It Ain't Easy Bein' Me

Friday August 10, 2007

Well, nothing in life is ever easy and that includes being a Flight Controller in the Mission Control Center. It's Friday and in the months that I've been working as a flight controller for OCA I can remember only one Friday were nothing went wrong, nothing broke, and we had a very smooth shift. Today was not that one. Endeavour launched Wednesday and today is Flight Day 2 which means today is Imagery Day. Imagery Day is a high intensity day at the MCC and here's why.

Since the Columbia tragedy in 2003, NASA has implemented new security measures to check the integrity of the shuttle's heat shields once it reaches orbit. This involves the station crew members taking photos of the belly of the shuttle as it performs an impressive back flip in space. As you can guess the engineers, specialists, and flight controllers on the ground want to see the imagery as soon as the crew has transferred the photos to the computers on board the station.

Enter OCA.

OCA on the station side of the house downlinks these photos using the comm. available over the next couple of hours. There is a pressure to get these photos down and get them dispersed so the ground specialists can look them over and decide if there is a need for repairs, or in the worse case scenerio, send an emergency shuttle crew to space.

That's all fine and well. I knew going into work today it was Imagery Day and I was ready for it! I had everything planned out and knew exactly what I was going to do to be as efficient as I could to get the job done...that's just a standard in the space industry. That was all fine and well...until we lost our comm. link for unknown reasons two and a half hours before the imagery activities were to begin.

Immediately, I pulled out troubleshooting guides and began contacting ground specialists to work the problem. I ran through all of my troubleshooting procedures and the ground specialists ran through their troubleshooting procedures. No luck. Ground specialists had the crew perform some troubleshooting steps also. No luck. The blood pressure of ground specialists, back room engineers and flight controllers began to rise. There didn't seem to be a cause and there was no solution in the near future and it was now 45 minutes before photos were to be taken. A headache began to pound behind my eyeballs. My shoulders tightened, my muscles tensed, and my stress level rose to seven. The shuttle OCA officers were notified they may have to downlink the photos. Not good because the shuttle has much less comm. coverage than the station.

But miraculously the situation began to improve just in time. Our comm. link became stable again, the photos were taken, and OCA was able to begin the downlink on time. Stress levels and blood pressure numbers plummeted down to what passes for normal in the space industry.

The thing is, this sort of thing happens all the time at the MCC. There are thousands of specialists, engineers, and others who take on the challenges that present themselves everyday in the space industry and come out shining examples of what the right stuff is. They have dedication, integrity, and passion about what they do, myself included. There is nothing that will encourage the desire of a person to do their best than to know that a decision they make can mean the difference between life and death. Not everyday, or very often matter of fact, presents a challenge that could mean the cost of life, but no matter what the challenge each person in the MCC gives their all to meet that challenge and ensure that no loss is incurred by anyone. That dedication does not stop in Houston, either. KSC, Marshall, and all of the other centers that make up NASA have the same dedication, integrity, and passion for their work. Every person that works in the MCC, whether it be for a shuttle mission or the day to day operations of the space station, is a link in the chain of strength to hold back the chaos of space exploration. I don't know of any other group of people who truly care about what they do at their job and that makes me feel honored and very proud to work among that group. Truly the best of the best...