Once a mission is designed according to the customerΓÇÖs requirements, the specific procedures needed to execute the mission are developed and verified. Following rigorous functional skills and joint team training, flight controllers under the leadership of a Flight Director are responsible for overseeing the vehicle and crew as they carry out each aspect of the mission from launch through landing.
The Mission Control Center (MCC) at the Johnson Space Center, in Houston, provides for all command and control of NASAΓÇÖs human space flight operations. The facility includes a number of flight control rooms consisting of multiple workstations from which flight controllers can monitor Shuttle, Space Station and payload performance and send commands to vehicle systems. One of those control rooms is the Payload Operations Control Center where payload customers monitor the status of their operations and can send commands directly to their own vehicle or experiment aboard the Shuttle.
The Shuttle flight control team in the MCC takes control of Shuttle operations after the solid rocket motors ignite and the Shuttle is released from the pad at the Kennedy Space Center. The team manages all voice and data links between the flight vehicle and the ground facilities, monitors progress and status of Orbiter systems and advises the Flight Director and Shuttle crew on technical, procedural and scheduling issues.
The controllers include experts in every vehicle system and subsystem such as mechanical, electrical, thermal, data processing, guidance and navigation, propulsion and structural. They also include operational expertise in flight dynamics, rendezvous, EVA, payload operations and real-time flight planning.
With the advent of cooperative international space operations aboard the Mir, during the first phase of the International Space Station program, flight operations were conducted jointly with a Russian team at the Moscow Mission Control Center (TsUP) in Korlov, just outside of Moscow. A small contingent of U.S. flight controllers, called the Houston Support Group (HSG), remain at the TsUP to oversee the involvement of American astronauts aboard Russian flight vehicles through the ISS program. A joint team at JSC and the TsUP will also maintain primary control of International Space Station operations. Around the clock continuous support will be provided whenever the station has a crew onboard. These teams have two primary responsibilities - mission safety and mission success, in that order of priority.
