As four astronauts travel toward a flyby of the Moon, their journey is closely monitored by mission control experts who are utilizing advanced technology and lessons from the Apollo program, which took place 50 years ago.
At the Johnson Space Center in Houston, a team of engineers and technicians observed over 100 computer screens on Friday as the Artemis astronauts, aboard the Orion capsule, approached their rendezvous with Earth’s natural satellite on the third day of their high-stakes mission.
The central hub of the operation is the White Flight Control Room, where flight directors Judd Frieling and Rick Henfling oversee all activities as the space travelers prepare to slingshot around the Moon on Monday using its gravitational pull before returning home.
Nearby, the CAPCOM (Capsule Communicator) station is located, responsible for direct communication with the astronauts. This time, the CAPCOM is Stan Love, a former astronaut who relays instructions, flight updates, and decisions from the flight directors to the four astronauts: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, all from the United States, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen.
“The team in mission control is very well trained, and experts in their systems that they’re watching over on the spacecraft,” said NASA spokesperson Kylie Clem, with the busy control room visible behind her.
“They work for a period of years to earn and graduate essentially into this role and working in the front room,” Clem added.
History
Houston has always been a significant location in space history.
On July 20, 1969, mission control received a message that reassured millions of Americans: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
This was the voice of Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission. He later uttered what has become one of history’s most famous quotes: ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.’
It was also in this location that NASA heard the anxious and oft-misquoted words “Ah, Houston, we’ve had a problem,” spoken by astronaut Jim Lovell on April 13, 1970, during the Apollo 13 mission. An oxygen tank had exploded in their spacecraft, forcing them to abort their lunar landing plans.
“All of our mission control rooms are all in this building,” said Clem.
“There are different wings that have been modified over the years, but it’s in the same building essentially as the historic Apollo mission control room, the International Space Station flight control room, and this room that we’re in now.”
Physics doesn’t change
The Artemis 2 mission is the first crewed mission to the Moon since the last Apollo flight in 1972. This time, the astronauts will not land, only fly by it.
Since then, of course, the technology has changed dramatically.
NASA Orion Program Manager Howard Hu mentioned that among other things, this involves much greater computing capability, allowing the crew to interact more with the spacecraft’s systems. He also noted an improvement in sensor capability — “the ability for us to know exactly where we are in space.”
Hu said the precision with which NASA can now perform rendezvous and docking, for instance, “is a huge step in technology.”
Additionally, while the Apollo capsules had room for three astronauts, the Orion craft carries four, as equipment was made to be more compact without a loss of functionality.
The Apollo vessels were cone-shaped to maximize stability as the craft sped back to Earth through the atmosphere. Orion kept this feature.
“But physics doesn’t change. The teardrop shape is very efficient from the aerodynamics perspective,” said Hu.
“The Apollo giants were just very good technical engineering experts,” he said.
“So we learned a lot from them in terms of the things they learned and we leveraged off of that.”
