIVE FROM begins right now.
HARRIS: So, if all goes well, we are less than an hour away, 36 minutes or so, 37 minutes from the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery. The first two tries over the weekend were no-go because of weather, but there is an 80 percent chance of fairer skies today. And we have been experiencing those fairer skies.
Take a look at that live picture.
The countdown continues despite a pencil-sized crack found yesterday in the foam insulation around the shuttle's fuel tank. NASA says a painstaking inspection showed nothing abnormal, and mission managers agree the shuttle is ready to go fly.
Liftoff scheduled for 2:38 p.m. Eastern.
NGUYEN: On board, strapped in and ready for liftoff. The seven astronauts on the Space Shuttle Discovery have about a half-hour to go before their scheduled to blast off on this Fourth of July, headed for the International Space Station.
And waiting with them, just a few hundred yards away, is our own Miles O'Brien.
Hey, Miles, they've been strapped in and gone through this, what, three days now? So they are ready for this thing to take off finally.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: You know, on the one hand, yes, that's true. You want to go when you go through all that trouble.
NGUYEN: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Particularly lying on your back. It's frankly painful there. The straps are cinched in very tight, it's not comfortable. It's not like these -- you're sitting in a lounger watching TV.
This is -- this is serious business. And so they want to go.
Having said that, they want to go safely. And they want to go when it's right. And they've trained for this moment for years and years, and they, you know, certainly don't want anything to be -- any shortcuts to occur to have this happen.
As you can see from the weather picture there, it's a beautiful day here in Florida. There's no indication that we're having that afternoon thunderstorm setup that bedeviled Discovery over the weekend. But take a look at that flag.
Over the day it's been getting windier and windier. That's the one thing we're watching. I wouldn't put it on a scale of great worry. It's just going to be kind of on the edge here.
Whether it's too windy, too much of a crosswind, in the event that the space shuttle in the first four minutes of its ascent had to return to the shuttle landing facility, that 15,000-foot landing strip here, the crosswind limitation, with the a waiver from the astronaut who's flying the business jet rigged up to fly like a shuttle, is 17 knots. Right now it's been in the 13, 14, 15-knot range here and there. So we're watching that very closely.
Other than that, it's been a pretty flawless countdown. We've seen the crew come out. They suited up and went through their ritual, once again, walking out toward the space shuttle several hours ago now, and strapping in for a mission to the International Space Station that will last them two weeks.
There you see the mission commander, Steve Lindsey, on his fourth flight now. And then making their way out, beside his pilot, Mark Kelly, and the remaining five members of the crew, with a goal of the International Space Station in mind.
Launching today at 2:38 p.m. Eastern Time, because that's the ideal moment when the space shuttle will pass overhead, and the shuttle can be launched and will have enough fuel to rendezvous with it about three days after launch. They've got about 5,000 pounds of supplies and gear for the space station, and they have a resident, a six-month resident by the name of Thomas Reiter, a German astronaut. He'd be the first European astronaut to have a long-term stint on the space station and the first time since Columbia disintegrated three and a half years ago that three people have been on that space station crew.
And that's an important milestone because it's almost impossible to do much more than just station-keeping with two people. The hope is there will be a little more science conducted now that there's a third person there.
Joining me now to help us through this launch is a man who's been through this twice and has a mission coming up in February, astronaut Jim Reilly. Has three spacewalks to his credit and was here last year with us as we said -- bid ado to Discovery as they went off to space on the return to flight mission.
And, you know, it's interesting, Jim Reilly, one year later we're still talking about falling foam. And in this case, what we had was a crack that was discovered in the wake of those two fuelings over the weekend. The contractions and expansions of that tank or that super- cold fuel probably causing a crack, the crack causing a chip to fall off, and a lot of attention put on that because, clearly, in the wake of Columbia, given that is what caused Columbia to disintegrate, that is a focus of a lot of attention.
Was it -- was it too much? Was it out of kilter? Was it appropriate?
JIM REILLY, ASTRONAUT: As far as the foam falling, that's something that we're used to. In fact, the tank always sheds at least small particles of foam.
What was a little bit out of family on this one is that piece of foam, due to the flexing on this joint, which actually takes the most flexing of any of the joints during the tanking and de-tanking operations, flexed enough to pop off the second mold that they do on that particular joint. So that was a little bit surprising when they found it, but the good news is that the MMT, the experts, looked at it and said, you know, we don't see any problems with it from here on out.
O'BRIEN: They looked at it below, they looked at it above, some very clever so call pad rats got a camera to see it from the top and declared it safe to fly.
Having said all that, the attention on foam coming after Columbia is understandable. In that case, though, a much bigger piece, about the size of a briefcase. This was about the length of a pencil and weighed about the weight of a penny.
But you'll go back -- going back to January of 2003 with that big piece of foam coming off part of the tank that no longer has foam on it, as a result, striking the leading edge of the left wing of Columbia, causing that fatal breach in the heat shield. Sixteen days later, when the crew came back, it caused the orbiter to disintegrate over Texas.
A year later -- or, excuse me, two and a half years later, a year ago, when we watched STS-114, the Discovery return to flight mission, we were very surprised to see another piece of foam fall off.
What has happened since then?
REILLY: Well, since then, that large piece that fell off on 114 -- those two were called power ramps -- they actually are designed to shed the air loads. In other words, just form a smooth surface for the aerodynamics for the vehicle -- have been totally removed.
