Peregrine Mission-1 launches into space aiming for moon landing

spacecraft that will land on the moon making it one of the first lunar Landings for the us since the final Apollo Mission over 50 years ago good morning and thank you for joining us on the Space Coast of Florida I'm NASA's Megan Cruz and you are watching the first launch of NASA's Clips initiative Clips is short for commercial lunar payload Services a model in which NASA contracts space on Commercial missions to send Science and Technology to the Moon these deliveries will mean more exploration of the Moon than ever before and will help us prepare for the first woman and first person of color to land on the lunar surface under NASA's emis program for today's launch NASA selected astrobotic to deliver its five lunar instruments this is the first mission for the paragen spacecraft today is also the first launch of ula's new Vulcan rocket so a lot of first today now we have a 45 minute launch window that opens at 218 and 38 seconds eastern time but you'll not notice that clock on the upper leftand corner of your screen it says T-minus 7 minutes that's because the Ula team is in a planned hold basically they baked extra time into the countdown to make sure everything's good for launch you'll see that clock start to countdown again when we are actually 7 minutes to the opening of the launch window helping me to share today's first our commentators from both our commercial Partners we have astrobotics Olivia chapla but first let's start with ula's Amanda Sterling with a check of how the rocket is doing thanks Megan and good morning I'm Amanda Sterling a structural engineer and program management leader at United launch Alliance I'm joining you from the advanced space flight operations center at Cape Canaveral this is an exciting place to be as the UL as the Ula team counts down to liftoff of vulcan's inaugural flight right now the Vulcan booster and Centaur upper stage are fueled while the launch Team continues final preps as Megan mentioned the launch count remains in a planned hold the Ula team is currently not working any issues and we're on track for an ontime launch at 21838 a.m. eastern coming up space launch Delta 45 will provide a final weather briefing in about 15 minutes at the moment our weather looks good with just a 15% probability of violation through the 45-minute launch window we have available this morning now I'll send it back to you Megan thank you Amanda it's great to hear that 85% go for tonight now let's take a closer look at the paragr 1 spacecraft it's about 6.2 ft tall and 8.2 ft wide made mostly of aluminum and carbon fiber the four Landing legs have a honeycomb design on the inside to absorb paragon's touchdown on the lunar surface its solar panel is mounted to the top of the spacecraft the payload Decks at the center will carry 20 payloads from seven countries and finally it has over 1 mile of cables and wiring our broadcast on NASA TV today will cover paragan separation around 309 a.m. eastern time followed by acquisition of signal shortly after for more on the company that built paragan here's astrobotics Olivia Chapa thanks Megan and thanks to all of you for tuning in I'm Olivia chapla and I can't tell you how pleased I am to be here representing astrobotic is the director of marketing and Communications we're a small But Mighty team of about 200 60 people together our real goal is to make space accessible to the world and today we are particularly focused on the Moon astrobotic built the paragan spacecraft as part of our Fleet of lunar Landers designed to deliver cargo called payloads To The Moon surface over the past 3 years I've watched the astrobotic team build this paragen spacecraft launching today I've been there alongside them during the long days late nights and for the ridiculously early mornings when we ship paragen to Cape Canaveral in preparation for launch today I am personally so excited to be here because this Mission really marks the beginning of a historic time the United States hasn't soft landed on the moon since NASA's Apollo program more than 50 years ago and only a handful of countries have ever successfully landed on the lunar surface astrobotics aim is to not only return the American flag to the Moon again with paragan but also to start regular commercial lunar deliveries to the Moon surface now let's hear a little more from our founder and CEO John thoron astrobotics goal is to make space accessible to the world and what that means to us is making it possible for space agencies and Commercial organizations and ultimately the individual all around the world to access the moon in ways that have never been possible before the big thing that we're known for is our two lunar missions to go to the surface of the Moon our first one is about to launch and our second one flies in 2024 astrobotic already has a wide array of contracts from Rovers and Landers and now the beginnings of Power Systems that can be deployed on the surface of the Moon so we are not only thinking about lunar delivery we're thinking about the next step we're thinking about rowers that can drive we're thinking about Power Systems that can deploy and provide sustaining power at the poles of the Moon these are all of the pieces that we need the infrastructure that we need to take our next step to make the moon a place that we can sustain and live and Have astronauts do science and exploration and one day use the resources of the moon for in space purposes and perhaps eventually bring those resources back to Earth Pittsburgh startups and space startups in particular are not supposed to succeed you're supposed to be in Florida you're supposed to be in Houston you're supposed to be in LA but yet here we are in Pittsburgh with our very first spacecraft on the Launchpad ready to go we have more than a dozen instruments flying on our very first mission from all over the world six new Nations will touch the surface of the Moon with just our first mission this mission was done on a relative shoestring budget this is a much more affordable mission that has historically occurred regardless of challenges we have to continue to strive toward that future of making space accessible to the world and to see what's possible when you come together to overcome the biggest challenge of all landing on the surface of the mind astrobotic is among a pool of vendors that can bid on contracts for future NASA deliveries this model will hopefully mean frequent rapid and affordable access to the Moon our moon it seems so close in the night sky but getting there is really hard but what if there was a way to change that only a few Nations have successfully landed on the moon as NASA sends astronauts back to the lunar surface this time to stay we will need need to send Science and Technology instruments ahead of time to lay the foundation for human exploration to make this happen NASA is helping establish a commercial lunar economy for the first time ever there will be commercial delivery services to the Moon we are enabling American companies to send our payloads to the lunar surface for us these delivery services will expand our capabilities for exploration radically increasing the amount of science we can achieve this highrisk High reward initiative will invest in and Leverage The entrepreneurial Spirit of American innovation to launch a commercial lunar Marketplace advancing technology and exploration for all of us with this never-before seen streamlined access to the Moon we will be able to make novel measurements and develop technologies that scientists have long wanted to do on the lunar surface and as this new industry matures this commercial delivery service for NASA and other customers could expand beyond the moon to other destinations in our solar system Live on another world because we are explorers flying on Commercial missions will mean cost savings for NASA as we've said but this approach has risks so to explain I have Joel Kars here he's the deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA's science mission directorate good morning Joel hi good morning Megan so talk to me about why we want commercial companies sending our science experiments why don't we send them ourselves well you know NASA is really good at sending robotic science probes throughout the solar system but it takes a lot of effort it takes a lot of time and for our big push to do science and technology on the moon as part of Artemis we want to take a new approach we want to tap into the new ideas the entrepreneurial spirit and all the engineering Innovation that these small companies and startup compan bring in the United States we think they can help make the overall Moon effort much better but isn't it riskier for us to depend on others versus us doing it ourselves you there is a different level of risk that we all had to understand and agree to when we started down this like I said we understand how to do robotic science Missions at Nasa but we do know that these companies have a lot of good interesting ideas by partnering with several different companies for different Loney Landing missions we get to see all their individual strengths their different technical approaches but at the same time we don't get the level of information and we don't have the level of control or direction that we're used to having in NASA but we think that trade is really worth it but why is it so important for us to send science before we send astronauts we didn't do that before with the Apollo program well it's well it's been a many decad since Apollo and there were many many unanswered scientific questions about the moon not just about the moon itself but how the Moon is almost a time machine to look back to see what happened at Earth in the earliest ages of Earth so for example we can do studies at the Moon to try to determine when did all those last big meteor impacts take place because if we see them in the moon they actually happen at the same time at Earth maybe around the same time life was forming at Earth you could also look at the Moon and we might be interested in using water ice that's at the South Pole of the Moon we expect for our astronauts in the future but understanding how that ice got there how that water got there in the first place will help us understand how do we have water at Earth that we get to use today mhm real quick is there anything in particular that you are most excited about discovering on the moon oh well there's just so many things there have been scientific questions for decades that we've that people scientists United States around the world have been dying to get back to the surface of the Moon to do we've sent many probes in orbit around the moon like lunar reconnaissance Orbiter but they look at it from afar this is going to be our first chance to go back and really make those measurements that really touch the surface and see what's really there Joel thank you so much I know we have ambitious goals here at Nasa I can't wait to see what we what we do oh thank you this is an exciting day yes thank you so much all right all right so let's head back over to ula's Amanda Sterling for another update on the Vulcan rocket things continue to go as planned as we look forward to the launch of ula's first Vulcan rocket we're still holding at T-minus 7 minutes as part of our planned 60-minute hold and the team is not working any issues at this time