Evolution of the astronaut crew weather briefing for Space Shuttle operations

Abstract

Weather briefings to flight crews have changed little since the early days of aviation. Pilots still need to be alerted to hazardous weather, whether for take-off, while in route, or for landing. Since the beginning of the Space Shuttle Program, weather has played a critical role in shuttle operations. Providing weather information to shuttle crews and flight controllers has evolved steadily as new technologies have been utilized. The National Weather Service's Spaceflight Meteorology Group (SMG) at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas has the forecasting responsibility for all Shuttle landings. This paper describes how products and processes of SMG have evolved during the Shuttle Program and suggests ways in which new technologies applied to these products and processes can be directed in the future. 1. CURRENT BRIEFING STRUCTURE; Flight Directors in the Mission Control Center (MCC) located at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas make shuttle landing decisions and pass these decisions to the astronaut crew for execution. Currently, shuttle crews receive information and direction from flight controllers via the Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) position in the MCC. Brody describes in detail the operations of the SMG and its role in this process. Prior to each shuttle launch, the MCC begins a launch countdown where milestones and checkouts of various shuttle subsystems occur. SMG begins their launch countdown at Launch minus forty eight (L48) Hours to support Mission Management Team (MMT) briefings. An example of one of these briefing charts is given in Figure 1. At Launch minus one (L1) Day an Astronaut Crew and Flight Director's (FD) Weather Briefing is given. This briefing occurs roughly 24 hours before launch, and is designed to cover forecast weather for the Launch / Return-ToLaunch-Site (RTLS), the Transoceanic Abort Landing (TAL) sites, the Abort Once Around (AOA) sites, and the First Day or daily Primary Landing Site (PLS), as well as other down-range Emergency Landing Sites (ELS). This briefing is