T-4 minutes and holding. During this planned 10-minute hold managers overseeing the launch of NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) atop a Delta II rocket will conduct final readiness polls and OCO-2 will be transferred to internal power. Weather remains 100 percent “go.” The countdown will resume at 5:52:44 a.m. EDT and liftoff is targeted for the opening of a 30-second launch window at 5:56:44 a.m. As the spacecraft leaves the launch pad heading south at an azimuth of 196 degrees, the three ATK solid rocket motors will burn for 64 seconds and be jettisoned 99 seconds into flight. Delta II main engine cutoff will occur four minutes, 24 seconds after launch. Five minutes into flight the Delta II fairing will be jettisoned, exposing OCO-2 to space. Second stage engine cutoff will occur a little more than 10 minutes after launch, beginning a 40-minute coast phase. At 6:50:50 a.m. EDT, the second stage engine will restart for about 12 seconds, placing OCO-2 in the desired orbit. The spacecraft will separate from the Delta 56 minutes, 15 seconds into flight at about 6:53 a.m. Solar array deploy will begin about two minutes later.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 09:48:31 +0000
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