the Vulcan booster is fueled to flight level with super chilled liquid oxygen and liquid methane soon Centaur topping to flight levels will begin and the UL team is on track for an ontime liftoff at 21838 a.m. eastern we're about 5 minutes away from space launch Delta 45's final weather briefing at the moment our weather continues to look good through the 45 minute launch window we have available this morning the excitement is building here in ula's advanced space flight Operation Center as we get closer to t0 back to you Megan all right we're about 35 minutes away to the opening of today's launch window inside Vulcan payload fairing is astrobotics paragan spacecraft astrobotic is based in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania where folks there are laser focused on parag right now right Olivia that is definitely right Megan I'm checking in on our paragan lunar lander with our michig control team right now you can see them on screen a reminder that our spacecraft is currently sitting in the top of Ula Vulcan fairing uh our flight director is informing me that paragan is looking nominal with temperatures currently at an expected 70° fhe we also monitor the environmental pressures around the spacecraft and we're sitting at a good 14.7 PSI things are looking good for launch the spacecraft is currently powered off but will automatically power on once it separates from vulcan's payload Fairing and here you can just see the faces of some of the engineers who have worked many hours on paragan to get it to the Launchpad today standing well sitting sitting in the middle left row is flight director Ander solarzano um he is the acting flight director for this launch and nearby is Alex vanoven he is currently providing us updates on the spacecraft status and Alex just informed me that the spacecraft is currently looking nominal temperatures and pressures are still as expected as we continue to await launch let's send it back to Megan at the host desk thank you Olivia again paragan is flying with 20 payloads today five of those are NASA's and throughout the show we will tell you about each one starting first with the linear energy transfer spectrometer or lets from NASA's Johnson Space Center I'm Nick stle I'm a physicist and professional engineer science and operations lead for the let's payload the linear energy transfer spectrometer is a small low power radiation detector based on time piix technology developed at CERN it's similar to devices that we've flown on ISS uh and Artemis the science we're expecting to get from the let's detector is take that information and translate it from deposited energy and silicon which is what we measure with this detector into a more biologically equivalent value that we can utilize for crew Protection One of the key pieces I think that if we can capture would be outstanding is uh getting data from a radiation event uh solar storm on the moon um while crew are not there uh that would be ideal from the standpoint of being able to get the data um without putting crew at risk and then utilizing that data to prepare for crew protection during the lunar operations now NASA's science technology Mission directorate had a hand in today's launch so here with me now is Nikki work Heiser director of Technology maturation good morning to you good morning so tell me how stmd that's the shortened version of the director there tell me how it invests in small business like astrobotic of course so the space technology Mission directorate our Mantra is technology drives exploration so if you're really going to create new disruptive technologies that that that change the world you really have to work with a diverse group of individuals and that means our small businesses large businesses International Partners other government agencies astrobotic is a shining example of that uh stmd has been working with them for well over a decade um we've awarded uh over 40 small business Innovation research Awards and our tipping points to develop new technologies for the mission so is that essentially like seed money is that how to we're Partners right we're Partners in this we say an emis we're going together and we mean it we're we're invested hand inand in this and how have those uh uh Financial Awards how have those helped astrobotic so um for example uh not only do we have science and uh different uh payloads aboard the mission but actually parts of the Lander itself like our navigation Doppler liar that helps with the guidance navigation and control uh terrain relative navigation that helps to make sure that they can land in safe spots you know the moon can be very treacherous um and also the axial Thruster engines on the Lander itself are brand new engines that have never been flown before that we're testing um on the moon together how does it feel to see technologies that your director developed you know helping us get back to the Moon there are not words um I I really get goosebumps and you know the funny thing is if you'd asked me as it was a child of course it's the amazing engineering and science Feats that we see happening but as a child that was raised in a family of a small business doing together with small businesses this being our NASA and going together to the Moon um is really just incredible yeah just what do you think about that again that we're bringing in as many as we can with us back to you know what I think I think that means success I think it's going to require all of us and our mutual strengths to make it happen thank you Nikki I really appreciate you being here and I hope you see a beautiful launch today me too let's go all right we're just about uh 30 under 31 minutes to the opening of today's 45-minute launch window after for paragan one today astrobotic will deliver another payload for us and that's our Viper Rover later this [Music] year right now teams across NASA are busy working on viper another important lunar delivery Viper is short for volatiles investigating polar exploration Rover but what are volatiles and why is NASA looking for them volatile are substances that easily evaporate and one of the most important volatiles NASA is trying to map on the moon is water water is critical for deep space exploration because you can drink it but also turn it into oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for fuel NASA has selected astrobotic for vipers lunar delivery under Clips or the commercial lunar payload Services initiative and when Viper gets to the Moon it will search for ice on and under the lunar surface near the moon's South Pole about the size of a small car it has a drill and three science instruments together they will work to uncover how Frozen water got on the moon in the first place and what has kept it preserved over billions of years this Mission will help NASA understand the environment where we plan to send astronauts as part of its Artemis program which will establish a long-term presence on the moon and eventually Mars that's your Artemis Moon minute our next Artemis mission is Artemis 2 which will send four astronauts around the moon and work is already well underway on their ride NASA's space launch system rocket right now teams here at Kennedy are processing segments of the two side boosters each booster will stand about 17 stories tall and burn approximately 6 tons of propellant every second producing 3.6 million pounds of thrust we continue to March towards today's 45 minute launch window that opens at 218 and 38 seconds eastern time the Ula team remains in a planned hold and right now working no issues as for the paragen spacecraft let's get another check of it from uh Livia with astrobotic thank you Megan as you may recall we are currently only monitoring the spacecraft's temperature and pressure while it sits inside the Vulcan Rockets payload Fairing and we're checking in with my team members and Mission Control and Alex vanhoven one of our flight directors you in the very back row he is providing us updates directly our mission team confirm the spacecraft's levels are nominal and we continue to be ready for launch and I'd like to take this time to say a well-deserved shout out to the entire astrobotic team in Pennsylvania California and even a few remote workers I'm sure you're all watching right now and we thank you for your continued commitment to this Mission and to lunar exploration we really really couldn't have done it without you now as we sit tight for launch we'll continue to monitor paragan for now back to Megan at the host desk a few minutes ago I told you about NASA's let's payload flying on paragan today now we learn about nervous or the near infrared volatile spectrometer system from NASA's ases Research Center hi my name is Tony cprit I'm the lead scientist for the near infrared volatile spectrometer system or nervous the nervous instrument combines three observations it has a spectrometer that tells us about the composition of the lunar soil it has a high resolution camera that tells us about the fine scale structures of that soil and it has a temperature measurement that tells us the temperature of the lunar regolith nervous combines all these three measurements to help us better understands the compounds that are on the surface of the Moon particular compounds we're interested in are volatiles a lunar volatile is a compound that is very sensitive to temperature at low temperatures it's solid at high temperatures it's a vapor water is a good example of a lunar volatile We Believe water is manufactured in sunlit regions of the Moon either through solar wind or through microm meteroid impacts and then migrates to the poles of the Moon where it's captured into dark permanently shadowed craters if there is water at the poles of the Moon in substantial quantities that might be of incredible importance and use to human exploration going forward now we still have three more NASA payloads to tell you about flying on NASA's first commercial lunar payload Services launch but now we want to turn the broadcast over to Ula Amanda Sterling will walk us through the rest of the Vulcan Rockets inaugural flight through launch and ascent and then Olivia and I will be back around 15 minutes after a liftoff to continue monitoring paragan Ula will just uh will join us in just a few seconds good morning I'm Amanda Sterling a program management leader and your host for ula's live coverage of the inaugural Vulcan launch I'm joining you from ula's Advanced spaceflight Operation Center at Cape Canaveral space force station in Florida thanks for staying up late or getting up early with us for today's exciting first launch vulcan's certification flight one or CT one this is the first of two planned test flights to support full certification of the Vulcan rocket for US Government missions on board the Vulcan rocket today is astrobotics paragen commercial lunar lander on a mission to intercept the moon and the celestus memorial space flight payload Enterprise flying to deep space with the Centaur upper upper stage liftoff is scheduled for 21838 a.m. Eastern and we have a 45-minute launch window this morning in addition to watching our webcast you can also follow the live Mission progress at ulalaunch.com about 30 minutes ago the count entered a 60 Minute planned hold we have two planned holds in our launch count which give our team additional time to resolve any issues prior to entering the terminal count at this time