Emily LakdawallaJan 19, 2006

OK, back to New Horizons!

So the Stardust press conference is still going on on NASA TV, but I am now turning to the Internet to monitor the status of New Horizons' third attempted launch day. I heard on the radio this morning that APL was confident that yesterday's power outage -- caused by a severe thunderstorm -- was thoroughly resolved and they are ready again to support the mission; and I've heard weather reports for Kennedy Space Center that include a 90% chance of good enough weather for launch, which is about as positive as those guys ever get. So -- so far, so good.

They are already well into the launch countdown, with a little more than an hour left to go before the launch at 13:08 EST / 10:08 PST / 18:08 UTC. They have loaded nearly all the liquid oxygen onto the Centaur again, and the Virtual Launch Control Center reports that the Atlas V is starting to ice over and turn white as the supercooled liquid oxygen and hydrogen are being loaded.

So, here we go again with the launch table. If they launch at 18:08 UTC, here's when the immediate post-launch events will take place:

 ElapsedESTPSTUTC
Launch0:0013:08:0010:08:0018:08:00
SRB burnout and jettison0:01:4713:09:4710:09:4718:09:47
 0:01:4813:09:4810:09:4818:09:48
Payload fairing jettison0:03:2313:11:2310:11:2318:11:23
Core booster burnout0:04:2813:12:2810:12:2818:12:28
Centaur separation0:04:3413:12:3410:12:3418:12:34
Centaur first burn0:04:4413:12:4410:12:4418:12:44
Park orbit / cruise phase0:10:0613:18:0610:18:0618:18:06
Centaur second burn0:32:2313:40:2310:40:2318:40:23
Third stage separation0:42:1513:50:1510:50:1518:50:15
Star 48B ignition0:42:5213:50:5210:50:5218:50:52
Star 48B burnout0:44:2013:52:2010:52:2018:52:20
Spacecraft separation0:47:2213:55:2210:55:2218:55:22

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