Advanced Automation in Space Shuttle Mission Control

The Mission Control Center (MCC) at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston is certainly one of America's foremost technological achievements. From the early days of Apollo through Skylab to the Space Shuttle program, Mission Control has played an integral part in our ability to send humans into space and return them safely. Up until three years ago the technology of the MCC had remained virtually unchanged; flight controllers were supported by minimal tools and were expected through ponderous amounts of diligence and training to monitor the health of the country's leading aerospace products. The Real Time Data System (RTDS) Project was undertaken in 1987 to introduce new concepts and technologies for advanced automation into the MCC environment. The project's emphasis is on producing advanced near-operational prototype systems that are developed using a rapid, interactive method and are used by flight controllers during actual Shuttle missions. In most cases the prototype applications have been of such quality and utility that they have been converted to production status. A key ingredient has been an integrated team of software engineers and flight controllers working together to quickly evolve the demonstration systems.