the team is not working any issues and we're proceeding towards an ontime lift off we're excited to partner with NASA on today's live broadcast together we'll be continuing our coverage through end of mission building on more than 120 years of combined Atlas and Delta launch experience ula's Vulcan rocket introduces a balance of new technologies and Innovative features to ensure a reliable and accessible space launch service let's hear more about this incredible launch vehicle from Ula business development director Tom Burkholder and Vulcan chief engineer RJ Sansom so RJ can you discuss a little bit of the when you began the design of Vulcan and what that meant yeah when we started the design of Vulcan we were looking at our national security space customer and designing a launch system that would meet their needs and we focused on being a to provide lift for the most difficult stressing mission which is a high energy Mission we designed a launch system that's flexible we have the ability to add solid rocket boosters take them off uh to tailor the performance that we need for that particular customer Mission we have a extremely capable upper stage in the centar 5 that provides performance that exceeds all the capabilities that our customer needs and in the then we've got a launch system that exceeds all of our national security customers uh requirements and enables us to provide performance for commercial customers other customers that uh um will meet their needs now and into the future that's great and as I we look at the how the customer received that Vision we definitely saw that they were aligned with it as as they uh contributed to the development uh from the space force to NASA and Commercial customers and so I was wondering if you could also talk on the Partnerships that you had in the development yeah from the beginning we partnered with uh industry Partners who have expertise and capabilities to help us bring new Innovative Technologies as well as to leverage existing Technologies so we brought a very capable yet new design for that was a lowrisk option we partnered with northr Grumman on development of new solid rocket boosters the first variant of that flew on Atlas with a tailored version that was tailored to provide specific performance for Vulcan we partnered with rocked on development of rl10 and implement on that again first flight on Atlas and then flying again on Vulcan partnered with Beyond gravity on composite structures and then we partnered with blue origin to develop a new mainstage propulsion system the be4 the first oxridge stage combustion engine developed domestically so you know industry Partners brought a lot to the table for us that's great and then as we look at what this has meant to the market it's it's been fantastic and I was wondering if you could share with me uh how the Vulcan design has evolved as we've started to look at the commercial Market with project Kyper yeah we had a really capable launch system to start with and as we looked at the commercial market and the focus on Leo we decided that a small change to our design a small change to the upper stage would give us increased performance and ability to lift more spacecraft to the low earth orbit and really position us well for supporting the Kyper contractor and our Kyper customer yeah and the result of that was the largest launch contract ever and so with that Vulcan has positioned U Ula uh to help support National Security NASA and our commercial market so we're very excited about the future go Vulcan go Centaur goer one I'm now joined by Ula president and CEO Tori Bruno Tori thank you so much for joining us on this Monumental day um I've been a part of the Vulcan team for a number of years so I I know how focused the whole Ula team has been can you talk a little bit about the teams that came together to design build and Now launch this rocket I am so proud of our people and I think we had exactly the best possible team we've got folks that designed Rockets before like Atlas and Delta but we also have the majority of our team people like yourself that are earlier in their career know the new tools aren't sort of handcuffed by some of the convention that we used before and can do really creative and Innovative work while also not making the mistakes of the past absolutely and you know Vulcan is such a unique rocket what are you most proud of about this vehicle I'm really proud of the fact that we still service the high energy Marketplace a unique thing that is really important to our nation security that no one else has an architecture that will do that while at the same time Breaking All the Rules and having the dial rocket architecture that gives it the flexibility to reach down into that Leo Marketplace and be very competitive there as well absolutely so we're getting pretty close to liftoff now how do you expect to feel watching the Vulcan rocket liftoff for the first time tremendous excitement in anticipation I got to tell you I've done over 400 launches they're all the same I always get butter flies this one's really special because of what it means to our country to our customers and to the team that has worked so hard including you agent Sterling well thank you so much for joining us we'll let you get back to it so you can make sure you watch liftoff and uh let's go go Vulcan thank you on board the Vulcan rocket today is astrobotics paragan commercial lunar lander paragan is the first spacecraft in NASA's new clips initiative to have American companies send its science experiments to the Moon astrobotic is a full lunar company it starts with our terrestrial testing and development services that can build and test propulsion systems on Earth to the sensors that make Precision Landing possible to our Rovers that will deploy down on the surface of the Moon the big thing that we're known for is our two lunar missions to go to the surface of the Moon our first one is about to launch and our second one flies in 2024 the paragan mission is important because it's among the first commercial missions to return to the surface of the Moon this is the dawn of a new era of affordable routine regular access to the surface parag's development was a yearslong process that included many people like Engineers welders and technicians who designed and built the spacecraft to be on the pad today with our spacecraft strapped to a a giant 200t tall launch vehicle it's a little surreal it's a moment I've been dreaming about and this first mission is just our first step to make space accessible to the world and it certainly will not be our last 911 has been disabled Roger also writing a top today's Vulcan rocket is the celestus memorial space flight payload let's learn more about this Mission celestus Enterprise flight carries capsules containing cremated remains DNA samples and greetings from celestus clients worldwide the capsules are integrated into two carriers that are mounted to the forward adapter on Ula Centaur upper stage the carriers will remain a fix to Ula Centaur as it travels into a heliocentric orbit around the sun where it will remain for eternity the Enterprise flight is celestus is first deep space [Music] mission flight control LC go ahead this flight control reduce Vulcan Hydraulics to standby Roger today's rocket includes the American flag across the inter stage as well as logos on the payload fairing representing Ula Vulcan and astrobotic while this is the inaugural launch of the Vulcan rocket the CER one flight test marks ula's 159th launch let's learn more about this Innovative new rocket designed by ula's engineering team and built by our skilled technicians the Vulcan rocket once fully stacked stands 202 ft and weighs nearly 1.5 million PBS fully fueled vulcan's first stage is built using lightweight machined and bump pressed orthogrid aluminum panels to form the liquid propellant tanks once formed tanks are joined together using circumferential friction stir welding before heading to the paint booth prior to mating to the booster the be4 engines are individually hot [Music] fired at the base of the rocket is the Vulcan booster powered by twin be4 engines for additional thrust at liftoff solid rocket boosters or srbs are Ted to the rocket a top the booster is ula's ultra thin stainless steel Centaur upper stage powered by two RL 10c engines spacecraft are encapsulated inside a protected 5.4 M diameter payload fairing with production complete the rocket travels from the Ula Factory in Alabama to the launch site in Cape canaval on ula's rocket ship once in Florida ula's Launch operations team begins a series of events leading to today's countdown the process begins by lifting the 109 ft booster onto the newly constructed Vulcan launch platform or vlp for Missions requiring additional thrust at liftoff srbs are attached to the side of the booster then following interstage mate the Centaur upper stage is transported to the vif and lifted into position lastly the encapsulated payload fairing is lifted and mated to the Vulcan rocket once fully assembled the launch countdown begins with moving the rocket from the vif to the pad riding at top the VP vulcan's trip to the pad is about 1/3 of a mile weighing in at approximately 2 million lb the VP supports the rocket and contains air conditioning electrical and commodities lines throughout the 20-minute trip a support van leads the move followed by the payload vanand providing communication with the spacecraft while the ground van provides support to the rocket Track mobile BS at the rear power the nearly 3 million PB Convoy which also includes an environmental control system providing air conditioning to the payload and Rocket as well as a backup generator with the rocket on the pad the launch Team transitions to fueling and other final [Music] preparations launch maintain operational silence in the LCC go locks 2 Center L2 at flight level Roger terminal count briefing if a condition exceeds a launch constraint anytime after the terminal count status check the Observer shall announce hold hold hold on channel one identify their station and briefly State their reason for the hold rlm verify Red Line Monitor and event table under the correct configuration for terminal count verified as we approach the terminal count poll let's check in on today's weather the space launch Delta 45 forecast for this morning this morning's launch is looking good the probability of violating launch constraints is 15% ground winds are 15 to 20 knots out of the North and the temperature is 57° f the primary concern for launch is the thick Cloud layers rule L minus 11 minutes we remain in the planned 60-minute hold as we continue towards liftoff in a few moments launch conductor Dylan rice will pull the launch Team for the final go to pick up the count 29 engineers and managers are pulled for system status and Readiness to proceed this is the final status check for all Vulcan Vehicle Systems ground systems spacecraft and the US space force Eastern range the vehicle system Readiness poll includes electrical systems Hydraulics pneumatics propulsion systems flight control and propellants let's listen in as Dylan rice performs the final polling to the status CH oh minus 10 minutes status check to proceed with terminal count Vulcan systems propulsion go Hydraulics go pneumatics go LNG go lo2 go water go Centaur systems propulsion go pneumatic go lo2 go lh2 go has gas go electrical