How big are
@NASA_SLS
and Saturn V? In these display cases in Mission Control, Mercury Redstone, Mercury Atlas, Gemini, Saturn V, Shuttle, Skylab,
@SpaceX
Falcon 9/Crew Dragon,
@ulalaunch
Atlas V/
@BoeingSpace
Starliner, and SLS are all the same 1/100 scale.
"What did you do at work last night dear?"
Nothing major, just reduced the altitude of the
@Space_Station
by 1.7km to prepare for the next Progress arrival and used a gravity assist to spin our 1 million pound space ship around 180 degrees.
There haven't been Health Stabilization posters in Mission Control since 2011.
@Commercial_Crew
is getting really close to flying people to orbit from the US again!
Not the way we wanted or envisioned the test flight to end but our ops teams are now transitioning to ensure Calypso’s successful return to the desert.
A shuttle-era holdout in Mission Control is with us no longer. Like so many that work at
@NASA_Johnson
, it served well, worked hard, and stayed well past its "you could retire now" years.
Good morning from the Blue Flight Control Room! A subset of our team is here today, working with
#Starliner
, Butch, and
@Astro_Suni
. We’re updating some software files we’ll need for our upcoming departure (coming soon to a desert near you, if you live in the American Southwest!)
Touchdown! Mission complete with a bullseye landing. I can't be prouder of our Mission Ops team. They/we worked the unexpected in true Flight Operations fashion. Never gave up, never stopped trying, and always looked for additional test objectives we could accomplish.
Boeing Mission Operations (MO) continues to prepare to fly the first
#Starliner
test flight later this year for
@BoeingDefense
. As part of our prep, we’ve created our MO patch for that Orbital Flight Test (OFT) mission.
Your Flight Directors leading the teams that will fly
@BoeingSpace
#Starliner
, with Butch and
@Astro_Suni
.
Back (L to R): Chloe Mehring (Lion), Rick Henfling (Redstone), me (Carbon), Mike Lammers (Saturn)
Front: Anthony Vareha (Enterprise)
Absent: Marcos Flores (Argo)
Twenty-four years ago today I drove through the gates of
@NASA_Johnson
for the first time. Ok, well, I drove up to the gate and into the badging office parking lot, but after THAT I drove through the gates.
Still a dream job and still a human spaceflight fanboy!
These signs can only mean one thing. Mission Control Houston is getting ready to help launch a human rated spacecraft from American soil soon...
#OFTiscoming
Congratulations to
@NASAFltDirector
Rebecca Wingfield, working her first solo shift as a
@NASA
Flight Director today.
@Space_Station
and her crew are in good hands with Flight Director 92, Cerulean Flight.
May was OFT-2, June and July was post fight stuff, and August has been catching up on my ISS shift duties. Tonight’s my last scheduled ISS shift before working some
@NASAArtemis
I shifts while coasting to and from the Moon.
#WeAreGoing
Congratulations to newly minted Flight Director 93, Adi Boulos, now forever to be known as Zenith Flight. Flight Director 25, Sirius Flight, Milt Heflin, shared some sage wisdom before pinning the FD pin on Adi’s lapel.
The first element of the
@Space_Station
passed 20 years in orbit (Mission Elapsed Time, MET) a few hours ago.
I was back at
@UMengineering
, having completed my first
@NASAJSCStudents
tour at
@NASA_Johnson
in Jan - Aug 1998.
Where were you when the first ISS element launched?
10 years ago I was the lead
@Space_Station
Flight Director for Expedition 28. It started with the departure of Soyuz TMA-20 during STS-134, from which we got this view of Endeavour docked to ISS.
Now's a great time to get that coffee and curl up in front of the screen for a day of NASA TV EVA watching! Another milestone in preparation of the arrival of
@Commercial_Crew
vehicles.
If the final
#Starliner
CFT readiness review and training was last week and roll out to the pad is not until this weekend, what are we doing this week, you ask?
Chasing all those final, fine details. Triple checking everything, making sure all is ready to go.
The trajectory/orbit of
@NASA_Gateway
, its long duration mission, and its ability to be able to conduct significant deep space research while both crewed and uncrewed will provide significant scientific advancement in understanding our corner of the solar system. Can’t wait!
The Gateway's orbit around the Moon provides a research opportunity to directly measure solar wind and radiation from the Sun outside of the effects of earth’s magnetosphere.
Learn more about the space weather instruments that will fly on the Gateway:
Clear evidence that two flight controllers have their final certification evaluations today. Bribery to the simulation gods never hurts.
Today’s simulated event is installation of a HTV while orbital debris lurks and might drive the need for
@Space_Station
to get out of the way
Mission accomplished! With Rosie’s training/stunt double looking on, our Rendezvous lead, Ray (left of Rosie in the picture), hung the plaque and our EECOM lead, Mike, held the ladder.
26 years ago yesterday I rolled through this gate for the first time as a
@NASAInterns
. There were no flags over the entrance; we were 10 months away from
@Space_Station
first element launch. Now we’re 70 Expeditions in and I get to be her
@NASAFltDirector
. Not old, just seasoned
Great thread showing what hypervelocity impacts of even small objects can do to structures that make up satellites and orbital laboratories. Be sure to check out the link with more videos, but also more research data and information.
Good morning! After a great launch yesterday, one more box to check!
✅ NASA CFT Flight Test Readiness Review 2
✅ Progress 86P Undocking
✅ Progress 88P Launch
✅
#Starliner
power up (in work)
✅ Progress 88P Docking
✅
@BoeingSpace
CFT Launch
➡️
@BoeingSpace
CFT Docking
The
@BoeingSpace
#Starliner
remains on track for a docking at 12:15pm ET today to the station despite helium leaks reported on the spacecraft.
@NASA
and Boeing will meet to review data prior to rendezvous and docking operations on the orbital outpost.
To quote from the Foundations of Mission Operations:
"To always be aware that, suddenly and unexpectedly, we may find ourselves in a role where our performance has ultimate consequences."
A very successful mission dress rehearsal is complete! This was the last integrated training event before launch. I was fortunate to be able to observe the crew with
@AstroIronMike
while
@Saturn_Flight
led the MCC activities. Go
#Starliner
! Go CFT!
When we send them on their way, we want to ensure that Butch and Suni will be safe and the mission will be fully successful. We need a bit more time to ensure that in every way, so we’re now targeting June 1 for launch.
Mission managers from NASA,
@BoeingSpace
, and
@ULALaunch
continue to evaluate a path forward toward launching
#Starliner
's Crew Flight Test.
The teams are now working toward a launch opportunity at 12:25pm ET on Saturday, June 1, with additional opportunities on Sunday, June 2,
Not gonna lie. It's kinda nice to be able to sleep through the chaos of the day, work through the night, and be surrounded by these beautiful views of our stressed out planet while taking care of 3 humans in the ultimate quarantine.
(They also have plenty of TP.)
It is time!
With Crew-8 relocated, all
@Space_Station
configurations are in place to support
#Starliner
arrival
L-4 days
✅ Crew-7 return
✅ SpaceX CRS-30 launch
✅ Soyuz MS-25 launch
✅ Soyuz MS-24 return
✅ Russian EVA
✅ CRS-30 return
✅ Relocate Crew-8
➡️
@BoeingSpace
CFT
Both Moscow and Houston Mission Control Centers have been tracking a tiny air leak for several months. A few weeks ago our crew isolated in the Russian segment of
@Space_Station
and closed as many hatches as possible in order to identify the location of the leak.
.
@Enterprise_Flt
might have changed the Soyuz parking spots but I got to throw the
@Space_Station
into a J-turn and get us flying face forward again while he napped. Spinning 454,000 kg on a dime counts for something, right?
It’s a quiet day in the White Flight Control Room.
#Starliner
is in its quiescent power mode with no work being performed inside today. A couple of fight controllers came in to update some files onboard. Butch and
@Astro_Suni
are hard at work with
@ISS_Research
.
The second
@NASAFltDirector
from our most recent selection is nearing completion of her certification. She ran the shift tonight while I was her “backstop” if needed (it wasn’t; she’s doing awesome). Nice to be in this room and just watch the team work while the crew sleeps.
With the plaque hung on the wall, the OFT mission is now officially complete. We even had Rosie's training counterpart join us. Congratulations to the entire joint
@ulalaunch
,
@BoeingSpace
,
@NASA_Johnson
, and
@Commercial_Crew
team that made this happen.
Today the CFT lead Flight Directors are hitching a ride to
@NASAKennedy
with the folks that will be setting up the CFT crew quarantine for their arrival later in the week. We’ll be participating in the
@NASA
Flight Readiness Review tomorrow and Thursday.
25 years ago today
@NASA_Johnson
handed this almost 21 year old a civil servant badge and told me to go help fly people in space. Thanks to
@NASAInterns
for helping me get my start.
Ad astra!
Calypso is docked! Now to learn everything we can about a docked Starliner.
✅ NASA CFT Flight Test Readiness Review 2
✅ Progress 86P Undocking
✅ Progress 88P Launch
✅
#Starliner
power up (in work)
✅ Progress 88P Docking
✅
@BoeingSpace
CFT Launch
✅
@BoeingSpace
CFT Docking
Special thanks to the
@NASAFltDirector
and Flight Controllers standing the Christmas watches, keeping our crews safe, while the rest of us celebrate with our friends and families.
‘Twas the night before Christmas
And all through Mission Control…
Santa hats lined each and every console.
The Expedition 70 crew was kept safe by teams on the ground,
While St. Nicholas’s sleigh circled the Earth, all around.
It’s busy in the MCC this week!
@Space_Station
real time ops (FCR-1),
@NASAArtemis
real time ops (WFCR, Ops Suite 3, Ops Suite 1),
@BoeingSpace
Starliner CFT testing (BFCR), and ISS simulation training (Ops Suite 2)
What's left in these last 7 days for Mission Operations and
@BoeingSpace
? One more day of launch simulations, one more day simulating (jointly with the
@Space_Station
team)
#Starliner
rendezvous and docking, final Go/No-Go meetings, and
@ulalaunch
rocket rollout. Lots to do!
HTV has been an incredible asset to
@Space_Station
with its large internal and external mass capacity. Working with the
@JAXA_en
and
@JAXA_JFLIGHT
teams on HTV-4 was a privilege
Kounotori 9 (HTV9) is set to re-enter the atmosphere on Aug. 20! Mark the calendar to celebrate the the completion of HTV's final mission with us!
・Departure from the ISS: 8/19, 2:35 a.m. JST
・Re-entry: 8.20, 4:07 p.m. JST
More details on
Can’t believe it’s already coming to an end. It seems like we just got here! Tomorrow is our final day inside
#Starliner
, closing it out before its trip to the American Southwest.
On Wednesday, May 25,
@BoeingSpace
's
#Starliner
spacecraft will depart from the International
@Space_Station
for a landing in the western United States.
@NASA
’s Boeing OFT-2 return coverage begins on Tuesday, May 24. See the full schedule at .
Continuing to make progress towards the Crew Flight Test in early May. We’re nearly complete with our pre-mission training campaign and about halfway through our final readiness reviews. Go
#Starliner
!
.
@NASA
’s
@BoeingSpace
Crew Flight Test is now targeting no earlier than Monday, May 6, for
#Starliner
’s first launch with astronauts Butch Wilmore and
@Astro_Suni
.
The date adjustment better optimizes
@Space_Station
's schedule of activities.
Details:
What happens if
@Space_Station
is not behaving on a crewed
#Starliner
docking day? We may have to depart and come back the next day.
Today we're simulating that case in order to ensure the Starliner crew, flight control teams, and spacecraft can successfully re-rendezvous.
Had the team trained for this exact scenario? Nope.
But every time we train, we focus on resilience under pressure and finding the best way through the day's malfunctions in order to meet our priorities:
1. Crew Safety
2. Vehicle Safety
3. Mission Success
“Plan, Train, Fly” - should add: “Execute contingency/emergency procedures in a calm, efficient manner while lives are on the line like you’ve trained years for this moment.”
Oh wait, they have!
Great job
@Space_Station
Flight Ops team! No better team on or off the planet!
Workstation next to me yesterday was having issues. I wonder if anyone ever found the floppy this Windows 10 machine was looking for...
How many techs even know what a floppy is?
Night shift 6 of 6.
I wonder, is it better or worse for your body clock if your office lighting/environment is always the same, regardless of the time of day.
At least you can look at the World Map and know where the sun is.
Can't wait to see
#Starliner
out at SLC-41 later today. Melanie and the CCA and Pad teams take great care of the spacecraft, ensuring cargo, Rosie, and soon our
@Commercial_Crew
astronauts are safe and have a comfy ride to and from
@Space_Station
We're ready to roll Starliner and
#AtlasV
to the Space Launch Complex-41 launchpad today!
Starliner System Engineer Melanie Weber leads crew and cargo in the run-up to launch and pivots to the pad team lead for launch day. She says the team is giving
#OFT2
their all.
From the blog:
“The integrated teams between Starliner and ISS worked extremely well together this week to finalize and safely execute the docked hotfire sequence,” said [FD Chloe] Mehring, who will lead the Starliner flight control team in the upcoming undocking from the [ISS].
During today's docked hot fire test,
#Starliner
thrusters performed at peak thrust rating values, and the helium system remained stable. Data will be reviewed and included in flight rationale for the Crew Flight Test undocking from
@Space_Station
and return to Earth.
More:
#Starliner
has entered a planned quiescent phase while docked to the
@space_station
, which means its systems were powered down just like they would be during a long-duration mission.
📷:
@AstroSamantha
The results are in and after an extensive review of the mission and our readiness, we’re GO to proceed with launch preparations, targeting a late May 6 EDT/early May 7 UTC launch!
The Flight Test Readiness Review for
@NASA
’s
@BoeingSpace
Crew Flight Test mission to the
@Space_Station
has concluded.
Teams are "go" for launch at 10:34pm ET May 6 from SLC-41.
Tune in at 4:30pm ET for a media teleconference:
Another milestone on the road to CFT: pre-mission press events. Today we showed off
#Starliner
training facilities and the Mission Control Center. Tomorrow will be the press conferences.
Link has info on the conference - be sure to tune in!
Some answers for you,
@DJSnM
(thread)
Patch is not a SpaceX design; the cargo mission patches are designed by the NASA Transportation Integration Office lead for the mission. In this case, Sarah Gibelyou.
Sarah's concept was turned into artwork by Logan Goodson, JSC graphic arts
Congratulations to the GNC group on hanging the plaque for Artemis I, with FDO and CDH holding the ladder!
As Pegasus Flight, Rick LaBrode, the Artemis I Lead
@NASAFltDirector
said, this mission was a huge success thanks to all of the teams supporting ops of Orion, SLS, and EGS.
From mission control,
@NASAArtemis
's flight control team at
@NASA_Johnson
has overall responsibility for flight operations from booster ignition to splashdown. Get to know the team that will monitor
#Artemis
I during its flight test as it sails into orbit.
The
@NASAFltDirector
class of 2018 continues to knock out their certifications. Today Pooja Jesrani joined the ranks of certified Flight Directors as "Unity Flight."
She's now 3 hours into her first solo shift at the helm of
@Space_Station
.
In addition to the
@BoeingSpace
OFT-2 patch, here is our Boeing Mission Operations team’s OFT-2 patch. Thanks to
@KSCartist
for OFT-2 & OFT patch designs.
Congratulations to Nicole McElroy,
@NASAFltDirector
104. Officially worked her first solo shift today and will now always be known by her call sign, Vista Flight.
Today, flight controllers working under
@Saturn_Flight
will perform the first launch of humans into space controlled from
@NASA_Johnson
Mission Control since STS-135 in 2011. Tomorrow will be the first docking of a crewed spacecraft controlled from MCC since STS-135.
Rest easy knowing that the lights on
@Space_Station
and in the Mission Controls of Houston & Huntsville are still on. We continue to conduct amazing off-Earth science and prep for 3 EVAs between Jan 23 & Feb 2 (2 US, 1 Russian)
おめでとう!A great series of successes. HTV missions have been key for ISS resupply and growth for the past several years.
Learn more about HTV and its history here:
Our whole family sat in front of the TV this morning to watch (without being forced). More
@ISS_Research
on the way to
@Space_Station
and the 68th landing of a rocket back on Earth. Amazing.
Congrats to
@SpaceX
. Now, let's dock that cargo Dragon for the first time!
Don’t take this for granted. I have a hard time convincing my kids to watch a rocket launch to ISS because it is something they have known all their life. This is in fact an amazing feat of human engineering.
#NASA
#SpaceX
After having this book on my shelf for way too long, I finally got up the nerve to read it. It was emotionally tough to read but I'm so glad I did. The stories, the memories, the thoughtful way it was presented... A very well done work.
Next I need to get up to Hemphill.
Contact and capture, docking confirmed. At 9:29am ET, the
@Roscosmos
Nauka science module arrived at the Earth-facing side of the
@Space_Station
's Russian segment:
Flight controllers aren’t monitoring only the
@Space_Station
tonight — they’re also keeping an eye on Santa’s sleigh! 🎅 Happy holidays from Mission Control, where teams work tirelessly 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 🎄
Something we don’t have much history with in
@NASA_Johnson
Mission Control - being on call and receiving a call from the
@Space_Station
@NASAFltDirector
saying that the crews are getting into their return vehicles and we need to report to console too. Great teamwork yesterday.
Yesterday,
@NASA_Astronauts
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams activated Safe Haven procedures and sheltered inside
#Starliner
when crews learned of space debris near
@Space_Station
.
Starliner stood ready to undock and return Wilmore and Williams to Earth if needed, but the debris
"...We all have to act as one. One in terms of being there for the safety of the crew, the safety of the vehicle, and mission success."
Learn how Pooja Jesrani, flight director of the
@Space_Station
, chose her team name, Unity, for
#AAPIHeritageMonth
:
Our team along with the SpaceX team and the ISS crew all worked together to safely navigate Dragon in for a docking at the port on top of the Harmony module this morning. 45 days docked and then we’ll send it home with lots of science samples for study.
The
@SpaceX
#Dragon
cargo craft docked to the Harmony module's space-facing port at 7:39am ET today delivering new solar arrays, science experiments, and cargo replenishing the Exp 68 crew.
Expedition 67 astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the
@Space_Station
entered
#Starliner
for the first time today. The crew welcomed the spacecraft, began unloading the cargo and honored the teams working to make
#OFT2
happen.
Making progress towards “our turn.” Happy to see Cargo Dragon has docked and Soyuz on its way.
@Space_Station
is a busy place!
✅ Crew-7 return
✅ SpaceX CRS-30 launch
✅ Soyuz MS-25 launch
1. Soyuz MS-24 return
2. CRS-30 return
3. Russian EVA
4. Move Crew-8
5.
@BoeingSpace
CFT