Excitement mounts as Mars launch clock ticks away 2011/11/27 at 2:14 am
CAPE CANAVERAL — Sheri Kunash will have a front row seat during the countdown to the planned launch Saturday of an Atlas V rocket and NASA?s $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission.
Lead supervisor of the inspectors responsible for all prelaunch rocket preps and tests, Kunash and a group of other United Launch Alliance workers will head outside the Atlas Space Operations Center as countdown clocks tick toward a final hold at T-minus four minutes.
That?s when the excitement starts building. That?s when loudspeakers boom the final ?go/no-go? poll ? when engineers will say whether their rocket systems are ready, or not; whether they are ?go? or ?no-go? for resuming the countdown; whether it?s time to launch the most scientifically capable, most expensive spacecraft ever destined for the surface of another planet.
?When they run that poll, and they call out all the different systems, and you hear ?Go! Go! Go!? ? the hair on the back of your neck rises, and you know it?s real. It?s about to happen,? said Kunash, 57, of Port St. John.
Saturday, that thrill will chill Kunash and her crew in the minutes leading up to a scheduled 10:02 am launch.
That?s when the 19-story Atlas V rocket, NASA?s Mars Science Laboratory and its Curiosity rover are slated to blast off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The weather forecast is favorable. Meteorologists with the Air Force 45th Space Wing Weather Squadron say there is a 70 percent chance conditions will be acceptable for launch.
NASA and ULA will have until 11:45 am to get the mission under way. Launch opportunities will be available about every five minutes during the launch window.
Liftoff must be precisely timed to put the Atlas and its high-profile payload on course for an eight-month interplanetary journey to Mars.
?When its down to launch, that last five minutes, everyone that works with me, and all the folks that have spent these months working toward this end are going to be standing outside watching with the rest of the world,? Kunash said.