systems Airborne go ground go facility go rfts go flight control go GC cubed go operation support go Comm go umbilicals go ECS go Redline monitor go quality go op safety Manager Go Ula safety officer go vehicle system engineer go anomaly Chief go range coordinator clear to proceed launch director you have permission to launch proceeding with the count ALC verify t0 is set 407 18 38 Zulu verified polling is complete and the team is go for launch from tus 7 minutes until liftoff you'll hear Dylan rice and the team performing the final steps in the countdown procedure several critical activities occur in the final minutes before launch including verifying fuel tank levels and pressures in the booster and Centaur and arming the flight termination system at T minus 1 minute the range operations Commander confirms the range is in a green condition for launch at T-minus 25 seconds you'll hear go Vulcan go Centaur go paragan this is the final status check of rocket and payload Readiness at tus 7 Seconds Roy sparklers will ignite followed a second later by initiation of the launch pad water Deluge system at T-minus 3 seconds the main engines ignite then after seeing vulcan's first ever liftoff from slick 41 1 you'll begin hearing flight commentator Rob Ganon providing launch vehicle Ascent data this is Vulcan Mission Control at tus 7 Minutes in holding we anticipate releasing the hold in just a few moments on my mark the time will be tus 7 Minutes in counting 3 2 1 Mark 655 ground pyro is enabled the countdown clock has resumed and we are go for launch at 21838 a.m. eastern after liftoff ula's Vulcan rocket will head east from space launch complex 41 here's a look at today's Ascent following final conference of rocket and payload Readiness two gem 63xl solid rocket boosters and twin be4 engines produce more than 1.7 million pounds of thrust to lift ula's Vulcan rocket away from Cape canabal space launch complex 41 shortly after liftoff the rocket begins a pitch over to attain the proper flight path while minimizing the dynamic pressure it experiences during flight Vulcan then reaches Mach 1 the speed of sound with the ability to add two four or six solid rocket boosters or srvs Vulcan can be precisely configured to take any mission to space from low earth orbit to Pluto and Beyond these boosters augment the Rocket's total thrust at liftoff adding approximately 460,000 lb of thrust per SRB with their propellant expired approximately 90 seconds into Ascent the srbs burn out followed by jettison jettison time is variable occurring between 100 and 150 seconds after liftoff depending on Mission requirements vulcan's guidance system then activates to steer towards the precise Target in space first stage flight continues as the rocket crosses the Carmen line entering space with the majority of propellant expended as Vulcan fights against the force of gravity the be4 engines shut down and the booster stage separates with the rocket now weighing less than 10% % of what it did at liftoff dual RL 10c engines on ula's Centaur upper stage ignite spacecraft are encapsulated inside a 5.4 M diameter payload fairing which provides a [Music] protect [Music] n [Music] DNA samples and messages of greetings from clients worldwide on an endless journey in interplanetary space beyond the Earth Moon system to orbit the Sun [Music] forever e 249 FS internal 238 230 C2 PLP started 159 vehicle internal T minus 2 minutes the launch vehicle payload ground systems and Eastern range are go for launch for those of you just joining I'm Amanda Sterling and I your host for today's live coverage of the inaugural Vulcan rocket launch the team is not working any issues and we're on track for an ontime lift off at 21838 a.m. eastern time FCS arm 120 SCS count started 1 minute R status range green 45 Vulcan tanks at step [Music] three 30 E4 start Bots go status check go Vulcan go Centaur go paragan 15 10 T minus 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 we have [Applause] ignition and liftoff of the first United launch Alliance Vulcan rocket launching a new era in space flight to the moon and Beyond op two good srbs hitting Peak pressure on the srbs everything looking good and we've got Pitch programs in coming into normal rates for that event we have good hydraulic pressure on both engines good chamber pressure on both engines everything looking good coming up on 60 seconds into the flight everything looking good two good engines two good srbs body rates look good nice and smooth and we've hit our first throttle point on the B4 is everything looking good and we have passed through Mach 1 we are now supersonic coming up on Max Q had Max Dynamic pressure everything looking good we're rolling off on the srbs and we have cut off on the srbs coming up on jettison and approximately 30 seconds 15 seconds that's SB jet b4s continue to operate nominally seeing expected pu activity and the Boost remains and we have separation of both srbs everything looking good be4 is continue to operate normally coming up on two minutes into the mission we are now 17 miles in altitude we just heard confirmation of solid rocket boost booster jettison we have about 3 minutes until we reach our next mission event booster engine cut off and we see booster pu correcting towards the nominal Mr everything looking good both engines continue to burn normally and we now weigh approximately half of our liftoff weight everything looking [Music] good and we the power valve activating the reaction control system on the upper stage pressures are rising as expected P4 continues to operate [Music] normally Vehicles continue to fly down the center of the range track everything looking good 33 m in altitude 52 Mi down range traveling at 4,000 [Music] mph here you see excellent performance out of the b4s chamber pressure nice and [Music] smooth vehicle Sly accelerating little over two G's at this time good body rates nice and smooth operation of the booster 47 miles on altitude 95 miles down range at 5,500 miles hour engines continue to burn normally everything looking good [Music] and the vehicle now weighs one quarter of its liftoff weight as we pass through the Carman line next Mark L we're looking for is Boost Bas Chone on the Centaur main [Music] engines booster Mains continue to operate normally and we've begun boost phase chill housing temps are dropping as expected coming up the end of boost phase approximately 10 seconds to boo Throttle Down in preparation for boo we've completed boost phas chill down and we have cut off coming up on bulcan Centaur separation we have Vulcan Centaur separation everything looking good coming up onto Centaur phase and experiencing bit of data loss here we've recovered the data it's like Cent our engines are up and running normally good steady state pressure and we've just jettison the payload paing two good brake wires and good steady state operating levels on the Centaur Mains two good engines gone to open loop control on Centaur pu this is Vulcan Mission Control at t+ 5 minutes 57 seconds we just heard flight commentator Rob Ganon confirm the successful completion of the early phase of today's flight and and all systems continue to operate nominally our next event main engine cut off will occur in about 10 minutes while we wait I'm joined by Amanda petti Ula director of vehicle upgrades uh Amanda thank you so much for joining us and I know it's still early but congratulations thank you you as well this is amazing how did it feel to watch the Vulcan rocket lift off for the first time oh just absolutely amazing I didn't expect it to be the way it was it just my heart is still pounding it was Excell and just I'm so proud of all the work that the team did to get where we are today absolutely and developing a new rocket is an enormous Endeavor of what you were a huge part um again we're still early but how do you imagine the whole Vulcan team is feeling right now I I feel like they have to be the same way you know smile ear to ear I know the team is at all our sites friends and family they've been supporting us for many years to get to where we are so I'm sure they are jumping up and down just like me it's been amazing how is the Vulcan rocket going to change the industry yeah that's a great question so Vulcan is very much based on our heritage Rockets the Delta 4 and Atlas 5 vehicles but we've brought in a lot of new innovation and capabilities that are going to allow us to even better support our war Fighters exploration as well as connecting the world the great thing about Vulcan is it's highly versatile meaning we can use that vehicle to do anything we want allows for affordability for anybody who needs access to space absolutely and so this is the first certification flight what are the next steps for after this yeah so with the the first flight we are well under the way from a certification perspective we do have a second flight that we'll need to do here later this year once that complete completed we'll have about two months or so of postflight data testing and then at that point we will be certified um by the the US space force and we will be ready to fly all of their important payloads for them awesome well again thank you so much for joining us and we'll let you get back and watch the next mission events congratulations again thanks you too [Music] coming up on 500 seconds into the mission everything's looking good continuing to burn [Music] Centaur body rates look right as expected steady acceleration just under half a g and we are now 235 miles in altitude 836 miles down range traveling at 11,150 mil [Music] hour continu the nominal performance from [Music] centaur [Music] and approaching the uh halfway point of this first burn of Centaur everything looks [Music] good we're now th000 miles down range traveling at 11 ,500 miles hour [Music] [Music] L this is Vulcan Mission Control at t+ 10 minutes 7 Seconds our next event main engine cut off will occur in about 5 minutes while we wait I'm joined by Eric Monda part of ula's mission design team Eric thanks for joining us hi Mana thank you for having me of course so we're still pretty early in this flight today but can you tell us how the data is looking so far yeah absolutely so I just want to say that it was so exciting I I ran outside so I watch this thing lift off and that was so cool after so many years of development to uh to watch this thing fly that was fantastic absolutely I bet yeah so um what is the data showing us so far yeah absolutely so I've had a very quick look uh obviously we're very early in the flight still but I've taken a look at the SRB performance as well as the booster performance so far and everything looks just spot-on just perfect um you know fortunately we've had a lot of these systems on Atlas and Delta for a long time and so we' have a lot of flight data to Anchor our models and everything is lining up just like we would expect awesome so uh a lot of the audience has seen us switch from this live view of the launch from our Rock ET cam to this uh animated representation of the vehicle in space can you talk a little bit about why we make that switch and how this visual is populated yeah absolutely so when we first lift off we have a feed directly from the um cameras that are on the uh rocket back to the launch site here and so with that we can get the vid the video feed that we need in order to provide those images as we get further down range