And what they've done is, they've gone back, done wind tunnel testing, saw that we don't really need them, so they've been removed completely from this tank. And they are also looking at all the ice frost ramps, which are each place that the drain and fill lines and the propellant lines run, where they join the tank, there's a little -- what's called an ice frost ramp there, and they're redesigning those, as well.
O'BRIEN: All right. The ice frost ramps were the subject of heated controversy leading up to this day. The chief engineer, the chief safety officer of NASA, saying they were no go for launch because those pieces of foam were still on board the tank, they were worried they might come off.
The administrator has made the decision to fly, nonetheless, and supported the decision about this crack just within the past 24 hours. I asked him a little while ago, Mike Griffin, if he believes that they are in any way succumbing to launch fever, as it is called.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL GRIFFIN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: We work through the count. If we get to the point where we're going to violate one of our launch commit criteria, we stand down. You saw that twice in the last three days. If we get to the end of the count and we weaved our way through the launch commit criteria with no violation, we go. That's how we do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: He makes it sound so simple, but, of course, there's a lot to it to get to that point. And that's what we're in the middle of right now. T minus nine minutes and holding. We are about 30 minutes into what is it be a 40-minute hold, and we are watching right now the weather and listening for any sort of technical problems with Discovery as the crew is strapped in, the orbiter is fueled up, and the folks in the firing room, the launch control center, are all in the hot seats right now -- Betty and Tony.
NGUYEN: All right. Thank you, Miles.
I want you to stand by, because we're going to be talking with a guest shortly. Weather has been a problem. Falling foam, too. But NASA says all looks fine and Discovery is set to launch just minutes from now.
You see the countdown clock there, 28 minutes. It will be only the second shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster. A mission some see as critical to NASA's future.
Keith Cowing is editor of nasawatch.com, and he's watching from Washington.
We appreciate you being with us today.
KEITH COWING, NASAWATCH.COM: My pleasure.
NGUYEN: Let's talk about this issue of falling foam. And be real honest with us. I know that people have made a big deal about it, especially after Columbia, for good reason. Is NASA making a mistake by launching today?
COWING: I don't think they are. As you heard from administrator Griffin and other folks, they are extra attentive to this issue. They went and looked at this crack from a dozen different angles, and they really thought about it and checked it through. And I think they -- they know as much as they know, and that's the only thing you can base these decisions on.
So I don't think there's a problem here with this decision.
NGUYEN: All right. So then let me ask you this: how critical is this mission to NASA's future?
COWING: Every shuttle mission from now on is critical. This could be the last -- every shuttle mission could be the last one.
Right now, NASA has a commitment to finish the International Space Station. The only way to do that is with a space shuttle, given that the space station was designed the way it was. And the sooner that they get the shuttle operational again, the sooner they could finish the space station.
Other than that, the issue is -- with the shuttle, is not aging gracefully. It's going to be retired. And there's an additional pressure to get that retired so that they can replace it with a crew expiration vehicle.
So there's a lot of stresses operating here.
NGUYEN: Yes, there are. And you talk about the importance of this mission, but at the same time, Miles asked this question a little bit earlier, talking about launch fever. Is NASA under the gun? Is it really under a lot of pressure to get this shuttle in the air?
Because I have to bring this up. There were two top NASA officials who originally advised against it over the weekend, and reports of a third official who was fired because of speaking out against having this shuttle that we see, 27 minutes away from launch, take off.
COWING: Well, the issue here is not so much the technical decision, it's just NASA's inability to be very clear in explaining what it is they decided. And the original flight readiness review decisions they said, well, we're no go because something can happen to the vehicle, but we're OK with the mission.
Now, that sounds a little oxymoronic...
NGUYEN: Yes.
COWING: ... until you say, well, what did you mean by that? And by the time -- they wouldn't let these guys talk to the media, and then they did. And by the time the finally explained that what they really were saying is, I have a form here, and I have to say, check a box off, my job is to say that I would recommend not going because of damage to the vehicle. But, since there is a place for the astronauts to go incase there is a problem with the orbiter, it's not a risk to the crew, so, I'm OK.
Now, maybe...
NGUYEN: I'm still confused.
COWING: Yes, well, it does take some parsing here, but, you know, that's the problem, is that it's really straightforward, that these guys were objecting based on damage to the vehicle, but not danger to the crew. But by the time it got out, it was so messed up, and NASA just can't seem to talk straight sometimes.
NGUYEN: All right. Well, we'll be watching. Like I said, 25 minutes away from launch.
We want you to stand by, Keith, and be with us during that launch time.
HARRIS: Well, great. All right.
NGUYEN: And we'll be checking in with you.
Keith Cowing, NASA Watch -- the editor and chief of nasawatch.com.
Thanks for being with us and stand by, please.
HARRIS: All hands on deck.
NGUYEN: Yes. We're ready.
HARRIS: With less than, what, a half-hour to liftoff, we're going to introduce you to the crew of the shuttle Discovery who's flying this mission and what is on their minds as the countdown continues.
Stay with us for coverage of the launch right here on LIVE FROM.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LISA NOWAK, DISCOVERY ASTRONAUT: My older child is old enough to understand, and we've talked about that. And he's very, very supportive. And that helps a lot, knowing that he's -- basically has an understanding and is still wants me to go. He told me that, even on the day of Columbia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Betty, the pictures get better.
