♪♪
-From Launch Complex 39
at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida,
this is Shuttle Launch Control
at T-minus 3 hours, 22 seconds and counting.
We're now entering the final 6 hours
of the countdown for the launch of Space Shuttle Columbia
on Mission STS-109,
the fourth Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission.
We're standing by now to go into a 2-hour built-in hold in three,
two, one, T-minus 3 hours and holding.
This is a planned 2-hour built-in hold,
and at this time, the close-out crew
is now heading toward the launch pad in preparation
for the astronauts' arrival, and the final inspection team
is also entering the launch pad area
so that they can begin their ice inspections.
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Our commander, Scott Altman.
Mission specialist Nancy Currie.
Our payload commander John Grunsfeld.
And Rick Linnehan,
mission specialist Rick Linnehan.
And after they have their light snack,
they'll be going to the suit-up room.
They'll have a brief on check
on the countdown status and the weather.
Here's the Mission STS-109 cake with the mission emblem.
They'll be going out to the launchpad about 2:40 a.m.
Commander Scott Altman.
That's our pilot, Duane Carey making his first flight
STS-109.
Rick Linnehan, mission specialist number three,
making his third flight on STS-109.
Mike Massimino, MS five, making his first flight.
John Grunsfeld, our pilot commander, MS one.
Jim Newman, MS four, his fourth flight on STS-109,
also one of our EVA crew members,
and here is Nancy Currie, our flight engineer,
making her fourth flight, also our RMS operator.
This is Shuttle Launch Control, T-minus
2 hours. 54 minutes. 42 seconds and counting.
The STS-109 flight crew now leaving the suit-up room,
on the way to the elevator
for the ride down to the ground floor
to board the astronaut transfer van,
the Astrovan for the 20-minute ride out to Launch Pad 39A.
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-Woo!
[ Applause ]
-Hey!
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-This is Shuttle Launch Control,
T-minus 2 hours, 34 minutes, 26 seconds and counting.
We see the astronauts on the pad surface
now having just gotten off the Astrovan
and heading for the fixed service structure.
They take a brief look at the vehicle,
walking over to the edge of the flame trench
and looking up the stack,
and they'll now ride the elevator up
to the 195-foot level.
And here they are now arriving at the 195-foot level.
They usually enjoy the view from up there before boarding.
It's quite spectacular.
They can see the entire Complex 39 area
and all the way down to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
And now we see our Commander Scott Altman
preparing to board Columbia
by members of the close-out crew.
They'll be helping the astronauts with their helmets
and the other equipment that they need to don
before entering the orbiter.
And, of course, we have seven crew members to board,
and after that, there will be the communications checks
with each of them in their seats,
and then we'll close the orbiter access hatch at 4:48 a.m.,
is the nominal time for that this morning.
But that can be done all the way up to an hour later,
if necessary,
if there's some kind of a problem in the countdown.
Commander now on board.
He'll be assisted into his seat by Astronaut Mike Foreman
who's on board the orbiter to help the crew get seated
and do their final preparations before the hatch is closed.
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-Go ahead.
-This is Shuttle Launch Control
at T-minus 2 hours, 23 minutes, 20 seconds and counting.
and we're now seeing mission specialist number five,
Mike Massimino, making his first flight.
He'll be doing two of the space walks on this mission.
Crew is getting a little cleaning of their shoes
before they go on board.
The crew, they try to keep as clean as possible.
-...retention, select switch position one.
-Mike Massimino will be sitting on the mid-deck
in the far right seat.
-No TC, OVCC. -Go ahead.
MS five on board at this time. -MS five, copy.
-And the close-out crew on board that will also make sure
that their suits are, indeed, ready for launch.
They'll put the light sticks in their arms as we see here,
the one on Massimino's right arm.
Mission specialist number two, Nancy Currie,
who is the flight engineer and robotic arm operator
on this mission, now preparing to board.
She'll be sitting up on the flight deck
in the AV center seat.
-MS two is on board at this time,
and that is all crew members on board.
-Okay, copy that. -She operated the robotic arm
to place Unity into position on the Space Station.
That one made it Zarya in STS-88.
-...verify ready to module close-out.
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-Columbia, CDR, launch director.
-Comm check, CDR. Go ahead, sir.
-Okay, Scott, well,
it'll be good to have Columbia back on flight status.
So we wish you good luck on this very important mission
to the Hubble Space Telescope, and y'all have fun up there.
-And Launch Director, Mike, we really appreciate that.
I just want to say thanks to the whole team
that's gotten all of our Hubble equipment
ready to go and the whole team from basically --
from one side of the country to the other,
that's worked so hard to get Columbia ready to roll again.
Hubble is up there for us, and we're ready to go to work.
Thank you all.
-That's our pleasure, and y'all have a great flight.
-The countdown clock will resume on my mark.
Five, four, three, two, one, mark.
T-minus 9 minutes and counting.
-Sequence has been initiated.
-Ground Launch Sequencer now controlling.
All functions between now and hand-off to Columbia,
we can control by this ground launch sequencer
computer here in the firing room.
-CLS is go for orbiter access arm retract.
-Columbia OTC, good luck on your mission,
allowing us to better glimpse our future
by enhancing Hubble's view of the past.