and we go over the horizon we no longer have that direct link and so we rely on NASA teer system to send Telemetry from the vehicle back down to us on the ground in that Telemetry data we get information like position and attitude and velocity and so we use that to drive the animations you see here okay so we're looking at real data what's happening it's just a graphic of it instead of the real thing that's exactly right yes awesome that's really cool so you know today we have right now we're in the first of three Centaur Burns can you talk a little bit about why we need three Burns and how we use those three Burns to complete our mission today yeah absolutely so the first burn uh performs our injection into lower orbit unfortunately if we just continue that burn from that point in time we wouldn't necessarily be aligned uh with where we need to be in order to get to the moon so what we do after we get to low earth orbit is we shut those engines down we Coast around until we get to the right spot to do that and then we light those engines up again when we do that and complete that burn that will allow us to uh send the astrobotic um paragr Lander uh onto the moon so we shut those down engines down again we are ready to do that and then start them up one more time in order to do the third burn that's what's going to take celestus Enterprise Mission out to deep space um so let's talk a little bit about where these things happen uh we're going to go ahead and shut down the um the main engines uh on the Centaur when we get about halfway across the Atlantic Ocean and then we're going to Coast the rest of the way across the Atlantic Ocean across Africa and go ahead and start the engines up again when we get to Madagascar and that's where we'll do the second burn and then we Coast again until we get um about to Papa new gu and when we get about to over Papa new Gua that's where we'll go ahead and and do that third and final burn okay so you mentioned a couple of these key Milestones that are ahead of us what can everyone expect to see as far as the timeline of these Mission events as as they continue watching today yeah absolutely so looking at the clock right now looks like we've got uh about 2 minutes a little over 2 minutes left uh here in the um the first bar of the upper stage we're going a coast for about 30 minutes after that as we do that uh that Coast across the Atlantic Ocean and across Africa the second burn will be about 4 minutes long and then we'll have another Coast for 30 minutes before we have a pretty short like 20 second burn uh for the final burn uh once we've done that then we've got some uh engineering demos we're going to do before we finally safe the stage and shut everything off and then about 4 days later is when uh the Centaur will leave the Earth Moon system and be off on its way to deep space awesome well thank you so much for sharing with that with us and thanks for for joining us today and we'll let you get back to to watching those next events absolutely thanks so much Amanda thanks puu system is steadily making the correction down to a nominal [Music] Mr [Music] two or one minute too both engines firing [Music] normally [Music] [Music] this is Vulcan Mission Control at t+ 15 minutes 30 seconds we are approaching the first main engine cut off let's listen in coming up on M [Music] one g to open loop control M we have cut off both engines for normal shutdown signatures we have settling that's established 85% duty cycle we are now in a 27 minute 51 second Coast duration to Second burn of Centaur this is Vulcan Mission Control at t+ 16 minutes 20 seconds we just heard flight commentator Rob Ganon confirm successful cut off of the first main engine and all systems continue to operate nominally our next event main engine start 2 will occur in about 27 minutes at this time we'll pass the broadcast back to the NASA team to continue with Mission coverage through the coast phase we'll join you back in as we approach the separation of the paragan spacecraft over to you Megan thank you Amanda congratulations to you and the Ula team so far if you're just joining us welcome to the Space Coast of Florida where we just witnessed the first launch of NASA's Clips initiative it was a magnific a magnificent site leaves me speechless apparently uh just really lighting up the night sky and loud enough to set off a a couple of car alarms nearby Clips is short for commercial lunar payload Services it's a new model in which NASA contracts space on Commercial missions to send science experiments to the Moon ahead of us landing astronauts there for today's launch NASA selected astrobotic to deliver its five lunar instruments this is the first mission for its paragen spacecraft today was also the first launch of ula's new Vulcan rocket again congrats it lifted off from Cape Canaveral space force stations Launchpad 41 our broadcast here on NASA TV will continue through paragan acquisition of signal which is expected to happen at the earliest around 3:17 a.m. eastern time with me now is Sandra Connelly she's the deputy associate administrator of NASA's science Mission directorate good morning and thanks for being here Sandra good morning it's a thrill to be here thank what do you think of the lunch it was amazing yet another beautiful Ula launch um totally spectacular and it's super exciting to know that now our our paragan one Lander is on its way to the Moon in about 2 and A2 weeks it's going to go into orbit and few weeks later from that in uh mid to late February we're going to actually see it land and that will be the first well actually it'll be one of the early Landings on the moon since Apollo over 50 years which is pretty amazing when you think about it us Landings on the main yeah it is and the clips is new as well so talk to us a little bit about about this program we're using commercial companies to send science instruments to the moon for us why is that yeah I you know I'm I'm really excited about this program it is a gamechanging program for us um it really is leveraging industry in U way as you've probably seen I mean the whole Aerospace industry has evolved over this last decade in amazing ways and I think this is just yet one more step in doing so so our our commercial Partners um are actually delivering a service they're delivering our payloads and other other organizational payloads whether it's other companies whether it's International Partners basically anybody who wants to procure the service can deliver a payload to the Moon using the clips program and so there are 20 payloads flying on the paragr spacecraft right now five of those are NASA can you tell me a little bit about what they'll be studying once they get to the moon yeah so so again amazing service so our payloads are going to be studying things including understanding uh you know studying water studying the volatiles or the the resources on the moon studying the atmosphere and also the radiation environment to help inform us uh for the future when we have humans back on the moon Sandra thank you so much I'm excited to see uh what we do with this initiative and and this launch here today thank you so much and let me just say go Vulcan and go paragan one yes you can totally say that thank you so much all right so when Paragon lands on the near Side of the Moon on February 23rd it will be one of the first lunar Landings for the us since the final Apollo Mission over 50 years ago let's head back over to astrobotics Olivia chapla thanks Megan and what a great day so far so for those of you just tuning in I wanted to reintroduce myself I'm Olivia Chapa director of marketing and Communications for astrobotic astrobotic is a space company with our primary headquarters in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and we've just watched our paragen lunar lander rocket into space aboard a United launch Alliance Vulcan rocket this paragr spacecraft's mission is to carry 20 payloads or cargo to the lunar surface from seven different countries six of those Nations have never reached the moon before our aim is to autonomously land on the lunar surface a few weeks from now we're taking the long way around and we expect paragen to land on February 23rd 2024 we've got all eyes on the paragan Lander as it waits to separate from the Vulcan rocket in about 30 minutes at that point we will seek to establish Communications with the Lander and now we'll take a more in-depth Look at parag's Full Journey to the Moon with an animation once ula's Vulcan rocket launches we will then know the exact day the paragen spacecraft will attempt a soft landing on the moon the first landing attempt could be anywhere from 10 to 60 days from launch because this is parag's first ever trip to the moon our team is not taking a direct path paragen will first complete one Earth orbit so the team can get critical data on the spacecraft and test Maneuvers before executing a very critical Milestone entering lunar orbit paragan will orbit the Moon at three altitudes the first orbit will last about 33 hours parag's second orbit can be up to 35 days the spacecraft's third and final orbit around the moon will last 48 hours next up paragan will attempt a soft landing on the lunar surface surf autonomously the team will issue a landing sequence that will command the spacecraft to enter a descent orbit about 15 kilm from the lunar surface an exciting power descent begins while we wait for the paragan spacecraft to separate from the Vulcan rocket and begin that exciting Journey To The Moon I have astrobotics founder and chief executive off officer John thoron hi there John I understand you are currently at Ula just a Stones Throw from where I am now and we both just saw ula's Vulcan rocket achieve liftoff with our very own parrant aboard tell me after waiting for this moment for years how are you feeling it it's a dream this is the moment we've been waiting for for 16 years and I'm standing in mission control and we just had a beautiful launch thank you Ula um so so so excited we are on our way to the Moon I can tell you and everyone else are in a really really excited Buzz today for sure so tell me what else do you think is the most important thing about our paragan mission today so this is the beginning of the dawn of a new era for the surface of the Moon and how we think about space this is an opportunity for commercial payloads to fly to the surface of the Moon on a regular routine basis that means our nation's scientists our world scientists can access the moon in ways never before possible and we are seeing the beginnings of that right now as we speak on our journey to the surface of the Moon our first mission carries 20 payloads from all over the world six nations on board the mission will touch the surface of the Moon for the very first time it's a phenomenal exciting mission to be a part of and it's it's a real honor to be here today and I could not imagine a better start to the mission that's true and what do you have to say to the astrobotic team and to all the payload customers who made today's Mission possible for 16 years we've been pushing for this moment today and along the way we had a lot of hard challenges that we had to overcome and a lot of people doubted us along the way um but our team and the people that supported us believed in the mission and they created this beautiful moment that we're seeing today working incredibly hard to make