yee@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) (07/17/88)
Barbara Selby
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. July 15, 1988
Carolynne White
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
RELEASE: 88-101
SHUTTLE EMERGENCY MISSION CONTROL CENTER MOVES TO WHITE SANDS
NASA's Space Shuttle Emergency Mission Control Center
(EMCC), formerly located at the Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md., has been moved to NASA's Tracking and Data Relay
Satellite Ground Terminal in White Sands, N.M.
In the past, an emergency evacuation of the Mission Control
Center (MCC) at Johnson Space Center, Houston, would have sent a
14-member flight control team to Goddard's Greenbelt facility.
There they would have maintained communications with the Shuttle,
calculated data necessary for immediate return of the crew and
relayed that data to the Shuttle commander. Now, the MCC flight
control team will fly to White Sands and conduct the same
operations from that site.
THE Goddard Network Director will communicate with the
Shuttle commander through Goddard's ground network or the
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) while the MCC
team flies to New Mexico. "GSFC, in concert with the Shuttle
commander, assumes mission control during the flight control
team's transition from JSC to White Sands," said Morse.
From White Sands, the MCC team has communications with the
Shuttle crew through Goddard's ground network or the TDRSS.
In addition to the improved voice and data capability
provided by the ground and satellite links at White Sands, the
new site is physically closer to JSC. Time required to transfer
mission control is shorter, according to Morse.
"The weather also is better at White Sands," he said. "If a
hurricane hits JSC and everyone flies to Goddard, the storm is
just as likely to sweep east and hit Goddard. But hurricanes
tend not to hit the Southwest."