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The traditional hand-off from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to the Houston team marked the start of a Shuttle\u2019s mission, a responsibility that would be a constant throughout the entire flight, through to post landing procedures.<\/p>\n
The orbiter and her crew relied on the professionalism of the Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) controllers, with the teams working around the clock to monitor the spacecraft\u2019s health, whilst assisting the astronauts through their flight plan tasks.<\/p>\n
![\"Shuttle](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Z411.jpg\" "\\"Shuttle")
The Shuttle FCR was a familiar sight to any fan of the Shuttle Program, with NASA TV often showing its rows of desks, lines of monitors and teams of controllers hard at work \u2013 all of which provided a backdrop to the large screens at the front of the room.<\/p>\nAround half of the Shuttle missions were controlled this room, known as the White FCR, beginning with STS-70, as controllers on their \u201cblue consoles\u201d conducted tens of missions, all of which concluded with a safe landing \u2013 bar one.<\/p>\n
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With STS-135 rounding out the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) in 2011, Atlantis\u2019 return to the Kennedy Space Center marked the end of near-term operations in this FCR.<\/p>\n
However, managers always had the room penciled in for a new life as part of NASA\u2019s future ambitions.<\/p>\n
![\"Gutting](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Z610.jpg\" "\\"Gutting")
Work to transition the Shuttle FCR into what is known as MCC-21 \u2013 a reference to their 21st Century modifications \u2013 began last year, with the bitter sweet gutting of the room.<\/p>\n\u201cIt was a great room, that served its purpose for many years,\u201d noted MCC Ground Controller (GC) Bill Foster during an insightful interview with JSC PAO Josh Byerly.<\/p>\n
Following a new paint job, new wooden console desks were installed into the room, while the large screens at the front of the room were widened.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Z812.jpg\" "\\"The")
\u201cThat\u2019s one thing I\u2019m going to miss from the (old) White FCR, we had room on either side for the flags to go up, so now they are going to go back on poles (like they are in the ISS FCR),\u201d added Mr. Foster.<\/p>\n\u201cIt was kinda nice to have the US flag up on the wall with the light flooding it.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the monitors all installed, testing has since begun on the new MCC-21 systems, although they are not yet fully functional.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe ran (the systems) for the first time with the upgraded training system simulator, which we\u2019re calling \u2018Training System -21\u2019,\u201d Mr. Foster added. \u201cThat was very successful, so the developers are very happy with the results and the progress we\u2019re making.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Early](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Z322.jpg\" "\\"Early")
The layout of the consoles are being continually refined, with presentations from 2011 (available on L2) showing desks with two storeys of monitors.<\/p>\nThat has since been refined, although the initial issue \u2013 not having a clear view of the front screens \u2013 still requires some tweaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s one of the things we\u2019re still struggling with, how to configure the monitors so that we can see the front screen,\u201d noted Mr. Foster. \u201cWe have a layout of monitors going horizontally, but on one side of the console the monitors are stacked up \u2013 so if you\u2019re sitting on that side, you don\u2019t see the front screen.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Shuttle](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Z518.jpg\" "\\"Shuttle")
With the JSC MCC a large expanse of rooms, upgrading work has been staggered, allowing for continuing operations during the transition \u2013 as explained by Mr. Foster.<\/p>\n\u201cSome time in June or July of 2014, the ISS support will move down the hall to the White FCR, while for the next few months after that the ISS FCR will then be upgraded to look much like the new White FCR.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ISS FCR also sports an amazing history, having supported Apollo 7 and the first four Shuttle missions, beginning with STS-1, before missions moved to FCR-2.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Z712.jpg\" "\\"The")
Orion\u2019s debut trip into space during EFT-1 will be run out of the Blue FCR, the original room from which controllers flew the ISS out of \u2013 a smaller control room that has also been upgraded to the MCC-21 configuration. The MCC-21 upgrade is mainly angled towards Orion\u2019s exploration adventures with the Space Launch System (SLS).<\/p>\nThere is also a Red FCR, used as a training room, but its days are numbered.<\/p>\n
\u201cRed FCR is not going to be with us much longer\u201d, noted Mr. Foster. \u201cOnce MCC-21 is complete, the training room on the third floor will be re-utilized for other purposes and we\u2019ll use the Blue FCR for training.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the majority of MCC-H transitioning towards the future, other rooms that can look forward to new roles include the numerous support areas, not least the Mission Evaluation Room (MER).<\/p>\n
![\"Shuttle](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/A312.jpg\" "\\"Shuttle")
The MER was a hub of activity during its Shuttle days, with large teams of NASA and contractor experts all working to ensure the Shuttle had a safe mission.<\/p>\nPer additional MCC-21 presentations from 2011 (available on L2), the MER \u2013 at least half of it \u2013 is set for a transition to support operations for the James Webb Space Telescope.<\/p>\n
Those presentations noted support areas for JWST could easily be accomplished by sectioning off half of the SSP MER, providing sufficient console space and resources for the eventual 75-member team.<\/p>\n
Likewise, enough conference space would be available for the JWST team and, if necessary, the conference space could be acquired from other areas should the needs of the JWST team expand.<\/p>\n
Plans for other areas of the MCC are still being evaluated. However, this period of transition is nothing new for the world-famous building.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis won\u2019t be the last (transition),\u201d added Mr. Foster. \u201cthe evolution will continue as technology improves.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Images: Via NASA TV, NASA and L2 L2 content)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The historic Shuttle Flight Control Room (FCR) has a new, futuristic look. Upgraded from its honorable service with the Space Shuttle, the famous room \u2013 now transitioning into what is called MCC-21 \u2013 is all-but ready for its future role in supporting NASA\u2019s current and future launch vehicles and spacecraft. Shuttle Flight Control Room: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39774"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}