this possible um I can't thank the thou thousands of people between our team our suppliers our partners that have made this moment possible today it's an unbelievable feat and it is the culmination of all all of everyone's effort coming together for this moment believing in this possibility that a small company in Pittsburgh of all places in this country can lead America back to the surface of the Moon thank you John well I'll let you get back to the team that are in Florida with us as we wait for the paragen spacecraft to separate from vulcan's rocket in about 30 to 40 minutes for now back to Olivia oh thank you now Clips missions are an important step in returning to and staying on the moon but these lunar Landings that will help shape our future there are not without risks landing on the moon is hard we're going back under this Artemis program we're going to be sending humans to the moon for the first time since Apollo so ahead of humans we want to get up as much science exploration and Technology experiments as possible so clipse starts facilitating a lot of the early science the things we want to learn before we even send humans Clips stands for commercial lunar payload Services clps the services part is the key element ordinarily when NASA delivers a payload to the surface of the Moon they do it with a commercial partner but NASA controls the building of the vehicle now we're buying the service of delivery of our lunar payloads to the surface of the Moon it is a delivery service akin to a delivery service that you'd have here on Earth Nas will provide payloads to a commercial company they decide how to get it to the moon they have to develop their own Lander but they also have to manage the entire end to- end mission it's meant to provide affordable rapid frequent access to learner surface through American companies we're funding different companies we have commercial companies that are competing to win task orders to deliver our payloads to the surface of the Moon one of the goals when we started Clips was to help establish a lunar economy somebody has to do it first and then it becomes commercially available then they're able to crank the nut then they're able to make it more affordable and so the lunar is just the next Frontier for commercial environment but we had to acknowledge up front all the way through the highest levels of the agents leadership that some of them will fail these missions may not be as successful as a traditional NASA Mission we have accepted the risk that going through this Innovative approach with these commercial companies that there could be some failures some of them are new companies none of them have ever successfully landed on the surface of the Moon so they're going to learn lessons we need to give our vendors out to learn and so that'll help ultimately buy down our risk as these companies learn okay what does it take to actually build up the lunar lander integrate payloads get to the lunar surface and land safely they've been able to demonstrate that they have very very good technical depth and the ability to design and execute missions we're willing to take more shots on goal we aren't risking human lives and in the big picture if we're flying Missions at 1/10th of the cost of a NASA Mission and we fail two of them we still get eight missions for that same price even with one or two or three failures this is still a very economical proposition it's a risk posture which is more risk tolerant than Nas is accustomed to there's not a single one of these companies that's willing to bet their mission on a coin toss every one of them is doing what they can in order to have a most successful Mission possible but the important thing to realize is that risk tolerant does not mean risky and the rewards are a long-term ability to get payloads to the moon inexpensively frequently and rapidly we want science so we can then put more of our resources on even more science exploration and technology payloads and get more return on investment when we get to the moon Clips provides tremendous benefit across the scientific and economic communities so there's a lot we'd like to learn about the moon to help human habitation and prepare us for Missions to Mars and Beyond so the Moon is the first step and a lot has to happen before paragen lands safely on the moon astrobotics Olivia Chapa shows how they tested the spacecraft here on Earth and what the team will do during its journey in space paragan has gone through quite a journey already and still has a long list of objectives to complete on its way to the Moon we've categorized these objectives into five stages beginning with engineering it here on Earth first we built and tested a bolt for- bolt engineering model of paragan based on our findings we constructed the final spacecraft to send to the Moon each iteration of paragan went through rigorous testing to ensure it will survive the the harsh conditions of launch and space environments Phase 2 objectives will begin when the spacecraft separates from the rocket once separated paragr will power on and establish Communications with Earth at this stage we'll receive Telemetry informing us of the spacecraft's position orientation and general operational Health one of the first commands we send to the spacecraft will initiate thrusters to point paragr solar panels at the sun to charge its battery we are planning for all of these objectives to be complet completed today next and off camera our phase three objectives begin these objectives include trajectory adjustment Maneuvers in space before lunar orbit insertion after lunar insertion paragr will complete three orbits around the Moon then the last phase of the mission begins lunar landing and operations and for a closer look at Landing I'm joined Now by Mike Hennessy educational director of the moonshop museum in Pittsburgh good morning good morning it's spectacular to be here today absolutely we saw a launch right yeah and it was awesome yeah absolutely so um talk to me about uh paragan and the spacecraft we have you on because you know a lot about paragan and this Mission why is that well every day I've had a front row seat at paragan under construction I work at the moonshop Museum and we share a wall of windows with astrobotic uh and better yet I've seen kids with their faces pressed against the glass uh knowing they're going to grow up to become that next generation of makers that take us to the Moon that's fantastic and you also brought us some props here so these are different uh Parts different materials that make up the multi-layer insulation that's what goes around the spacecraft right right that's the thermal protective space blanket for the uh for the craft uh and we have a number of different materials here this is Astro quartz uh it's a woven ceramic fiber very heat resistant uh we've got aluminum which is great for reflecting solar heat uh and this is also aluminum glitter is a little more like gold but it's a it's just aluminum that's been covered with a polymer called capton uh and you can see it actually on our model here we have the paragan Lander uh right here this is the the the multi-layer insulation we the multi-layer insulation and that's wrapping these fuel tanks kind of like Cosmic baked potatoes and why do we need all these different materials well the moon uh is a harsh environment uh and it takes a lot of technical knoow to land there there's no atmospheric blanket like we have on Earth uh so we need a thermal space blanket to protect against wild temperature extremes boiling hot days freezing cold nights several hundred de below zero and parag's been engineered to endure that okay so now we know how it will be protected during Landing what how will it land what what technologies are we using to make sure that it lands safely when you say that the moon isn't the easiest place to land on right and that's my favorite part of the story because this robot is going to land itself uh because we have about a 2 and a half second signal Delay from the earth to the moon and back uh it's like having a self-driving car going to another world we have a full s of sensors uh gyroscopes Doppler liar star trackers uh and a really cool technology called terrain relative navigation or TRN about 9 mies out uh paragan will activate its camera uh and as it's descending okay uh and the cameras taking pictures uh the computer will be playing kind of a high-speed game of flashcards okay comparing those pictures to 3D maps and then parag will have to make decisions uh in order to come to a landing we're going to test drive this technology on paragan and then on astrobotics next lunar lander Griffin uh TRN will be in the driver's seat when we head to the Moon South Pole oh that's fantastic and I know Griffin is going to be delivering another NASA payload so another partnership where we get to do this together yeah I think another great example of how Clips is bringing together entrepreneurship and accelerating the pace of Science and taking us out into the solar system Mike thank you so much thank you for being here thank you all right so the astrobotic team hopes to land on the near Side of the Moon on February 23rd in a place called the Bay of stickiness a lunar feature formed by ancient hardened lava flow it's located outside of the guisen domes which is the largest dark spot on the moon why does NASA want to conduct science here well on Earth formations like these domes need significant water and also plate tectonics to form but without these key elements on the moon lunar scientists have been left to wonder how the domes formed and evolved over time we'll of course have coverage of the landing on our NASA Plus app or whichever social platform you watch us on now earlier in the show we told you about the nervous payload from NASA's ases Research Center the other payload from ases is the neutron spectrometer system or NSS I'm Rick Ali I'm the principal investigator of the neutron spectrometer system aboard the paragan one Lander NSS measures neutrons coming out of the lunar soil and the neutrons tell you a lot about the makeup of the lunar soil the neutrons that we measure with the neutron spectrometer are specifically related to the presence of hydrogen the H in H2O or water and that's its real purpose is to locate water to actually act as a divining Rod Paragon will be landing in a location where we really don't expect very much water if any at all but it's an interesting experiment the exhaust system of its descent engines will actually spray paint the surface with its exhaust and part of that exhaust is water and some of that water is actually going to stick onto the surface of the Moon then after we land NSS can monitor how that water goes away as the sun rises at the Landing site and the day gets warmer and warmer water is really important as a resource for exploration astronauts need it for drinking water but you can also use it by splitting it up into hydrogen and oxygen as Rocket Fuel so if you can find water in place where you're going to that means you can use it there and not have to bring it up from [Music] Earth now NASA has two more payloads flying to the Moon today we're going to tell you about both of them in just a few minutes but first let's uh introduce you all to Chris Calbert program manager for Clips out of NASA's Johnson Space Center good Morning Tia good morning Megan thank you it's a wonderful