NASA Mission Operation Control Center at Johnson Space Center

Abstract

Abstract As the Space Task Group (STG) began to relocate to Houston, Texas, from Langley Field, Virginia, in 1962, the last of the Mercury flights were still being supported from the Mercury Control Center (MCC) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. In those early days, dramatic change was underway throughout the manned space program. Galvanized by President Kennedy's Moon challenge in 1961, Gemini and Apollo began to take form in the engineering, design, and manufacturing organizations throughout the country. The learning curves were very steep in all of the disciplines. This was equally true in the control of flight operations, as they were facilitated in the first control center in Florida and at key remote sites around the globe. The flight operations function (becoming known as flight control) faced new changes for the upcoming programs—missions were much more complex due to rendezvous, extra vehicular activity (EVA), and lunar challenges. Telemetry and command systems were changing from analog to digital, reliable global communications were enabling a more centralized control center with fewer remote sites, and the schedule demanded extensive training with concurrent training for one flight while actively performing another simultaneously. All of these considerations and others led to the conclusion that the new Mission Control Center must be colocated with the flight control team in Houston. This article details the various missions launched from Houston basic concepts of flight control are discussed. Missions in the Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo‐Soyuz, Space Shuttle, and Challenger programs are discussed. Space station preparations are considered.