Read Online Highways Into Space: A first-hand account of the beginnings of the human space program by Glynn S. Lunney - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Glynn S. Lunney
Tags: General Non-Fiction
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equally well for the later Mission Control Center in Houston – was the command center at the hub of this network of facilities. It also received the telemetry and A/G voice from the local facilities at the Cape. The MCC was also supported by the Real Time Computing Center (RTCC) at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland. This computing center’s primary function was to process raw radar data and provide position, velocity and other derived parameters to the MCC, in support of the “FIDO” and “Retro” positions. The telemetry processing was not performed by the RTCC but was routed directly from the analog telemetry ground system to display devices, such as meters, strip charts or discrete events lights for review by the spacecraft systems controllers.
The implementation of the RTCC was a landmark case of multi-organizational cooperation. It involved the mission analysis people for the requirements for analytical tools and software formulations. Carl Huss and I represented the needs of the console operators for the definition of the content of displays, limit lines, abort mode actions, propulsion maneuver targets, mission events to sequence the programs and other operational parameters for MCC monitoring and control. Since the computers at the time were severely limited by memory capacity, balancing a useful requirement set within that constraint became a daily struggle. The management of the implementation was performed by Langley employees like Jim Donegan who eventually moved to GSFC to oversee the RTCC work. IBM won the contract for the hardware and software work. Lynn Dunseith, originally from Lewis like me, was the STG interface to the implementation team at GSFC and Lynn performed this role superbly well into the Shuttle flight program. Modern observers will be amused at the memory size constraint but the system was at the edge of the state of the art at the time. It was a regular cause for management review and a real test of the STG, GSFC and IBM team. But, the effective interaction of all the involved parties was driven by a uniform dedication to the same goals and was a tribute to the competence and professionalism of this team.
The network stations, referred to as remote sites, would be in contact with the spacecraft for a maximum of five minutes, often less, each time the spacecraft passed in their vicinity. The remote sites were capable of receiving telemetry and voice, sending commands and tracking the spacecraft by radar. The stations were also manned by a small cadre of operators whose job was to function like a mini-MCC, for the time the spacecraft was in contact with their station. In effect, they were the eyes and ears and more of MCC as the spacecraft traced its ground path over the globe. The remote stations sent data back to MCC after the pass on a teletype system, but it was mostly a manual capture of a standard set of parameters plus news of any anomalies or significant items. It was tedious and slow, but the guys made it work as well as it could. Voice quality between the MCC and the remote stations was mixed – some were good, but some had a habit of dropping out at inopportune times. The orbit was such that the spacecraft would traverse and flyover most of the globe in about twenty-four hours.
We had thirteen of these stations and the manning, training and logistics were major tasks in themselves. There were usually three to five operators called flight controllers at each one of these stations. The tasks were monitoring of the onboard systems, the health of the crew, a capcom and sometimes a designated leader of the team for sites involved in critical mission coverage such as retrofire. This effort was a significant training and logistics problem to manage. Gene Kranz earned his spurs and more in the orchestration of this global infrastructure of intelligence gathering and real time response to the frequent problems of early space flight.
The Bermuda station was
The implementation of the RTCC was a landmark case of multi-organizational cooperation. It involved the mission analysis people for the requirements for analytical tools and software formulations. Carl Huss and I represented the needs of the console operators for the definition of the content of displays, limit lines, abort mode actions, propulsion maneuver targets, mission events to sequence the programs and other operational parameters for MCC monitoring and control. Since the computers at the time were severely limited by memory capacity, balancing a useful requirement set within that constraint became a daily struggle. The management of the implementation was performed by Langley employees like Jim Donegan who eventually moved to GSFC to oversee the RTCC work. IBM won the contract for the hardware and software work. Lynn Dunseith, originally from Lewis like me, was the STG interface to the implementation team at GSFC and Lynn performed this role superbly well into the Shuttle flight program. Modern observers will be amused at the memory size constraint but the system was at the edge of the state of the art at the time. It was a regular cause for management review and a real test of the STG, GSFC and IBM team. But, the effective interaction of all the involved parties was driven by a uniform dedication to the same goals and was a tribute to the competence and professionalism of this team.
The network stations, referred to as remote sites, would be in contact with the spacecraft for a maximum of five minutes, often less, each time the spacecraft passed in their vicinity. The remote sites were capable of receiving telemetry and voice, sending commands and tracking the spacecraft by radar. The stations were also manned by a small cadre of operators whose job was to function like a mini-MCC, for the time the spacecraft was in contact with their station. In effect, they were the eyes and ears and more of MCC as the spacecraft traced its ground path over the globe. The remote stations sent data back to MCC after the pass on a teletype system, but it was mostly a manual capture of a standard set of parameters plus news of any anomalies or significant items. It was tedious and slow, but the guys made it work as well as it could. Voice quality between the MCC and the remote stations was mixed – some were good, but some had a habit of dropping out at inopportune times. The orbit was such that the spacecraft would traverse and flyover most of the globe in about twenty-four hours.
We had thirteen of these stations and the manning, training and logistics were major tasks in themselves. There were usually three to five operators called flight controllers at each one of these stations. The tasks were monitoring of the onboard systems, the health of the crew, a capcom and sometimes a designated leader of the team for sites involved in critical mission coverage such as retrofire. This effort was a significant training and logistics problem to manage. Gene Kranz earned his spurs and more in the orchestration of this global infrastructure of intelligence gathering and real time response to the frequent problems of early space flight.
The Bermuda station was
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