day it is we just watched the launch what did you think it was amazing oh my God what a wonderful feeling that rocket was gorgeous yeah and so NASA uh has five payloads hitching a ride uh you know tell me about different things that they'll be studying and why they're studying those things so this early mission for E clips this is our first mission so our first two early missions are mostly carrying small instruments that help us learn more about the environment of the Moon as we get further into Clips in future missions we'll raise the complexity and start studying more complex more difficult questions but at the beginning we're mostly trying to characterize what the moon is like what the radiation does what kind of environment we can find there it doesn't have an atmosphere but there's particles and dust and other things we're trying to get more information about that so that we can help guide future human missions more effectively mhm and how soon could we see data from some of those instruments so that we can start creating that Fuller picture we'll start getting data back within hours of landing on the moon um now the scientists will need some time to analyze that information and turn it into the kind of information that helps guide future missions but we should be getting data back from the Moon within a few hours of landing and we'll all three for as long as 20 uh 14 days on the Moon we'll be gathering that data but the scientists will then take that information offline and analyze it for a while so basically these missions these instruments that we're sending they're they're scouting the moon for us yes yeah they're telling us what the what the moon is like helping us understand what we need to know so that we can take humans there safely it also allows us to better design future instruments and other experiments that will pinpoint the kinds of things we need to know about the moon to be able to work and live there Chris thank you so much thank you for being here you're welcome okay so we're now uh less than a few minutes away until the paragr spacecraft uh separates from Vulcan Centaur upper stage we're going to go back to Ula for that Milestone but before that another quick status update on paragr from Olivia thanks Megan and now I'm checking in on astrobotics Mission Control team in about 20 to 30 minutes they're expecting paragan to power on and then it try to communicate with them on the ground peran will establish ground Communications with NASA's deep space Network and then we will begin receiving Telemetry as we wait for those Milestones here's an in-depth look at the inner workings of the paragen lunar lander and now we'll take a look at the paragr spacecraft you'll notice that we've removed the mli or multi-layer insulation so we can better see the inside of the spacecraft throughout parag's Journey they'll keep an eye on the spacecraft's temperatures pressures power levels and communication system solar panels at the top of paragan charge its batteries to power the spacecraft moving down towards the center of the spacecraft are the payload decks you'll notice the decks have a unique isogrid pattern that we've used as an inspiration for a lot of our graphic design for the mission the structure pattern optimizes the sturdiness of the payload decks while also minimizing its weight a fix to these decks are all 20 payloads 20 individual pieces of cargo from seven different countries are aboard these two main decks paragr has 12 attitude control system engines called thrusters that are used to orient the spacecraft you can see four large propellant tanks filled with monomethyl hydrazine and multiple mixtures of oxygen nitrogen or man as oxidizer mounted to the bottom of the spacecraft are five main engines that will slow the craft down as it approaches the lunar surface these engines use a hypergolic bipropellant pressure fed system believe it or not paragan will use the majority of its fuel in the last 15 minutes of the mission as we attempt a soft landing on the lunar surface paragan has four Landing legs attached to its base these legs have a honeycomb structure on the inside that will crush to absorb the impact of paragr landing on the lunar surface paragan is designed for an autonomous Landing that means it will use complex Computing and a suite of sensors instead of human Pilots there are two antenna relays and a high power transponder to relay Communications between the spacecraft and the astrobotic team the relay will connect paragan with NASA's deep space Network or DSN utilizing the same dishes that communicate with the James web Space Telescope as well as other historic missions and the last major feature of parin is something you can't see it's the hundreds of people who have worked on tested and gotten the spacecraft to the Launchpad today a shout out to the team we like calling the astrobots and a shout out to our payload customers who are sending their items to the Moon with us your continued commitment to science and lunar exploration is important for Humanity the paragan lunar lander has 20 pieces of cargo called payloads aboard you can find the full manifest on the astrobotics website but here is a look at a few of the payloads iris Rover this is a student-built Rover with a mission to take photos and send them back to Earth as it drives across the lunar landscape once paragan lands on the moon Iris will deploy to the surface to begin its Mission and here we have another Carnegie melon University payload called moonar moonar is seen as a cultural Museum to the Moon comprised of four independent Chambers and weighing a combined total of 10 o it contained hundreds of images poems music nanoobjects and Earthly samples next we have cina a fleet of micro Rovers and the first Latin American Scientific instrument ever sent to the Moon consisting of five small Rovers it will demonstrate a coordinated Moon exploration lastly we have the the DHL moonbox former astronaut Richard garat and thousands of others from around the world have sent small momentos to link life's meaningful moments with our nearest Celestial neighbor now this is just a snippet of the 20 payloads board paragr again you can find the full list on astrobotics website now back to Megan we are now less than 10 minutes away from paragan separation so let's get back over to the Ula team and Amanda Sterling to take us through that thanks Megan and thanks to those of you who are still following Mission progress of ula's Vulcan c one flight for those who are just tuning in I'm Amanda Sterling and I'm here at ula's Advanced spaceflight Operation Center at Cape Canaveral space force station in Florida ula's inaugural Vulcan rocket lifted off on its first flight test at 21838 a.m. eastern and all systems continue to operate nominally 4 minute 1 second burn and we've begun pressurizing the propellant tanks in preparation for second burn [Music] coming up on lh2 [Music] pre-art lh2 pre-art this is Vulcan Mission Control at t+ 43 minutes 8 seconds coming up next is the second main engine start of ula's Centaur upper stage let's listen in changed to the start position everything looking good about 15 seconds to mess [Music] we have ignition both rust two good engines everything looking good this is Vulcan Mission Control at t+ 43 minutes 57 seconds as we approach paragan separation let's learn more about the first spacecraft to launch in NASA's new clips initiative to have American companies send its science experiments to the Moon astrobotic is a fullservice lunar company it starts with our terrestrial testing and development services that can build propulsion systems and test propulsion systems on Earth to the sensors that make Precision Landing possible to our Rovers that will deploy down on the surface of the Moon to one day our Power Systems that will Ploy on the moon and provide sustaining power for infrastru structure on the surface astrobotic is in all of those businesses and we are in the business of making space accessible to the world and the Moon is just the beginning that is the interest so one of the experiments on board has been designed by the open University in the UK that will be looking at the movement of water molecules within the very thin atmosphere of the Moon uh but it is this commercial Venture they're paying just $8 million uh and that should keep the price down for for future missions that's the excitement but it has led to slight controversy because there are other commercial payloads on board including human remains that have been cremated and also a marketing Stunt by sports drink manufacturer and some scientists feel that their experiments shouldn't be going to space alongside what they would see as rather trivial cargos okay Thomas resources into something that we can use in space and maybe one day return turn back here to Earth parag's development was a yearslong process that included many people like Engineers welders and technicians who designed and built the spacecraft Landing a spacecraft on the moon is very complex the team worked long hours to get paragr to the launch pad to be on the pad today with our spacecraft strapped to a giant 200t tall launch vehicle ready to blast into the heavens is it's a little surreal it's a moment I've been dreaming about for 16 years and to see it all on one rocket it's it's terrifying and exciting and thrilling all at once our paragr lunar lander starts its Journey To The Moon in Florida on a Vulcan launch vehicle uh that will blast us into trans lunar injection heading us Straight Out To The Moon where we will enter moar orbit and start our descent down to the surface at this point engines are firing all eyes are tuned in uh and as we soft touch down on the surface of the Moon that marks the beginning of our surface operations and our payloads to play as a nation and as a company as in as individuals we all persevere to overcome challenges and we're going to continue to do that and this first mission is just our first step our first attempt to make space accessible to the world and it certainly will not be our [Music] last [Music] pressures this is Vulcan Mission Control at t+ 47 minutes 8 seconds we're a few seconds from the second main engine cut off here's Rob Ganon 30 seconds soomal [Music] moo 20 seconds we on to open loop on pu coming up on cut off we have cut off everything is looking good and we are now in a 2 minute 49 Second Coast phase to spacecraft separation we've got full settling going after Mo and we're reorienting to spacecraft sub [Music] [Music] [Music] attitude and continue to maneuver to our MS two [Music] [Music] attitude [Music] and we're inside a minute and a half to spacecraft separation body rates are nulling [Music] out and this Mission does call for a uh roll spin for spacecraft separation of half a degree per second we'll be starting that maneuver [Music] [Music] shortly [Music] this is Vulcan Mission Control at t+ 50 minutes 10 seconds Vulcan has executed All Mission events expected and we are now approaching delivery of the astrobotic paragan commercial lunar lander into a highly elliptical orbit more than 220,000 m above Earth to intercept the moon let's return to flight commentator Rob Ganon as we approach separation we are spinning down and we are now in a uh 28 minute Coast period to third burn of [Music] centaur this is Vulcan Mission Control at t+ 51 minutes 6 seconds uh we just heard confirmation of paragan