KSC-05-S-00237

GEORGE DILLER: This is Atlas launch control, T minus 1 hour, 15 minutes, 15 seconds and counting, leading toward a launch this morning at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. We've heard that the liquid oxygen loading on the Centaur stage is complete and Atlas loading of liquid oxygen is now under way. We have about 15 percent onboard, so everything is going well and according to the timeline. Right now, here in the Atlas Space Operations Center, we have with us Howard Eisen, who is the flight system manager for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Howard, welcome. HOWARD EISEN: Good morning. Thank you. DILLER: The MRO has, has been here at the Kennedy Space Center for about how long now? EISEN: We've been down for about three and a half months. We came down on April 29 from building up the spacecraft at Lockheed Martin in Denver. And we've been working here in the PHSF, the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, since that time. DILLER: And how many people have been working on it, as a rule of thumb? EISEN: There's a steady crew down here of about 50 to 55 people at any one time, but for particular operations we bring down whoever we need. So we might run through another 10 or 15 people on a temporary basis. DILLER: Now, well, we'll know we'll be able to monitor the spacecraft out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory through the Deep Space Network after separation. Has the team got any unique visibility as to what's going on here through their equipment at the ground station here at the Cape? EISEN: O.K. we do through the boost phase, when we're still attached to the Centaur. That data actually comes straight down here into the ASOC where we are. That data is routed out to the MOSB where our team is, and as well as out to Pasadena and out to Denver. So, all the teams can participate in the early operations. After separation, the data goes through the Deep Space Network and it's also routed back here to Pasadena and to Denver. DILLER: So actually, while the Atlas is in flight, you can see what the health of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is as it's going up. EISEN: That's correct. The only outage we expect is immediately following separation. It takes about two minutes before the Japanese station picks us up.