Rick LaBrode, Lead Flight Director for the Flight Control Team

I was responsible for building the mission timeline, developing procedures and flight rules that guide spacecraft operations, training the flight control teams, and carrying out the plan for the Artemis I mission. I have worked in Mission Control for 37 years.

The flight control team uses real-time telemetry to command the spacecraft as it carries out flight test objectives through the mission. Flight controllers also monitor technical and safety aspects throughout the mission and re-plan the mission as necessary if circumstances require a change in trajectory.

Absolutely. When things don’t go as planned, the team looks to the flight director to weigh options. We understand the priorities that have been given to us from the programs or ESD (Exploration Systems Development). We then weigh the options based on inputs from the flight control team, their MPSRs (multipurpose support rooms), and the engineering team. We ultimately have the responsibility to decide how to proceed and what’s our next step.

Before the Artemis I mission, all the performance data we had were test data or models. The Artemis I mission informed all the models and taught us how Orion, the spacecraft on the Artemis I mission, performs in the deep-space environment. All that information is knowledge we gained, and we will update our procedures and documentation to make the data more accurately predict how the vehicle is going to operate. This will make us smarter controllers for when it is time to put our crew on the vehicle.

The whole experience of leaving low-Earth orbit and being a part of the first step of a long-term plan to expand our exploration of the universe.