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.