NGUYEN: Look at that.
HARRIS: More encouraging.
NGUYEN: Lots of action going on as we're 21 minutes away from launch.
HARRIS: Think ahead just a moment as we're watching the shuttle reaching into the sky, reaching, reaching, reaching into the sky. What a picture that is going to be on a picture-perfect day in Florida on the Fourth of July, Betty.
Don't forget the Fourth of July.
NGUYEN: That's true. Very symbolic. And you can see right now some of the steam coming off. And speaking of skies...
HARRIS: It's fueling up. It's being fueled up right now.
NGUYEN: Look at the skies, though, Tony. Just like you said, a picture-perfect day.
HARRIS: Yes.
NGUYEN: The only thing that's of issue, that's of concern, is the wind at this point.
HARRIS: OK.
We need to check in, once again, with meteorologist Jacqui Jeras.
And Jacqui, take your time because we want to understand this as fully as possible. This seems to be the only possible glitch, a little fly in the ointment here, wind speeds.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: Beautiful, Jacqui.
NGUYEN: So the astronauts, they would like to think...
HARRIS: Yes. Yes.
NGUYEN: ... that this thing is going to get into the air today.
And speaking of those astronauts, Jacqui, we're going to be checking in with Miles very soon to talk to us about the crew behind this mission, the shuttle Discovery, which is just 19 minutes away from launch.
Stay with us. We'll have that in just a minute.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PIERS SELLERS, DISCOVERY ASTRONAUT: We have done our best to drive down the risks. We think we understand the ones that we can think of, and there may be some ones out there that we can't think of yet. But everyone has done their best.
So, so much for thinking about how to improve things, so much for preparation. We've done that. Now is the time to go fly, to go do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS REITER, DISCOVERY ASTRONAUT: The view of the Earth is just overwhelming. The view in the opposite direction. I've never seen such a beautiful starry sky as I could see it from space. All these are things I'm looking forward to and I'm longing for, and that is the challenge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Well, for those of you who weren't sure that this launch was going to get off the ground today, I want you to look at the pictures coming out of Florida. The Kennedy Space Center right now, it looks like it is definitely a go.
Fifteen minutes away from launch. You've got to be thinking, what is going through the minds of these astronauts as they sit there, prepared to blast off into space?
Well, we're going to check in with Miles O'Brien. He's there at Kennedy Space Center.
It's got to be so exciting, and, at the same time, can you just imagine sitting there waiting to go into outer space, Miles?
O'BRIEN: I can almost predict what they're thinking at this point. They're -- tumbling through their head is the astronaut's prayer: Dear lord -- "Dear lord, don't let me be the one to screw up."
It's essentially what it is.
Isn't that right, Jim Reilly?
REILLY: Very true.
O'BRIEN: Jim Reilly's been there a couple of times. He's the astronaut who is going to guide us through this.
Let's introduce you to the crew so you know who's aboard there, who's risking their lives today, who's strapped to something with the explosive power of a nuclear bomb, for gosh sakes. And hopefully everything will go smoothly in about eight and a half minutes. They'll be going 17,500 miles an hour.
Steve Lindsey, the commander, fourth mission, comes from California. U.S. Air Force Colonel. He was the pilot for John Glenn's mission, overshadowed a little bit by the senior senator that was on board there, and is just a great guy.
REILLY: Yes, indeed. In fact...
O'BRIEN: What would you say about him?
REILLY: ...he was my commander on my last mission, and what I remember about our crew is we just laughed the whole time. So it was a great time.
O'BRIEN: All right.
You know what? Let's listen for one second to the poll from some of the people in the launch control center.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Houston, flight is go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: MILA (ph)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: MILA, go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: STM?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: STM is go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Safety consul?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Safety consul is go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: SPE?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: SPE is go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: LRD?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: LRD is go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: SRO?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: SRO is go. You have range clear to launch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And CDR?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CDR is go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy all.
And launch director entity, our launch team is ready to proceed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy that. Thank you, Jeff (ph).
Chief engineer, verify an open fence (ph) to launch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The team is go, Mike.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Charlie (ph).
KAC (ph) safety mission assurance?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: KAC safety is go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
KLO (ph), launch manager?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike, the space station team is go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you a lot, Bill.
Constraints in weather?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Weather has no constraints for launch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy, Kathy (ph). Thank you.
And ops manager?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Launch director, ops manager. The MMT (ph) has no constraints. You're clear to launch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, sir.
Discovery launch director?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Discovery go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, Steve. It looks like Discovery's weather -- Discovery is ready, the weather is beautiful, America is ready to return the space shuttle to flight.
So good luck and god speed, Discovery.
STEVE LINDSEY, DISCOVERY COMMANDER: Thank you very much, Mike. And I can't think of a better place to be here on the Fourth of July and Independence Day, to be getting ready to launch into space.
To all the folks at Kennedy Space Center and the shuttle program, thanks a lot for working so hard in the last few days and the last year to get us ready.
To all the folks on the Florida east coast, we hope to very soon get you an up-close and personal view at the rockets' red glare.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very nice, Steve. Appreciate those words.
Good luck, guys.
O'BRIEN: There you have it, Steve Lindsey, the commander, offering up some rocket red glare promises, which we should see fairly shortly, about 12 minutes from now. Talking to Mike Leinbach (ph), the man who was standing up, the NASA launch director here at the Kennedy Space Center.
