This is Atlas Launch Control. We are now 2 hours 32 minutes, 32 seconds away from the liftoff of the Juno spacecraft aboard an Atlas V rocket.
Liftoff is from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral.
The forecast is essentially unchanged from what we've been watching all week. There is just a 30% chance of not meeting the launch weather criteria.
It takes everything we know to get off this planet.
So, while everything that NASA does and building the Juno spacecraft and exploring Jupiter is all high tech,
I think a rocket launch represents the extreme of that edge.
The energy in the room on launch day is stressful, but in a good way, it's_it's a good feeling, it's_it's almost electric,
everybody's excited and nervous and I've seen people before, you know, biting their nails.
(Background Voices/Pre-Countdown)
A rocket launch is one of the most amazing things to see. I mean, it's truly a cosmic event.
...Safety officer, go. Range weather and final clear to launch, go. LC LD channel 1, go ahead. LC, you have permission to launch. Roger.
A launch is probably our single biggest risk in the entire mission.
T minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Ignition and liftoff of the Atlas V with Juno on a trek to Jupiter.
A planetary piece of the puzzle from the beginning of our solar system.
When you see it, the first thing that you're impressed with is just the amount of energy, you feel it because the ground is shaking
and you're miles away and the waves are going through the ground like an earthquake would.
You're canceling gravity. Gravity is pulling you down, you've got to get to a certain speed and then that's the escape velocity to leave the earth.
Max queue, boosters throttling up, right on schedule, our general response looks good.
You're watching something going from one planet to another.
And we have solids 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 jettison. Visual indication that all solids have separated well.
Current altitude is 45.8 miles, in altitude down range distance 69 miles, velocity 5,413 miles per hour.
And we have payload fairing jettison and CFR jettison.
We have retros and have spacecraft separation. This concludes the post count commentary for the AV 29 Juno mission.