-Orbiter test conductor Jeff Lauffer wishing the crew well.
Gaseous oxygen vent hood now being retracted.
-Okay, visors coming down. Oh-two coming on.
To use a Navy term, let's launch.
-External tank now at flight pressure.
-LA2 pressurization.
-T-minus 1 minute, solid rocket booster field joint heaters
now being turned off.
-20 seconds. -Firing chain is on.
-15 seconds.
-T-minus 10, 9, 8,
7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.
And liftoff of Space Shuttle Columbia
to broaden our view of the universe
through the Hubble Space Telescope.
-Houston now controlling the flight of Columbia,
the pioneer shuttle headed for the Hubble Space Telescope.
-Roll program.
Roger. Roll, Columbia.
-Columbia into the roll, placing the shuttle in a heads
down and wings-level position
for the 8 1/2 minute ride to orbit.
Twenty-five seconds into the flight,
Columbia's three liquid fuel main engines
now throttling back in a three-step fashion
to 72% of rate of performance,
reducing the stress on the shuttle
as it breaks through the sound barrier.
Already 2 miles in altitude, 1 1/2 miles downrange.
leaving an incandescent trail behind it,
Columbia headed for Hubble.
Hubble almost directly over the Cape at this moment.
Three engines now throttling down,
soon to throttle back up to 104% of rated performance.
The main engines, along with the three fuel cells
and three hydraulic power units all functioning normally.
Standing by.
-Columbia, Houston, you are go at throttle up.
-Columbia copy. Still at throttle up.
-That throttle up call from CAPCOM Mark Polansky
acknowledged by commander Scott Altman aboard Columbia.
Altman joined on the flight deck by pilot Duane Carey,
flight engineer Nancy Currie and mission specialists
John Grunsfeld, Rick Linnehan,
Jim Newman and Mike Massimino seated down on the mid-deck.
Columbia tracking right down the pike,
15 miles in altitude. 11 1/2 miles downrange.
heading due from the Kennedy Space Center
for an altitude of 350 statute miles in pursuit of Hubble.
One minute, 45 seconds into the flight,
about 15 seconds prior to solid rocker booster separation.
Standing by for SRB separation.
Booster officer confirms a good SRB separation.
Guidance now converging.
Columbia's on-board computers
commanding the main engine nozzles to gently swivel.
-Columbia, Houston to engine Ben.
-Houston, we copy to engine Ben.
-That call from CAPCOM Mark Polansky indicates
that if one engine should fail right now,
Columbia could make a transoceanic abort
to Ben Guerir, Morocco.
However, as it climbs into dawn, Columbia right on the money,
aiming the shuttle for a precise keyhole in space
for main engine cutoff.
-Thank you very much, but the thanks
and the congratulations
and the adulation goes to all of you.
Well done, outstanding effort, unbelievable.
Thank you.
We have George --
Matter of fact, George Page, I think,
would be exceptionally proud of the amazing accomplishment you
all pulled off this morning.
And, certainly, his legacy, and that of all of you,
will continue to pass along,
will certainly stand in this great historic tradition.
Well done.
Have three very distinguished guests here with me
this morning who have all been stunned by the amazing feat
that you pull off at each and every time,
but, again, witnessed this morning.
First and foremost is Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem
who you probably see on TV a fair amount.
He's the guy that does the daily explanation
of the efforts in Afghanistan and what we're doing there
during the course of the continuing efforts
to deal with the terrorist attacks there.
Dr. John Marburger,
who is President Bush's science advisor,
is here to join us as well,
and my good friend Admiral Skip Bowman
who is the current guardian of the Rickover legacy
of the Navy Nuclear Program.
He's here to observe and realize the parallels of what he does
and what we do are exactly the same.
So, in that regard, I think all three gents
have had an opportunity here to see what an amazing job
you all do each and every time.
But, for me, this my first launch.
This was a truly special moment.
Thank you all very much. Appreciate it.
Congratulations.
-Scooter, what we've been looking at with that
is that it appears that we have a possible
restricted flow somewhere in the system on loop one.
And right now, there are no impacts to the mission at all.
However, we just want to give you a heads-up.
ECOM is taking a hard look
and will be monitoring the performance over the next day
or so to come up with a good game plan
and an understanding of exactly what's going to be affected,
if anything.
-Okay, we copy that.
Let us know if there's anything we can do to help troubleshoot.
-We'll certainly do that, Scooter.
-This is Mission Control Houston.
That discussion between CAPCOM Mark Polansky
here in Mission Control and Commander Scott Altman
on-board Columbia having to do with a message
that was received on board the orbiter a short time ago
regarding a somewhat reduced flow of Freon
through one of two Freon loops that exist in the radiator
on the payload bay doors of the orbiter, in this case,
Freon loop number one which is on the port,
or left-side, radiator of Columbia,
has exhibited a slightly reduced flow.
No impact to mission operations at this point.
The flight control team,
particularly the environmental systems officer
here in Mission Control,
will be carefully watching the operation of that Freon loop
during the course of the next several days
to see what its characteristics are.
-Columbia, Houston, we see your happy faces on board,
and we're ready for the downlink.
-Okay, we just wanted to say hello,
let you see our happy faces, and here comes the downlink.
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