The countdown soon will begin counting down from nine minutes.
Let's quickly go through the remainder of the crew.
Mark Kelly, the pilot, is the only pilot who has a twin in the astronaut office, Scott.
Tell me about Mark Kelly. He's a United States Navy commander, a veteran of one space flight. He will be helping do the inside the vehicle work on two spacewalks. West Orange, New Jersey. You remember him because he's Mark and "M" for mustache, right?
REILLY: Exactly, yes. When those two guys first showed up it was very difficult to tell them apart. And fortunately, one of them shaved off his mustache.
O'BRIEN: That's a good thing.
Piers Sellers, who is Mission Specialist Number One, veteran of one space flight. More degrees than I have socks.
He's born in the United Kingdom, likes to sail. And has degrees in engineering, as well as in ecology. Very interesting, deep, well thought of guy, isn't he?
REILLY: He will be leading the spacewalks on this mission and he's one of our best.
O'BRIEN: Yes. Mike Fossum, who is -- hails from South Dakota, but really, he's all about Texas. He's a Texas A&M guy.
Lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force. He'll be out there doing those spacewalks with Piers Sellers. This is his first space flight, 48 years old. He's got a big family, and he is a guy who's a lot of fun to be with.
REILLY: Exactly. In fact, he is always smiling. He's one of those guys you just love to work with.
O'BRIEN: Lisa Nowak, she's on her first space flight, as well. She's a commander in the United States Navy.
She's the flight engineer here, Mission Specialist Number Two. Forty-two years old, born in Washington, likes crossword puzzles, but I don't think she is doing any right now.
She has three young children. I always think of the mothers, especially, kissing their kids good-bye for this. That is a big deal, isn't it?
REILLY: I would expect it is. And she's got twins, so they -- so she's got her hands full.
O'BRIEN: I should say.
And Stephanie Wilson, the second African-American woman to fly, a Mission Specialist who, really, when we talked to her, she said, "You know, I wish this weren't such a big deal and I'm sorry it took so long for the second one to come along."
Mae Jamison, of course, flying several years ago now, the first to do that. Single, from Boston, and will be helping operate that robotic arm.
REILLY: Exactly. In fact, she is going to have the biggest smile on her face with (INAUDIBLE) of anybody on the crew.
O'BRIEN: I suspect she will.
And Thomas Reiter, who is German, the first European to spend some time on the International Space Station. He won't be coming home with these guys. He will be staying up for six months on the space station.
Born in Germany. He likes to fence. I don't think he will be doing that over the next six months, will he?
REILLY: Probably not.
O'BRIEN: That's probably not a good idea...
REILLY: Probably not on the station, no.
O'BRIEN: ... on board the International Space Station.
That is your crew, and they are strapped in and ready. And now the heartbeats are picking up a little bit as we get close to the beginning, about 30 seconds or so away before that terminal count phase begins inside of nine minutes.
And we're 20 second away from that right now. And in the meantime, what I would like to do is show you quickly some of the changes that have occurred on the space shuttle, really in the last three and a half years.
Some of it post-Columbia, some of it post the mission last year. Hundreds of changes, modifications to the foam, and other safety efforts.
And now the countdown clock begins. We're about 8 minutes and 50 seconds away.
While this countdown clock begins, let's take you through. And first of all, let me just show you, inside the leading edge of the wing there's a whole series of sensors there to look and detect for impacts, which, of course, is what brought Columbia down.
This part -- area, the bipod ramp, foam removed there. That was the source of the foam for Columbia.
Along here, these so-called PAL ramps, big pieces of foam that fell off a year ago, gone now. They were a big problem. Hand-sprayed on and taken away.
Cameras all throughout. This will be the most heavily photographed space shuttle mission ever, giving engineers all kinds of looks at what is going on. A much longer robot arm capability on this mission. They'll test it out to see if they can make repairs on its own.
A fancy bolt catcher so bolts don't become a debris issue during launch. Sort of a little net to catch those bolts, which is part of the modifications.
The crew itself has the capability of conducting a spacewalk, and perhaps doing some rudimentary tests and, if need be, if there is a damaged orbiter, can go out the airlock and stay on the space station, wait for a rescue mission.
The space shuttle itself is not your father's space shuttle 25 years in to its flying. Columbia has prompted a series of changes. Jim Reilly, it's still very dangerous though, it's safer, but it's still very dangerous what we're seeing right now.
REILLY: Certainly, there's a little bit of risk considering the fact that we're flying pretty much on the ragged edge of physics, going to space and coming home. And of course we're all about increasing that margin so that one of these days you and I can buy a ticket and go do it ourselves. But right now it's still a little risky.
O'BRIEN: I am looking forward to that day. Sign me up for that one. That would be good. We want to welcome our international viewers. This is a key moment right here. What you're seeing if you look out live there onto the launch pad, is the, I call it the jet way, but that's not what they call it of course.
It's the shuttle way or whatever you want to call it, it's the white room. It's the ramp which the crew uses to get on to the space shuttle, it gets swung away at this stage of the count and that's a key and critical point. It gets a lonely at this point on the launch pad, doesn't it, Jim Reilly?
REILLY: At this point the crew is now on their own, as you just mentioned and they'll be talking amongst themselves and getting ready for the t-minus 31 seconds transition from the launch control center to their onboard sequencer.
