Curiosity’s Launch

NASA began a historic voyage to Mars with the Nov. 26, 2011, launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, which carries a car-sized rover named Curiosity. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard an Atlas V rocket occurred at 10:02 a.m. EST (7:02 a.m.)

TRANSCRIPT

NASA began a historic voyage to Mars with the Nov. 26, 2011, launch of the Mars Science Laboratory, which carries a car-sized rover named Curiosity. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard an Atlas V rocket occurred at 10:02 a.m. EST (7:02 a.m. PST).

George Diiler (announcer): 'T-minus 15 seconds...'

'T-minus 10...' '9...'

'8...'

'7...'

'6...'

'5...'

'4...'

'3...'

'2...'

'1...'

'Main engine start...' 'Zero...'

'And liftoff of the Atlas V with Curiosity — seeking clues to the planetary puzzle about life on Mars

(rocket noise)

Rob Gagnon (telemetry manager): 'And throttling down to 76%...'

(rocket noise)

'And MSL is now breaking the sound barrier.'

(rocket noise)

'SRB chamber pressures following the nominal curve – everything looking good.'

(rocket noise)

'And we've passed through Max-Q.'

(rocket noise)

'We're on closed loop on Atlas VU. Signatures as expected.'

(rocket noise)

'SRB profile continues to look nominal. Throttling back up to 100% thrust on the RD-180.' 'Engine parameters looking good.'

(rocket noise)

'Flight control disturbances look as expected.'

(rocket noise)

'SRB pressures running right as expected.'

(rocket noise)

'Coming up on SRB burnout -- we have burnout of the SRBs.'

'Everything is looking good.' 'Ten seconds to SRB jet.'

'And we have first pair and second pair. Both sets of SRBs have successfully jettisoned the vehicle

'We have re-enabled guidance.'

'Everything is looking good.'

George Diller: 'This is Rob Gagnon, our United Launch Alliance telemetry manager, we're hearing.

Rob Gagnon: 'Vehicle is now 32 nautical miles in altitude, 54 miles down range...' 'Traveling at 4900 miles per hour.'

'And we've throttled down to hold a constant 2.5 G level for payload fairing jettison.'

'And we've fired the pyro valve, pressurizing the RCS bottle.'

'Pressure increasing in the loop as expected.'

'Now we're hitting our 2.5 G limit. Coming up on payload fairing jettison in approximately 10 seconds

'Fairing jet.'

'And we also have the successful CFLR jettison, right as expected.'

'Throttling up on the RD-180. Everything looking good.'

'Coming up to 89% thrust.'

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology