Full STS-93 Mission Control Loops - Draft

Some of the data in the above video I don’t believe to be correct. I was going to hold on publishing this until I could get it all sorted, but I think the community may be able to help. Certain things like the countdown calls are likely from the ground, not the vehicle so I just need to know what position to tie those too. Some calls overlap and I’m missing.
If you see an edit that needs to be made, please help out! Leave the change in the comments below and I’ll work to update the video with all of the notes. Together I hope we can create the best STS-93 mission control loops video on the Internet!
- Jami
STS-93 was one of the most dynamic successful shuttle flights, ever. From the moment the vehicle lifted off the pad things started to go wrong, but the trained NASA Mission Control operators kept their cool, worked the issues and just over 8 minutes after liftoff the Shuttle crew made it safely to space.
To understand exactly what happened, Wayne Hale has a great blog post here: waynehale.word... This is a video with the live launch broadcast video, transcribed operator comms and the operator audio. Enjoy!

[@Durrdalus]

FDO/TRAJ - Flight Dynamics Officer/Trajectory officer GPO - Guidance and Procedures Officer GC - Ground Controller PROP - Propulsion engineer GNC - Guidance, navigation, and controls systems engineer MMACS - Maintenance, Mechanical Arm and Crew Systems officer EGIL - Electrical generation and integrated lighting systems engineer DPS - Data processing system engineer P/L - Payload officer FDO - Flight Dynamics Officer EECOM - Electrical, Environmental, and Consumables Manager INCO - Integrated communications officer FD - Flight Director CAPCOM - Spacecraft communicator PDRS - Payload deployment and retrieval system PAO - Public Affairs Officer MOD - Mission Operations Directorate BOOSTER - Booster systems engineer SURGEON - Flight Surgeon BACKROOM - Teams of flight controllers focused on specific functions and acting as support crew for MCC PILOT - Pilot CMDR - Commander

[@zapfanzapfan]

I'm amazed that anyone can make sense of all that overlapping chatter in real time. I guess they are made of the right stuff :-)

[@Bill_N_ATX]

zapfanzapfan, they practiced, and practiced, and practiced. Over and over again. Till it was damn near muscle memory. There wasn’t a survivable error that they didn’t practice many, many times. They also knew their systems in great detail. Finally, they averaged from simply smart to brilliant. Great engineers.

[@patrickream5999]

Once you train enough, it becomes second nature to listen for information that's relevant to you and ignore the rest.

[@fcgHenden]

Off nominal flight. Great commander. Great pilot. Great ground control... These folks are just another level of calm flying on top of a not perfectly controlled explosion. We need more of this.

[@TMRO]

In my opinion STS-93 shows NASA at its finest. Sending humans to space while working issues calmly in real time. Then after all of that controlled chaos, a brilliantly successful mission!

[@krystalgardiner5591]

Reminds me of my dad, RIP. He worked for NASA with the Hubble telescope and Wind Polar.. he used to jokingly talk like this all the time during normal conversations lol I love you Dad!

[@Bill_N_ATX]

I wish I had time to go through and translate all of the callouts to “English” and explain what it all meant. Here you have the nominal mundane called out alongside some mission critical failures with no panic or exclamation. Just clear concise data establishing the data flows and conclusions.

[@philb5593]

Thanks for all the work you put into this. It was one crazy ascent.

[@TMRO]

This one was a bit of a passion project for me. -Jami

[@therealAZLN]

All of those guys have absolute GOAT status. Ice water in their veins.

[@wtaione]

I can't watch Columbia without tears.

[@stansmith1268]

I don’t care what anybody says, these guys and gals were the best of the best. It is just hard to get excited about anything else besides nasa

[@angelbats1]

Small Correction - at 08:25, the "handing over to TDRS" call was made by GC, not INCO. Reason I know is because I work with the guy at Mission Control today and would recognize that voice anywhere.

[@oubrioko]

Concur 👍🏿

[@Miata822]

Yikes! Well said. Thanks for posting. This was great to hear and see.