O'BRIEN: The next big thing will be the start of the auxiliary power units. This is what provides energy, electricity, runs the hydraulics system of the space shuttle during launch and entry. It's really powered by some really potent stuff called hydrazine which keeps it going and these can be kind of quirky. It's important to watch this and make sure they start properly, right?
REILLY: Exactly. There's a number of switches that Mark will be verifying right now to make sure they're in the right position so that they're ready to start, which is a call that he just got. And then here in a second they'll actually throw the switches opening the fuel tank valves which will start the fuel flowing into the pumps that provide the hydraulic power to the orbiter.
O'BRIEN: And then we get -- sorry, five minutes, we've got that. Then we begin shortly after that what's called the liquid oxygen drain back. And that essentially means that they're no longer replenishing the tanks, correct?
REILLY: Exactly.
O'BRIEN: Explain how that is. Because once they put in this super cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, it essentially is constantly boiling off, isn't it? They constantly have to replenish it during the long period toward countdown.
REILLY: Exactly, in fact at the top of the stack when you see the vents up there, you'll see a little bit of vapor coming off, that's the oxygen. And also down by the main engine bells just before ignition you'll see a little bit of vapor and a little ice on the main engine bells. That's the hydrogen that's boiling off. So right up until this point, they're constantly replenishing those reactors.
O'BRIEN: I can take a look at that right now, in the telestrator right here you'll see what we're talking about. If you look at the base of the launch pad, you might think jeez, they have the engines going right now, that's just the boil off of the liquid hydrogen which is escaping out there. And at a certain point they stop replenishing the tanks, still plenty of fuel to get them to where they need to be. Let's listen to Bruce Buckingham for a minute.
T-minus five minutes and counting. We have a go for APU start. The auxiliary power unit activation is being reported complete.
O'BRIEN: All right, best we know, that's going OK. So far, that's an important milestone in this countdown. What are they thinking right there onboard right now. They're going through checklists, is the heartbeat quickening a little bit?
REILLY: Probably and especially for the rookies. I know it was when I was on my back for the first flight.
O'BRIEN: Because you've gone through scrubs, at this point it starts to get very real and you're getting to a point you haven't been to before. Right?
REILLY: Absolutely.
O'BRIEN: What is it that is different about this and a simulator? The sound, the feel, what is -- I mean the simulator are wonderful. But there's certain things that cannot be simulated.
REILLY: Certainly the actual environment of being in the suit and looking outside and seeing the blue skies of Florida you don't see in the simulators but the environment is really well mimicked in the simulators as far as what it feels like. On launch day it felt both times for me like it was just like the real thing.
O'BRIEN: Inside four minutes now, three minutes, 55 seconds to launch and at this juncture we begin the process of gimbling the engines pretty soon. That essentially means the nozzles on the engines are movable to steer the shuttle in the direction it needs to go and you'll see this and you can actually watch it and that's an important thing to make sure those engines are able to do their job properly. We'll watch them pivot around. I don't know that that's ever failed in any launch countdown I've ever seen.
REILLY: That would be critical and you can feel that inside the orbiter. You can actually feel those engines moving inside.
O'BRIEN: They go through the full outer limits. If you're a pilot, it's like making sure your flight controls are free and correct. Is there a lot of talk amongst the crew at this point or is this quiet time where you're focused?
REILLY: It depends on the crew. For some of them they'll be talking, there might be even chatting about something as mundane as Thomas watching the world cup tonight.
O'BRIEN: You never know, you have to stay loose somehow.
REILLY: Exactly.
O'BRIEN: Our next big one will be at the top -- put your eye at the top of the external fuel tank, some people call it a beanie cap, you can call it a gaseous oxygen vent hood, if you want. Essentially that cap is there to keep the liquid hydrogen, which is bleeding off from causing ice to form on that fuel tank.
We know how dangerous any debris can be, that's what that's there for. Two minutes 55 seconds. Any minute now we should see that liftoff and we should begin the process of counting down. I haven't seen it do it yet. It seems like they might be a little bit late on that one. Are they?
REILLY: And what they've just done now is they've cleared the ...
(CROSSTALK)
O'BRIEN: There is goes.
REILLY: ... on board and the beanie cap will be coming off and they'll be getting ready. Next call will be to get ready to close their visors and get ready to go.
O'BRIEN: That's when it gets real tense. The oxygen begins to flow. The fuel cells are kicked in, which are electrical energy for inside the shuttle, as well. Then it gets down to pressurizing the hydrogen tank and no longer replenishing it, as well. We're now inside two minutes, two minutes. The weather is go, technically it is go. I haven't heard a single thing wrong with this countdown yet, have you?
REILLY: No. In fact what they just did was they just got the call from the launch director to close their visors, so they've now closed the visors on their suits and they've started oxygen flow. So at this point the crew is probably pretty quiet and they're getting ready for flight. O'BRIEN: What we're going to see after this, is about 50 seconds in or 50 seconds away, the orbiter now goes to its own internal power and then within 31 seconds, we will see it go to what is the auto sequence, auto ground launch sequencer which is basically at this point is a computerized controlled countdown. We might see a hold there, if there is a temperature, a slight increase in temperature in the liquid hydrogen lines.
