Mission Control Is Deserted

Picture of the Day for 2/26/2014. My sister Robynne and I took a tram tour of the Johnson Space Center. Our first stop was at historic mission control. The tour guide there was pointing out the television screen in the corner of the room that shows the current mission control room where the International Space Station (ISS) missions are monitored. According to the guide, the camera is focused on the two most important people in the room- the flight director and the capcom (the only person who speaks directly to the astronauts on the station). When the tour guide pointed this out to us, there were actually two people on the screen. After the tour guide was done with his spiel, he asked if there were any questions. One woman pointed up to the screen (pictured below) and asked what happened when the two most crucial people disappeared. That made everyone laugh. The tour guide assured us all that these two people have mobile headsets and that mission control had not been abandoned.


After our group was back on the tram and headed to the next destination, the tour guide called the tram operators to assure us the flight director and capcom had returned to their seats and all was well with mission control. That made us laugh too.