spacecraft separation uh I'm now back with Ula president and CEO Tori Bruno Tori our first Vulcan rocket just delivered its first payload orbit how are you feeling yeeha I am so thrilled I can't tell you how much absolutely and uh again we're not completely done with the mission here today is there anything else that you want to share with the audience I am so proud of this team oh my gosh this has been years of hard work so far this has been an absolutely beautiful Mission back to the moon and off to our next burn where we will do our final payload deployment to that heliocentric orbit for the memorial our team has done such a good job Bravo Su Zulu to everyone this is uh just it's hard to to describe yeah absolutely I I feel that too so um again thank you so much for joining us on our show congratulations and we'll let you get back to to finish the rest of congratulations to you give me a hug all right two minutes 40 seconds time we're going to pass the broadcast back to the NASA team uh to continue Mission coverage we'll be joining back in as we approach the final engine burn over to you Megan thank you Amanda and Well Done Ula team so throughout the broadcast we have been telling you about the five NASA payloads that are flying on this Mission we've shown you in dep three of them and now we have the final two so NASA's Godard space flight center has two payloads aboard today's flight and one of those is the paragan ion trap Mass spectrometer AKA pitmas its job is to understand the release and movement of lunar surface volatiles like water my name is Barbara Cohen I am the principal investigator or the lead of the science team for the paragen ion trap Mass spectrometer pitm miss the instrument I work on is going to inform our understanding of the volatile cycle on the moon that is water carbon dioxide methane all sorts of fun molecules that we want to measure on the surface of the Moon and in the lunar exosphere so we are trying to learn about the water at the poles by going back to where it comes from to the solar wind and microm meteorites that are coming in now and understanding how much is there now how much could be there in the future how much was there in the past we're interested in that atmosphere and what it's made out of and that's what pitus will monitor the reason it's so important to measure the lunar exosphere is because that is a process that's happening today that includes all of the things we're interested in for human exploration our emis program is going to the South Pole because there are resources there if you don't have to bring your water with you if you can use the water that's there that saves you a lot of mass going up with your astronauts and the fifth and final NASA payload we want to show you is the laser retro reflector or LR it's unique type of mirror used to measure distance and this is why it's so critical for future missions my name is Char s I'm a light Ron instrument scientist and also work on other laser instruments the instrument is a laser retro reflector array it's a small retro reflectors mounted on the shell uh on aluminum Shell support shell a retro reflect laser light back to where it came from the purpose is to number one to have have a fiducial marker a precise fiducial marker on the Lander so that we know exactly where that is on the lunar surface it serve as a landmark for future missions if you want to go back and land it there when you shine laser on it and reflect right back at you so it doesn't matter which way you're looking at it and uh so that will help us to Ren from orbit to the lender as you pass overhead head all right it's now been about 55 minutes since Vulcan and paragen lifted off from the space coast of Florida let's get back to Olivia and the astrobotic team as they work to confirm acquisition of signal with their spacecraft thanks Megan as you saw we just got confirmation that the paragan spacecraft separated from the Vulcan rocket and now we are waiting to establish a space to ground Communications connection we expect for this to take a few more minutes this connection helps engineers and astrobotics Mission Control Center pass commands receive Telemetry and determine the location of paragan in space paragan will be utilizing NASA's deep space Network or DSN their 34 meter dishes in Australia Spain and California these dishes are the same Suite used to communicate with the James web telescope as well as other historic missions so our flight director on Console Alex Van Hoven will be calling out what is happening in astrobotics Mission Control Center and now um as we look at astrobotics Mission Control Center you can see the rows of our staff all monitoring the spacecraft in the room today we have three ofo this is mission control flight director announcement repeat broadcast this is mission control flight director within announcement the mission team is uh still waiting for communications with peragine with earliest AOS at 08905 UTC in approximate two and a half minutes uh to repeat the mission team is still waiting for communication with paragan with the earliest AOS expected at 08905 UTC and folks that was Alex vanoven our flight director on Console he is calling out UTC times or sort of space times and and we're waiting for that acquisition of signal with the paragan spacecraft uh correction earliest AOS at 0818 UTC earliest AOS at 0818 UTC now you can almost see Alex vanhoven in the back row right below the eye in astrobotic uh you could kind of see his head maybe he'll stand up for us at least one time we'll see he's very focused and busy today we have three of six flight directors on console for launch once we established Communications with paragen and the spacecraft officially begins its Journey towards the moon the flight directors were working shifts so there was always one present in Mission Control I would ask them to all give a away but they're definitely laser focused on their screens checking up on the spacecraft now Alex um he's giving us those live updates and he is also senior aerospace engineer and he oversaw the development of parag's inflight procedures he developed his flight expertise as part of NASA's garded space flight center broadcast mission control flight director announcement I repeat broadcast mission control flight director announcement at this time astrobotic has confirmed uh that we have established Communications uh with paragr and we are now receiving Life cry I repeat uh we have just established Communications with DSN and can confirm that we are receiving Telemetry from the [Music] satellite now now confirming um my goodness we have received signal with the paragan spacecraft and we are communicating it with it here on Earth you just heard it from Alex the team will begin sending commands to Pagen to continue its Journey to the lunar surface what an incredible day now thank you so much for continuing to tune in with us to watch this historic launch of astrobotics paragan lunar lander on its Journey To The Moon I'm Olivia Chapa with astrobotic and I is such a happy day for astrobotic I'm kind of speechless um so back to meganet the hostess thank you very much hey congratulations Olivia I know that that must have been really uh uh nerve-wracking to see such a big moment and it being finally here so congratulations to her and the rest of the team and actually right now here with me I have Andy Jones and he is the director of Landers and spacecraft for astrobotic and Andy I saw you you were over off the off the camera but I saw you go yes as soon as we confirmed acquisition of signal so talk us through that how are you feeling um relieved more than anything else relieved I mean getting communication is just so important to everything else we want to try and do uh so now I can start enjoying the moment enjoying excitement of getting to space yeah at least you didn't have to wait long you know there was a window right we got it right at the beginning of the the possible window just just a credit to all the great work the team has done to actually get it to acquire it so fast yeah it's just a a brilliant set of uh machine brilliant people working on it so yeah very proud yeah what would you say to the team you know again I know that you guys have been working on this for years what would you say to them as it culminates in this moment right now get back to work no not even going to give him a break okay we're hardworking Folks at as about it guys no um extremely proud the team should be extremely proud of themselves uh it's been a fast Road a lot of setbacks lot of UPS lots lots of downs uh the team took everything in D St and as you can see achieved remarkable things um so proud of everybody uh what they've done uh inspirational to everybody yeah and what's next for astrobotic and and NASA you know it seems like we're going back to the moon for a second time huh it is so uh once obviously successful completion this mission um we have Griffin which takes uh the Viper Rover to uh the moon uh late 2024 uh following that we have a as early as 2026 uh Tipping Point where we do a demonstration of uh Power transmission across the lunar surface and also uh astrobotic is part of the national team led by Blue origin to take humans back to the the moon and uh we're part of the uh the cargo Lander system for them so so a lot of things to look forward to lots to look forward to yeah just one last question for you I mean just what do you think of this new initiative that NASA has to really bring in all of these uh small us companies to hopefully help us all go back to the Moon uh it this initiative is incred incredibly important uh it allowed a small company like astrobotic to actually deliver a land or two to the Moon uh we'd never been able to achieve it without that but the best the best thing is it's bringing a lot more creative minds new Minds new thinking to the table and that will help us accelerate the Technologies needed to get us back to the moon and have a robust uh resource and um uh presence on the moon so the more it's it's very important uh for us to be there and it's just helping us get there much faster Andy thank you so much and congratulations again thank you very much and that's going to do it for us here at Kennedy Space Center thank you for sharing in the excitement of NASA's First clips launch now on its own the paragr spacecraft will Coast for an expected AR arrival at the Moon on February 23rd and coverage of that Landing one of the first US Landings on the moon in over 50 years that will be broadcast on NASA TV and NASA Plus for those of you watching on Ula platforms the Ula version of the simoc cast will continue in a few moments as they awaits another milestone in this inaugural Vulcan flight again thank you so much for joining us we leave you now with a final look at today's historic launch 10 tus 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 we have ignition and liftoff of the first United launch Alliance Vulcan rocket launching a new era in space flight to the moon and Beyond engines operating normally two good srbs hitting Peak pressure on the srbs everything looking good [Music] h [Music] [Music] n [Music] n

Channel: Sky News

Views: 21,908

Keywords: USA, Sky News, NASA, Space, Tech, Technology, United States, United States of America, Florida, Cape Canavera

Id: J8owpaAvSxE

Length: 113min 29sec (6809 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2024