We're just expecting that possibly. This happens sometimes when there's been a couple of tankings, as we saw over the weekend. Inside 60 seconds now. Let's watch the 31 seconds that they continue the count. That is not unusual though. For whatever reason when you tank up a couple of times, you get high hydrogen temperature reading for some reason.
REILLY: That's exactly right. The tank is filled and refilled and they will oftentimes see a slight transient in the temperatures and the LH2 lines. And then they will hold there until it drops below the enunciation limits. So the onboard sequencers will then take over.
O'BRIEN: OK. We're not stopping at 31 seconds let's listen to Bruce Buckingham, public affairs officer for the final stage of this countdown as the Space Shuttle Discovery crews, the second launch after Columbia.
15, 12, 11, 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three ...
Go for main engines. Start, 2, 1, booster ignition and liftoff of the Space Shuttle Discovery returning to the space station paving the way for future missions and beyond.
Space shuttle traveling well in excess of 100 miles an hour.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Houston now controlling the flight of Discovery. The space shuttle begins the journey back into orbit. Discovery completes its roll, shuttle now heads down wings level. (INAUDIBLE).
Discovery three liquid fuel main engines now throttle back to 67 percent of rated performance, reducing the stress on the shuttle as it breaks through the sound barrier. Discovery already three-and-a-half miles in altitude, one-and-a-half miles down rage, traveling almost 750 miles an hour. Everything looking good on the bird. 57 seconds into the flight, engines beginning to rev up.
O'BRIEN: ...Johnson Space Center in Houston as he walks us through this. And as you can see right there, we have an estimated sense of a trajectory based on previous launches so you can get a sense of how quickly and how fast they're moving and how fast their altitude is increasing.
The throttle up call acknowledged by Commander Steve Lindsey.
It will clear shortly.
Copy.
Lindsey joined on the flight deck by pilot Mark Kelly, flight engineer Lisa Nowak and mission specialist Mike Fossum, mission specialist Piers Sellers, Stephanie Wilson and Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency. Down on the mid-deck, Reiter headed for six months on the international space station. One minute 47 seconds into the flight. 22 miles in altitude, 18 miles downrange traveling 2,600 miles an hour. Standing by for solid rocket booster separation.
O'BRIEN: Solid rocket booster separation is a point where every astronaut breathes a little bit easier and that is going to happen very shortly. It's the first 2:15.
Solid rocket booster separation confirmed. Guidance now converging. Discovery's onboard computers commanding the main engine nozzles to swivel aiming the shuttle for its precise target in space for main engine cut off.
O'BRIEN: That's a good moment there, isn't it, Jim Reilly?
Very smooth inside and they're above mock five right now.
O'BRIEN: That 2:15 period with those solid rocket boosters on there, it is a much rougher ride. It's a violent ride and as I said, within eight seconds they're going 100 miles an hour, to give you a sense of the speed. It's hard to imagine that when you have this 4.5 million pound vehicle. At this point, it gets very smooth and there's a constant sense of acceleration. Tell us about that?
REILLY: Exactly, for the next 6 and a half minutes afterward we jettison the SRBs, then it's a pretty smooth ride all the way to orbit. Right now they've just made it past the two engine call for Moron, which if we have any kind of engine problem, then they'll abort to Moron in Spain.
O'BRIEN: So in other words they're not coming back here at this point. As they get higher essentially, the options for an abort get greater, right?
REILLY: Yes in about another minute we'll hear that negative return call which means that they have no options for coming back here and that anything happens, we'll continue on and go across the Atlantic.
O'BRIEN: That's the four-minute mark and that's an important mark. Never seen a shuttle have to do that. We're looking very closely as well as we look at the onboard cameras on the external fuel tank for Discovery. All eyes will be trained to see if there's any debris that's come off. Have you seen any, Jim?
REILLY: So far it's looking very clean.
O'BRIEN: All right negative return. So if something were to happen now, it means perhaps a transatlantic abort, perhaps going to Moron, Spain, maybe an abort to orbit which means they would get a lower but at least an earth orbit. REILLY: Exactly. In fact in about a minute we'll hear that press to ATO, which is Abort To Orbit. You have the negative return call, so they want be coming back to RTLS.
O'BRIEN: They flew a profile that had a little less power in the equation. In an effort to try to avoid kicking off debris where the atmosphere is thickest. How much does that make it more difficult it get to the space station, ultimately?
REILLY: Of course the slower you go, the less of an energetic trajectory you'll have. So they'll have a slightly different profile than most of our flights would have. In this particular case, they're going supersonic at about one minute and that was a point where they actually throttled out a little earlier and throttled back up a little bit later so they could reduce the aerial loads on the tank and hopefully have less material be shed off of it or less likelihood of material to be shed from the tank.
O'BRIEN: Now traveling in excess of 6,300 miles an hour, an altitude of 66 miles. The boundary of space is ...
REILLY: Is roughly 60 miles.
O'BRIEN: Right there. So they're in space. So you can pin astronaut wings on the rookies, the three rookies on this right now. And that's a big moment when you get to space. What's that like that first time you get there?
REILLY: Steve probably made that call where he said, OK, you guys, you're all now in space. And so there are probably some big grins on the flight deck and mid-deck right now.
O'BRIEN: Something you trained for years and years for and some day you get those astronaut wings. Well watching that, let's look at that onboard camera as much as we can there and see what we see as it's ...
REILLY: Here in just a minute you'll see in the external tank camera you'll see the orbiter actually roll to heads up at about mock 13.
