


Shuttle Mission Control: Flight Controller Stories and Photos, 1981-1992
by Marianne Dyson
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Author's Note 2021: Why I wrote this book
While sorting materials for donation to the Johnson Space Center Archive at UHCL, I came across a manuscript I wrote nearly thirty years ago, titled Shuttle Mission Control.
I was in a unique position to write that story. I had the privilege of serving as a flight controller for the first five Space Transportation System (STS) flights. I had joined NASA in 1979, coming in on the "ground floor" of the Shuttle Program. Six years and five flights later, I still loved my job, but with a husband who was also a flight controller, and no affordable childcare for unpredictable all-night shifts, I decided to find a more "normal" job until our children were older. Hernandez Engineering offered a perfect part-time position helping "customers" fly their experiments on the Shuttle and prepare for Space Station Freedom.
I was excited to be part of the commercial space era!
But the Challenger accident in 1986 changed everything. Commercial and military use of the Shuttle stopped. Freedom was subsumed into the Shuttle/Mir Program (announced in 1992) and morphed into the International Space Station. I pivoted from working in the space program to writing about it. In the decades since, I've won top awards for my children's books, coauthored books with Buzz Aldrin, and educated hundreds of thousands of people about space via writing and speaking. I documented my personal story in my memoir, A Passion for Space: Adventures of a Pioneering Female NASA Flight Controller (Springer, 2015). But the stories I collected from other controllers in 1992 remain mostly untold.
I drafted Shuttle Mission Control in 1990-92 when books were printed on paper and sold in bookstores. My agent and I collected a stack of rejection letters calling it too "narrowly focused" to sell enough copies to make publishers a profit. So the book languished in my closet all this time. Now, armed with decades of experience in publishing, no longer required to satisfy some gatekeeper's profit margin, and with the help of my writing community (special thanks to Tom B and Lindsey!), I am publishing it myself.
Scanning, color-correcting, and cropping faded photos and slides proved difficult, as was reformatting/merging old text files (from 5.25-inch floppy disks!) and typing hand-written lists (sorry if some names are misspelled!) into a modern document. Tracking down interview subjects (sadly, at least one has died) allowed me to add (thanks, Paul!) some "where they are now" information. I also added updated the Flight Control Room data and positions, replaced/supplemented drawings with photos, and enhanced the NASA-provided generic captions with names of flight controllers pictured (thanks, Space Hipsters!).
To the lists of the first flight controllers to work each Shuttle "front room" position from STS-1 in April 1981 through STS-39 (the 40th flight, in April 1991), I added what data I could uncover about the first women/minorities using photos, contacts, and the Manned Spaceflight Operations Association (www.mannedspaceops.org) manning lists (thanks, Bill!). Flight Director Bob Castle supplied the list of flight controllers honored to hang the mission plaque after each Shuttle flight (thanks, Bob!).
The original photos/slides, references, and manuscript of Shuttle Mission Control were donated to the NASA JSC Archive at UHCL in Houston. Proceeds from sales of this book will be donated to these and other organizations/institutions/museums to help preserve more of the history of Mission Control.
Please report any errors, misspellings, or comments (keeping in mind that the interviews were conducted in 1992 and describe operations as they were at that time), via my Contacts page.
Thank you for taking the time to read about challenges faced and solutions found by flight controllers during the first decade of Shuttle operations. I hope you enjoy your visit to Shuttle Mission Control!
Table of Contents with Interview Subjects Noted
MISSION CONTROL: ACHIEVEMENT THROUGH EXCELLENCE
THE FLIGHT CONTROL ROOMS
The Bat Cave
Key Communications
Mission Operations Computers
The Human Interface
THE POSITIONS
Ground Controller - Larry Foy
Flight Dynamics Officer/Trajectory Officer - Brian Perry
Guidance Procedures/Rendezvous Officer - Will Presley and Ted Dyson
Data Processing System Engineer - Michael Darnell
Propulsion Engineer - Jim B. McDede
Extravehicular Activity Specialist - Bob Adams
Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Systems Engineer - F. Edward Trlica. Jr.
Payloads Officer - Michelle Brekke
Electrical Generation and Illumination Engineer - Mark D. Fugitt
Environmental Engineer and Consumables Manager - Jack Knight
Integrated Communications Officer - Bob Castle
Flight Director - Gene Kranz and Bob Castle
Spacecraft Communicator - Carl E. Walz
Flight Activities Officer - Carolynn Conley and Marianne Dyson
Maintenance, Mechanical, Arm, and Crew Systems Engineer - Paul Dye
Payload Deployment and Retrieval System Specialist - Ronald J. Zaguli
Booster Engineer - Franklin S. Markle, III
Mission Operations Director - Gene Kranz
Flight Surgeon - Dr. Roger Billica
Public Affairs Officer - Jeffrey E. Carr
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
APPENDIX A: MISSION PLAQUES HUNG BY FLIGHT CONTROLLERS
APPENDIX B: FLIGHT CONTROL ROOMS & FLIGHTS SUPPORTED
INDEX


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Marianne Dyson, STS-4 Entry Team FAO (NASA photo, 1982)
Who were the first women in Mission Control? Here are lists that I compiled from rosters and interviews:
