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News
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center
Houston, Texas 77058
AC 713 483-5111
Flight Control of STS-35
Flight control for STS-35, the thirty-sixth voyage of the Space Shuttle, will follow the same procedures and traditions common to all U.S. manned space flights since the Mission Control Center was first used in 1965.
Responsibility for conduct of the mission will revert to the Mission Control Center (MCC) in Houston once Columbia's two solid rocket boosters ignite. Mission support will begin in the MCC about five hours prior to launch and will continue around-the-clock through the landing and post-landing activities.
Responsibility for conduct of the science activities will revert to the Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, once Columbia has been cleared for orbital operations and the payload instruments have been activated.
Because these operations will take place simultaneously around the clock, transmissions to and from the Columbia will be broadcast on two separate channels—one devoted to science operations, the other devoted to Orbiter flight operations. Science operations with the ASTRO-1 and Broad Band X-Ray Telescope payloads will be the subject of communications on the air-to-ground one (A/G-1) channel, with the Crew Interface Coordinator (CIC) at the POCC using the call sign “Huntsville," and the crew using the call sign “ASTRO.“ Orbiter operations will be the subject of communications on the air-to-ground two (A/G-2) channel, with the Spacecraft Communicator (CAPCOM) in the MCC using the call sign "Houston," and the orbiter hailed as "Columbia."
In Houston, the mission will be conducted from Flight Control Room One (FCR-1) on the second floor of the MCC located in Bldg. 30 at Johnson Space Center. The teams of flight controllers will alternate shifts in the control center and in nearby analysis and support facilities. The handover between each team takes about an hour and allows each flight controller to brief his or her oncoming colleague on the course of events over
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