Flight Directors (1970s)

[Music] go guidance go DPS go command the mission operations control room at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston what you are watching is a simulation of the first space shuttle flight now scheduled for later this year this is a rehearsal for the real thing a flight control team of some 75 people will work here around the clock from just before launch at the Kennedy Space Center Florida to touchdown on a dry lake bed near the Mojave Desert with a request okay these rehearsals are taken very seriously by the flight control team each person knows that they may be called upon to make quick accurate decisions under a lot of pressure the simulations which are done repeatedly help them to learn to deal with nearly every contingency colia Houston through gold stone for 6 and2 minutes okay Hank he you loud and clear Pete Frank is chief of the flight control division simulations are very interesting uh events that occur here in the control center they're first of all say they're very realistic very high fidelity simulations uh especially from the flight controllers Viewpoint the flight crew of course don't get the same physiological Sensations that they would get in space flight and their but their data and everything that's presented to them in the simulator is very realistic but here in the control center uh of course we don't have any peculiar physiological things to to have to simulate so by presenting the data on the uh on the display system and having uh the rest of the system respond in a way that it would would also respond during a flight to a a flight controller here it can get so realistic that it there are times when you actually forget your simulating and and you become so involved and so wrapped up in the simulation it it really uh sometimes feels like it's the real Mission it's it's that High Fidelity thingd the youngest member of the flight control team is 19-year-old Jackie Parker she is working toward becoming a data processing system flight controller with responsibility for the space shuttle computer system I don't think the toughest part is the mission itself because I think by the time we get to the mission we will be very well prepared and we have such we have learned and built up such confidence in our team um that that it that is not the most difficult I don't feel right now I think is the most difficult it's the learning the system is very complex it's not the type of job where you go to work you are have a project you finish a project and you get a Pat in the back or a SL on the hand or whatever and you're done with the project and then you go into another one it's not at all like that your training process is never ending you're always learning you're always studying and I think that's it I don't get a we don't get a med feedback we we just don't and it's very hard um and that we're so used to instant rewards and and things that we do and it's not the case and it's just a process of accepting that and continuing on and learning without the instant feedback there will be little room for error during the missions so when a lead flight director detects a problem in the simulations he lets people know about it guys better start getting these things on Mission notes I'm getting five requests from five operators and the capcom's trying to talk and we're trying to listen to other ground we're not going to get there gentlemen start writing them down trying to really find out NASA's flight control team preparing now for the critical part they will play in upcoming space shuttle missions T and data whenever you are okay