O'BRIEN: Wow, let's watch that. What's the reason for doing that at that point? They've been going kind of upside down almost up until that point. Why?
REILLY: One of the big reasons is that we have a stored program command on board that will then transition from the calm here on the ground where they're talking to ground sites, to talking to our antenna. The antennas will be talking to the satellites on board, the (INAUDIBLE) satellites here in about another 45 seconds.
O'BRIEN: Yes. So, in other words, they're going from ground stations to satellites right in this moment as we see this right here.
REILLY: Exactly. And from here on they'll talking through the satellites to mission control. O'BRIEN: That's fascinating. We are now at a point, we are 6 minutes and 20 seconds in so about two minutes away from that external fuel tank being jettisoned and as it goes, when we see that camera picture, will it stay live? It should, last time as I recall it did, it was quite a spectacular picture as we saw the orbiter and the external tank separate.
The external fuel tank source of all the focus of all the attention and the source of that foam shedding problem. It's the only piece of the shuttle combination that is not returned and reused. And after it's used today it gets de-orbited in several thousand pieces over the Indian Ocean.
REILLY: What they have right now is main engine cut off which is a good point. That means everything is looking great and they'll goal for all the maneuvers that they'll do after they reach orbit, so everything's looking great.
O'BRIEN: So I didn't hear a single thing that the commander Steve Lindsey or pilot Mark Kelly had to deal with on the way up that was not what you would consider normal.
REILLY: Exactly. Everything is looking pretty nominal so far.
O'BRIEN: So all those hours in simulation wasted. Who needs it, right? Planning for all those scenarios that just didn't happen. At what point are you -- not until you're unstrapped and start floating around?
REILLY: Well the point that really will get the rookies will be the point where we hit main engine cutoff in about a minute and when we get that call they will be taking their helmets off shortly after that and getting their first chance to really be in zero g.
O'BRIEN: Until those engines cut off, you're still getting pressed. Are you getting a lot of g forces at this point still?
REILLY: Right now they're seeing three g throttling about the last minute and 50 seconds or so of the powered flight. So, you can start to see in that image, a little bit of the plasma that's being generated around the vehicle as it's continuing to fly uphill. Here, very shortly, they'll hit main engine cutoff in about 15 seconds.
O'BRIEN: So, it actually generates the plasma that we associate with reentry, on ascent as well, which reminds us of how the energy is given and taken away on space flight, isn't it?
REILLY: And even though they're fairly high right here, there's still a little bit of atmosphere. And they'll be aiming for a point to where they'll spend about 48 minutes after launch and main engine cutoff ...
O'BRIEN: All right main engine cut off just happened. Now, the next moment will be the booster separation. When's that going to occur? That's pretty shortly after this.
REILLY: Tank separation should occur just any second now.
O'BRIEN: Just watch that. There it goes. There you see Discovery and that external fuel tank parting company.
REILLY: You'll see it here in just a second on the screen. And there it is.
External tank separation confirmed. Commander Steve Lindsey now maneuvering Discovery to the correct orientation so that video and digital stills of the external tank can be captured by cameras embedded in the shuttle's umbilical well. A smooth ride to orbit.
O'BRIEN: You're listening to Rob Navy as public affairs officer in Houston. They'll also attempt to take some pictures with handheld cameras onboard which will give them yet another opportunity to see what exactly is and is not on that external fuel tank. How much foam might have shed.
REILLY: Exactly. In fact that's our very first task after this, is that you may hear a call for a pitch maneuver and Steve will pull the nose up and then two of the folks on the crew will then pick up a camera, both video and a still camera and take pictures of the external tank. And we'll get those down to the ground where the folks back in Houston will take a good, close look at them and see how it fared.
O'BRIEN: We were looking closely at those pictures. Certainly the engineers were looking closely. That's just the first indication. There's a lot of imagery all around here literally, it will take hours and hours to go through it all. When will we know that they had a nice clean ascent and they have an orbiter that is safe to come home. It will take a while, won't it?
REILLY: I would expect the first real indication will be this afternoon in the press conference, they'll give us the first indications. But it will take a day or so for them to actually collate all the data and get the first real good look at it.
O'BRIEN: All right we have a quick replay here. It was really a beautiful launch on a beautiful day. The wind kind of blowing toward us, so we really got blasted and rattled my bones, I don't know about yours. Might have knocked a filling out or two, I don't know.
REILLY: Yes it's for the Fourth of July that's a pretty good bottle rocket.
O'BRIEN: It's hard to beat that bottle rocket, that's for sure. You know you mention bottle rockets, those solid rocket boosters, like a roman candle, once you light them, you're going for a ride. And that moment when those solid rocket boosters come off, it's always an important moment, isn't it?
REILLY: Exactly. In fact for the first two minutes, it's a pretty good bumpy ride. And as you can hear on the shock waves as they're coming from the pad here, it's pretty loud out here and you can hear it kind of ripping. Well you can actually feel that inside the orbiter as you're bouncing up for the first two minutes of flight. But once they come off, you're above 150,000 feet going mock 5 and then for the next 6 and a half minutes, it's a very smooth ride on the three main engines.
O'BRIEN: That deafening noise that we didn't just hear, we felt. How much of that do you actually feel inside the orbiter. Are you insulated from that noise?
