Mission control center

A mission control center (MCC, sometimes called a flight control center or operations center) is a facility that manages space flights, usually from the point of launch until landing or the end of the mission. It is part of the ground segment of spacecraft operations. A staff of flight controllers and other support personnel monitor all aspects of the mission using telemetry, and send commands to the vehicle using ground stations. Personnel supporting the mission from an MCC can include representatives of the attitude control system, power, propulsion, thermal, attitude dynamics, orbital operations and other subsystem disciplines. The training for these missions usually falls under the responsibility of the flight controllers, typically including extensive rehearsals in the MCC.

NASA's Mission Control Center

Prior to liftoff, missions are controlled from the Launch Control Center (LCC) located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. Responsibility for the booster and spacecraft remains with the LCC until the booster has cleared the launch tower, when responsibility is handed over to the NASA's Mission Control Center (MCC-H), at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, in Houston. The MCC also manages the U.S. portions of the International Space Station (ISS).

Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center

NASA's Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. Mission Control Center (MCC-H), also known by its radio callsign, Houston, is the facility at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas that manages flight control for America's human space program, currently involving astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The center is named after Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., a retired NASA engineer and manager who was instrumental in establishing the agency's Mission Control operation.

The MCC currently houses one operational control room, from which flight controllers coordinate and monitor the ISS. This room has many computer and data-processing resources to monitor, command and communicate with the station. The ISS control room operates continuously.

Because Houston is a hurricane-sensitive area, NASA has basic back-up facilities at the Kennedy Space Center as well as a location at the Backup Control Center Huntsville Operations Support Center (BCC-HOSC) at Marshall Space Flight Center for ISS operations. (Unmanned US civilian satellites are controlled from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, while California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages unmanned US space probes.)

Mission Control Centre (Cospas-Sarsat)

In the field of Search and Rescue, Mission Control Centres (MCCs) are a type of clearinghouse responsible for receiving and distributing distress signal alerts from distress radiobeacons. MCCs are a core component of the international satellite system for Search and Rescue - Cospas-Sarsat.

The functions of an MCC are:

As of 13 May 2009, there are 29 MCCs around the world.

List of Mission Control Centres

References

See also

Mission control (disambiguation)

A Mission control center is an entity that manages aerospace vehicle flights.

Mission control may also refer to:

See also

Mission: Control!

Mission: Control! is the debut album from American rock band Burning Airlines, released in 1999.

Track listing

All songs written by Burning Airlines, lyrics by J. Robbins.

Mission Control (album)

Mission Control is the second full-length album by Athens, Georgia-based garage rock band The Whigs. It was released on January 22, 2008 by ATO Records, on CD and vinyl simultaneously.

Track listing