Mating Procedure: Spacecraft to Rocket (3:02) audio

Boeing's Kris Walsh describes how a spacecraft is mated to the Delta rocket's third stage and transported to the launch pad.

TRANSCRIPTION of MATING PROCEDURE: SPACECRAFT TO ROCKET audio:

We start with mating the satellite to the third stage. We do that in the facility where the spacecraft has been built up at KSC. Once that is mated, then we put a can, actually canned segments, one by one until we've covered the entire satellite and third stage. Then it is lifted onto a transporter. We hook it up to a nitrogen purge which will run for as long as it's in the can, actually until we get under the hook. Once we start lifting the satellite, it's very difficult to continue that nitrogen purge. We put that can on the transporter when the satellite people are happy that everything is as they want it for the move. They will accompany the satellite on its transport to the launchpad, which will be launch complex 17A. Basically, again, it has to go slow enough that you could actually walk along side it, about 5 miles an hour. And then we get under the hook at about 5 a.m. Prior to leaving the facility that the payload is in, we verify weather. If there was any potential of rain, we probably wouldn't go. If there is any potential of high winds, we probably wouldn't go. You don't want to be under the hook and have to turn around and go back. Again, NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration], KSC [Kennedy Space Center], JPL [Jet Propulsion Laboratory], Lockheed Martin, and Boeing would all have to be comfortable that we are doing the right thing. We get under the hook. We would then lift it into our whiteroom. That doesn't take more than a few minutes. We open the cleanroom doors, bring it in, and then close the cleanroom doors. And then we purge that whiteroom until we're comfortable with the cleanliness levels. Then we go through the process in reverse. We start taking off canned segments. Then that whole system goes onto our second stage. Any electrical connections would be made. And then the last thing that goes on is our fairing. The fairing has doors in it. So if a satellite has to have access to anything, from then on to about four hours prior to launch, the door is off, they can get access to it.