Good evening, and thanks for joining us for tonight’s countdown to liftoff of NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale mission. The quartet of observatories, labeled MMS-1 through MMS-4, are stacked atop one another and sealed inside the payload fairing on an Atlas V 421 rocket. Launch is slated for 10:44 p.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 41.
Weather is expected to cooperate for tonight’s liftoff. The forecast calls for a 80 percent chance of “go” conditions. The 30-minute launch window provides additional breathing room if necessary.
Launch managers and controllers are stationed at their consoles in the Atlas Spaceflight Operations Center, and the blog comes to you from a console in Hangar AE, which serves as a telemetry and communications hub. Times referenced in the blog are provided in Eastern.
At the moment, countdown clocks are paused at the T-2 hour mark for a 30-minute built-in hold. Activities at the launch pad are on schedule and the next big milestone will be the loading of cryogenic propellants into the Atlas V booster and Centaur upper stage. Managers will poll their respective teams in the next few minutes in order to get those “tanking” operations started at about 8:14 p.m.
Can’t wait to see the stream and hopefully the glow from our backyard.