REILLY: Pretty much we're insulated for most of it. Because we're inside the vehicle and of course then we're inside of our suits. You can hear it and feel it as the vibration and noise inside the orbiter, but it's nothing like what you can hear out here. This is far more impressive than it is on board.
O'BRIEN: All right, so we got a better show than they did. Except right now I think they're getting a better show. All right Discovery is in orbit now. They're doing some corrections now to circularize, get that orbit just right and they're beginning a three day chase to the international space station. We're going to take a break, we'll be back with more on the mission of Discovery, the second since the loss of Columbia appearing to go off very smoothly today. Back with more in a moment.
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Ten, nine, eight, seven, six main engines. Start main engines. Start -- two, one.
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O'BRIEN: Welcome back. We're now 15 minutes into the flight of Space Shuttle Discovery. 32nd flight for Discovery, the most traveled of the space shuttle vehicles. 115 in space shuttle history now extending beyond 25 years. That's why they say 32 flights puts it most traveled. That's still not a lot of mileage on the odometer.
Each of these orbiters was built for 100 flights. We just witnessed what seemed to be an almost flawless countdown. There were just a few calls on the ascent that I'm going to ask Jim Reilly about in just a moment. Take a look at the pictures now, flight control is in Houston now, in control of it. And let's look at the launch and listen to it for just a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
And liftoff of the Space Shuttle Discovery returning to the space station paving the way for future missions beyond.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: That was the voice of Bruce Buckingham, public affairs officer here at the Kennedy Space Center. Now, you heard a couple of things on the way uphill as astronauts like to call it. Tell us what you heard and what you think was going on. There was a point where they were talking about a loss of data, what was that about Jim Reilly?
REILLY: Well it sounded like, and I don't know the details, but it sounded Steve might have noticed that something had dropped off for just a second and what he got back from the call from the ground was that that was no issues. And then they also got a second call on the left ohms or their orbital maneuvering system tanks, the propellants that were going to use here in a few minutes to circularize their orbit.
And that turned out to be a normal condition, as well. So, in both cases they got calls from the ground that said no issues, no problems. And they just got a go just a few minutes ago for doing the hydraulic shutdown and all things were reported nominal at that point.
O'BRIEN: Hydraulics of course run the control surfaces, the aero surfaces when it's actually acting as a glider. You don't need those in space, so they shut those auxiliary power units which power them down while they're in space. Looking at these pictures.
These are great pictures for all of us to be a part of it, but this is really about engineering, about people having a sense who are part of the shuttle program as to what is going on with this foam. Do you have the sense that the more we look at this, the more we're uncovering a problem that just has always been there?
REILLY: Quite likely. I mean we've always known we've had small pieces of the foam that have come off in the past and of course the one thing that was the wake-up call for us was Columbia. Folks who've been working so hard on this literally around the clock for the last couple of years to get us ready to go back to flight have done a superb job of trying to put as much of this behind us as we possibly can with the redesigns that you talked about earlier.
O'BRIEN: 16 flights planned to try to do the U.S. part to finish out the international space station. All that has to happen by 2010. We've had two flights in three and a half years since the loss of Columbia. Obviously, at that flight rate, it's not going to work out. Are you confident now, it's early to say, we have a lot of pictures to look at, but do you have the sense that NASA can get to a point where it can increase that flight rate safely?
REILLY: Right. That's actually the whole plan with these two flights. 114 and 121 were the two test flights to validate all the work that's been done. Assuming that everything looks great after the analysis by the guys back in Houston, then we should be able to step up as Mike Griffin said to four flights a year to complete our assembly tasks.
O'BRIEN: All right, take us up in space for just a moment here as we leave. What's going on? Are they jubilant, are some people getting a little sick? What's happening in space right now?
REILLY: The first thing is that they're going to be doing, the two guys are going to be doing the photography for the tank are pulling cameras out and getting ready to take their imagery because that's a pretty important thing for the crew to be doing. And they're going to be concentrating on that.
The rest of the crew is probably taking their helmets off, taking their gloves off and for the first time getting a chance to see things floating around them. And for the rookies, that's a pretty big gee whiz moment to see your helmet floating in front of you.
O'BRIEN: Can you remember that moment?
REILLY: Absolutely. In fact, when I took it off, it just did like a three quarter turn in front of me and it was a gee whiz moment for me, that's for sure.
O'BRIEN: Do you sort of have to take it slowly though for fear of getting a little woozy, space sickness?
REILLY: Well not so much the space sickness, but just, it's a foreign environment. You know, you're just not used to it, you have to learn how to walk, literally, by going from place to place with your hands, instead of your feet. So for the first day or two you'll see everybody's going to be moving slowly, except for the vets. Guys like Steve will be instantly back in space. But the rookies, it's going to take them about a day to really get comfortable and then you'll see them start moving around.
O'BRIEN: We'll watch it the whole way. Jim Reilly, astronaut, who helped guide us through our coverage of "Discovery's" 32nd flight and now in orbit, on its way. 17,500 miles an hour, 90 minutes around the planet and we'll be following this mission all throughout.
We'll keep you posted on how they're doing in space and how Discovery fared as it flew to space just a few moments ago. Thanks for joining us for our special coverage of this launch of Discovery and stay with CNN all throughout the mission.
I'm Miles O'Brien live at the Kennedy Space Center.
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Booster ignition and liftoff of Space Shuttle Discovery returning to the space station, paving the way for future missions beyond.
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