Jim Graf
Jim Graf
oh picture
Oh I am very relieved. It was picture perfect.
adjust brief feels main months orbit science six size start work
The celebration feels great, but it will be very brief because before we start our main science phase, we still have six months of challenging work to adjust the orbit to the right size and shape.
board carry programs react spacecraft team time
There is no time for the team as a whole to react ... so we have on board all the programs we need to carry out, and the spacecraft has to do it all on its own.
burn complete last six wondering
For the last six minutes, we are essentially in white-knuckle time, wondering if we're going to actually complete the burn and go into orbit.
critical obviously
This is obviously the critical maneuver. We will not see the end of the burn.
atmosphere attentive dip far fully lose people time
Each time you dip into the atmosphere, you have to be very attentive because if you dip in too far ... it can be detrimental to the spacecraft, ... We have an atmosphere we don't fully understand. ... There are a lot of people who lose a lot of sleep.
changes coverage daily enter fortunate global helping increase mars odyssey risk time watch
There is risk every time we enter the atmosphere, and we are fortunate to have Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey with their daily global coverage helping us watch for changes that could increase the risk.
critical events execute preparing spacecraft
We have been preparing for years for the critical events the spacecraft must execute on Friday.
dangerous fly money portion
We're on the money right now. But we are getting into the dangerous portion of the mission. A lot can go wrong, and if we don't succeed, we will fly right by the planet.
dangerous enter last lost portion realm spacecraft starting
We're getting into the dangerous portion of the mission. Now we're starting to enter into the realm where we've lost two spacecraft in the last 15 years.