GOES-S Countdown to T-Zero, Episode 3: Rocket Science

3:17

00:00 ROC report range status range green t
00:03 minus five, four
00:05 three two one. go for main engine start
00:09 zero and liftoff.
00:14 [Music]
00:18 0-Dark Thirty at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
00:21 With a full week of intense rocket-assembly activities ahead, the teams from Launch Services
00:26 Program and United Launch Alliance are getting an early start.
00:31 It all begins with the booster.
00:33 The booster is the backbone of the Atlas V, and literally everything is riding on it.
00:39 It’s the largest component and first to be lifted.
00:42 "Launch Services Program partnered with United Launch Alliance to select the Atlas 541
00:47 vehicle because it is one awesome rocket, and we need that thrust to get GOES-S to its
00:52 geostationary oribit to meet its mission requirements."
00:55 But, it will take more than just the booster to get all the way to geostationary orbit.
01:00 That’s why we’re adding four solid rocket boosters.
01:06 "When you start with the Atlas booster it's like 860,000 pounds of thrust with just the
01:10 RD180, so we need the solids for extra performance.
01:14 We need it to get heavy payloads off the pad and for additional performance going to geosynchronous
01:20 orbit or geotransfer.
01:22 Mating the solids to the booster is a very hazardous operation.
01:25 We have safety with us at all times.
01:27 You have a hundred thousand pounds going up into the air and hanging on a crane, and oh
01:31 by the way, it's explosive."
01:33 Once the solids are mounted, it’s time to mate the Centaur.
01:38 "The Centaur is the upper stage, and it's tuned, it's like a highly-tuned racecar.
01:44 It's light.
01:46 It's efficient.
01:47 It performs well for us.
01:49 You see something that's not right, bring it up to us, give us a chance to fix it, okay?
01:57 Alright, let's go do this thing."
02:00 Assembling a rocket can make or break any mission.
02:03 It takes tremendous coordination and skill to get this job done.
02:08 The team makes it look easy, but rocket science never is.
02:12 "The coolest part of my job is coming down here and seeing the hardware and knowing
02:16 what it's capable of.
02:18 We all get to work with rockets, and it's really exciting and fun, and everybody has
02:21 their part in all of that and yeah, when you're out with friends you can say you're a rocket
02:26 scientist.
02:27 I do."
02:28 "So there's really nothing quite like all the work and all set up that we do to get
02:34 ready to do this and get built up a rocket, and test it to get to launch day.
02:40 And we get to T-Zero and the rocket lifts off, and the control room rattles and shakes
02:44 a little bit, it's an awesome feeling.
02:47 That is the ultimate reward and that's really what makes us happy. What makes our customer
02:51 happy is putting our customer where they want to go, in the right spot, in the exact right
02:58 orbit, and that is - there's a lot of pride in that."
03:05 This rocket is almost ready to roll.
03:07 Of course, the only thing missing - is its GOES-S payload.