It was so exciting to be in the Control
Center and on the Comm Link sitting right next to the Flight Director,
as everything was getting going in the morning. I could hear the
voice link with the crew in the shuttle simulator, the space-walkers in
the pool, and the controllers in both shuttle and station control centers
at once. At first it sounded chaotic, but after a while I perceived
that it is really very organized.
The flight controllers monitor all the
space shuttle systems, and one astronaut talks directly to the crew.
Today it was Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic female to go into space.
She was good at summarizing and synthesizing all of the information to
the crew in space, so I found myself listening to her the most.
Ellen Ochoa and Chuck Shaw
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