Flight controller

Flight controllers are personnel who aid space flight by working in such Mission Control Centers as NASA's Mission Control Center or ESA's European Space Operations Centre. Flight controllers work at computer consoles and use telemetry to monitor various technical aspects of a space mission in real time. Each controller is an expert in a specific area and constantly communicates with additional experts in the "back room". The Flight Director, who leads the flight controllers, monitors the activities of a team of flight controllers and has overall responsibility for success and safety.

This article primarily discusses NASA's flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. The various national and commercial flight control facilities have their own teams, which may be described on their own pages.

The room where the flight controllers work was called the Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR, pronounced "moh-ker"), and now is called the Flight Control Room (FCR, pronounced "ficker"). The controllers are experts in individual systems, and make recommendations to the Flight Director involving their areas of responsibility. Any controller may call for an abort if the circumstances require it. Before significant events, the Flight Director will "go around the room," polling each controller for a GO / NO-GO decision, a procedure also known as a launch status check. If all factors are good, each controller calls for a GO, but if there is a problem requiring a hold or an abort, the call is NO GO. Another form of this is STAY / NO STAY, when the spacecraft has completed a maneuver and has now "parked" in relation to another body, including spacecraft (or space stations), orbiting the Earth or the Moon, or the Lunar landings.

Controllers in MOCR/FCR are supported by the "backrooms," teams of flight controllers located in other parts of the building or even at remote facilities. The backroom was formally called the Staff Support Room (SSR), and is now called the Multi-Purpose Support Room (MPSR, pronounced "mipser"). Backroom flight controllers are responsible for the details of their assigned system and for making recommendations for actions needed for that system. "Frontroom" flight controllers are responsible for integrating the needs of their system into the larger needs of the vehicle and working with the rest of the flight control team to develop a cohesive plan of action, even if that plan is not necessarily in the best interests of the system they are responsible for. Within the chain of command of the MCC, information and recommendations flow from the backroom to the frontroom to FLIGHT and then, potentially, to the onboard crew. Generally, a MOCR/FCR flight control team is made up of the more seasoned flight controllers than the SSR/MPSR, though senior flight controllers cycle back to support in the backroom periodically. One example of the usefulness of this system occurred during the descent of the Eagle Lunar Module, when "1202" and "1201" program alarms came from the LM. GUIDO Steve Bales, not sure whether to call for an abort, trusted the experts in the Guidance backroom, especially Jack Garman, who told him that the problem was a computer overload, but could be ignored if it was intermittent. Bales called "GO!," Flight Director Kranz accepted the call and the mission continued to success. Without the support of the backroom, a controller might make a "bad call" based on faulty memory or information not readily available to the person on the console. The nature of quiescent operations aboard the International Space Station (ISS) today is such that the full team is not required for 24/7/365 support. FCR flight controllers accept responsibility for operations without MPSR support most of the time, and the MPSR is only staffed for high-intensity periods of activity, such as joint Shuttle/ISS missions.

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