xxvi Table 3. (continued) Task-Specific Positions Robotics Robotics Officer (ROBO) Mobile Servicing System Systems (Systems) Mobile Servicing System Task (Task) Robotics Officer (ROBO) Spacewalks Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Systems (EVA Systems) Tasks (EVA Tasks) Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) EVA Visiting Vehicles Visiting Vehicles Officer (VVO) Automated Rendezvous Officer (ARO) Visiting Vehicle Dynamics (VV DYN) Visiting Vehicles Officer (VVO) Integration for Visiting Vehicles Integration and Systems Engineer (ISE) Integration and Systems Engineer (ISE) * Initially Russian Interface Officer until additional partners added when it was changed to Remote Interface Officer. SPARTAN operates the external thermal systems and ETHOS controls the internal. †† The origin of this name is less straightforward than the other positions. The letters do not spell out words they are actually standard mathematical symbols: Momentum (H), Attitude (A), Angular Rate (w), Kinetic Energy (K), Moment of Inertia (I) in Table 3, but still an important part of the team, is the payload operations director who is the flight director equivalent for the science operations that are run out of the Payload Operations Integration Control Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The FCT has evolved over the life of the ISS. Between the first element launch (1998) and the first crew (Expedition 1) taking up a permanent residence in 2000, the FCT only worked one 9-hour shift a day, Monday-Friday, to check on the systems, as limited as they were. Outside of this window, the station duty officer and flight director monitored the systems, calling in the full team when needed to support a major dynamic activity or to deal with an anomaly. With astronauts and cosmonauts on board beginning in 2000, the core team supported 24/7, 365 days a year. Two Gemini officers monitored the six core systems to relieve burnout of the team during quiet times, typically during crew sleep or off-duty weekends. All consoles and the Multipurpose Support Room were staffed during major events such as shuttle missions or spacewalks. After assembly was completed, it was possible to reduce the number of flight controllers since systems were now fully mature and configurations changed less frequently. Several disciplines were merged in 2010, and most positions do not have backroom support, except for major activities. On the weekends or when the crew is asleep, non-core systems personnel can go home, albeit staying on-call for problems. Flight and ground control are always on console. As with the Space Station, Mission Control Also Evolves The Blue FCR was the original control room for the ISS. Before the ISS, this control room was the Special Vehicle Operations room from which single mission projects, such as the Hubble Space Telescope servicing flights or specific payload launches, would be operated. Later, the ISS team moved into the FCR-1, which was the original FCR built at Houston’s Mission Control Center in 1965. Apollo 7, Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Skylab, some Space Shuttle missions, and the ISS have all been operated from FCR-1. Flight controllers communicate with each other via voice loops. Although the control room always appears serene and peaceful, chaos is generally reigning in the ear of an operator. Each operator wears
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