Mission Control
Mission Control

(or: It doesn't take a rocket scientist...)


"Just as the strength of the Internet is chaos, so the strength
of our liberty depends upon the chaos and cacophony of
the unfettered speech the First Amendment protects."

Federal Judges Dolores K. Sloviter,
Ronald L. Buckwalter and Stewart Dalzell,
striking down portions of the CDA on 6-12-96


COUNTDOWN!

Between September 1991 and October 1995, I worked as a flight controller in Mission Control for 11 launches. My position was called "Targeting" (that's my position nameplate below, rescued from the old MCC before they tore it down in 1996), and I was responsible for expert support to the Flight Dynamics Officer (FDO) during shuttle ascents. I wrote up an account of what it was like to sit on console for one of those launches (STS-63 in Feb. 1995): the first shuttle flyby of the Russian Space Station Mir.

Targeting

This page was the recipient of a "sunglasses" from Yahoo!

Since October 1995, I have been working at the second coolest job in the world: I train astronauts how to operate the space shuttle. The coolest job, of course, is being an astronaut.

My role in training is teaching astronauts, flight controllers, and other instructors about the various shuttle systems; thus, I'm called the Systems instructor. More specifically, I train the shuttle's Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS), Electrical Power Systems (EPS), Auxiliary Power Unit (APU)/ Hydraulic systems, Mechanical (Payload Bay Doors and Landing Gear) Systems, and Caution & Warning System.

In the 4 years I've been working here, I have been fortunate enough to have been associated with four great crews:

STS-80 patch

STS-80
in orbit
Nov. 8 through Dec. 7, 1996:

The crew: Ken Cockrell, Kent Rominger, Tammy Jernigan, Tom Jones, and Story Musgrave

STS-87 patch

STS-87
in orbit
Nov. 19 through Dec. 5, 1997:

The crew: Kevin Kregel, Steve Lindsey, Winston Scott, Kalpana Chawla, Takao Doi, and Leonid Kadenyuk

STS-91 patch

STS-91
in orbit
June 2 through June 12, 1998:

The crew: Charlie Precourt, Dom Gorie, Wendy Lawrence, Janet Kavandi, Franklin Chang-Diaz, Valery Ryumin, and Andy Thomas (down from Mir only)

STS-101 patch

STS-101
in orbit
May 19 through 29, 2000:

The crew: Jim Halsell, Scott Horowitz, Jeff Williams, Mary Ellen Weber, Susan Helms, Jim Voss, Yuri Usachev

Mission Info from KSC

Payload info:

Additional info:

Mission Info from KSC

Payload info:

Additional info:

Mission Info from KSC, and JSC's Shuttle Web

Payload info:

Additional info:

Mission Info from KSC

Payload info:

  • ISS logistics 2A.2
Additional info:

Go to my regular page: The Official Michael R. Grabois Home Page


Also please take a look at the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list for the sci.space.shuttle newsgroup.

APOLLO 13: there are plenty of accounts of what happened to the Apollo 13 mission -- what went wrong, how they got the astronauts back -- but did you know that Grumman (maker of the LM) sent a bill for over $312,000 to North American Rockwell (maker of the command and service module) when it was all over, for towing charges? Yes, it was a joke, but see a (bad) scan of the invoice and an accompanying newspaper article from Saturday, April 18, 1970.


The MCC Ring
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Michael Grabois

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Last updated: August 7, 2000