[@goose6.070]

Concur

[@SimplySpace]

Well, looks like I've found a new morning alarm to replace the Boeing autopilot disconnect sound.

[@Unbaguettable]

can't hear the "yikes, you bet, concur" without immediately thinking of NSF. great video

[@CaseyFinSF]

That was Really Really Cool! Ive never heard the control chatter like that...amazing stuff!

[@AaronHuslage]

I've watched it about 6 times now. Amazing.

[@apollosaturn5]

I knew mission control was critical for crew safety and mission success. But until you hear what goes on in the background it really sinks in how critical they are. Astronaut Alan Bean said it best: "Thank God for mission control".

[@nathancommissariat3518]

Watching this again today after it was recommended to me :) Quite remarkable visuals and even more incredible ground controllers. Awesome

[@hectarea1226]

World class engineering here. COMMS at its finest

[@yohhhanna3326]

Idk if you're aware but Cmdr Collins referred to this video in her autobiography!!

[@PrairieFalcon]

It's a great book! MRS-93R ''R for 'Recycle'!''.

[@apollosaturn5]

I learned that the LOX cut-off/shut down sensors are located, not in the LOX tank itself, but in the LOX pipe that feeds the main engines downstream. If the turbopumps on those engines had run dry, the resulting cavitation would had destroyed the pumps, the engines and the vehicle itself. That was more of a closed call than I thought.

[@jorge9312]

Gracias TMRO, nunca imagine la cantidad de datos en apenas diez minutos de vuelo. No tendras algo igual de los vuelos del Apollo, seria alucinante. Saludos desde Badajoz.

[@WarblesOnALot]

G'day, Yay Team ! Thanks for posting this...; I found it FASCINATING...! Mad Scientists Is, as Mad Scientists Does... ! ;-p Ciao !

[@TMRO]

Me too. I love hearing the calm during the chaos. It’s awe inspiring.

[@tom95521]

Takes special people to with lots of caffeine to communicate effectively at such a fast pace. Probably totally automated now (humans too slow).

[@TMRO]

To be fair, a mission controller doesn’t need to listen to all of the voice loops concurrently. They will only have select channels in their ears, not necessarily everything we heard here.

[@SimplySpace]

Wow, they call the LOX low-level cut and underspeed immediately

[@sidv4615]

I mean yeah if you think bout it once they're in orbit you don't have anything which can't be predicted, BTW love your channel man.

[@tracyrreed]

LOX low level cutoff... Sounds like they just barely had enough LOX to get there and still ended up with a 15ft/s under speed but it was not worth correcting with an OMS burn? And what was the failure earlier? They said transient on an electrical bus which threw some things offline? What caused it and did that contribute to the underspeed?

[@TheTechOnline]

I believe the issue that caused the underspeed was that LOX was being lost through a hole in one ME nozzles. It was fixed on the ground by inserting a gold pin to one of the cooling channels in said nozzle which inadvertently got shot out when the engines were started. This mean LOX was being lost through the broken channel causing the MEs from shutting down early due to low levels in the tanks. This early shut down meant the correct orbit speed wasn't reached.

[@terezatomcova2793]

Harrison Cassidy It was hydrogen being lost through the broken channel. The engine then detected low combustion chamber pressure, and compensated by consuming more LOX.

[@BryTee]

According to the Mission Operations Director, Wayne Hale's Blog waynehale.wordpress.com/2014/10/26/sts-93-we-dont-need-any-more-of-those he says if the backup computer had not come online (due to the primary losing power) the LOX would have continued to flow at a high rate, and it's possible that might have not only depleted the LOX too much but also caused temperature to get too high, but it decided to reduce the LOX flow. Another thing mentioned in the blog was that the LOX tank had almost 900lb under what it should have been, which didn't help, but typically they have 3000lbs over at MECO, so 900lbs low wouldn't normally be an issue (well... unless you've a leak, so pressure is down, and decide to burn more LOX to compensate).

[@sidv4615]

@@BryTee This was the lowest inclination launch possible (KSC) but the payload was the heaviest the orbiter ever carried.

[@canyonblue737-8]

they fixed it, they just didn't need to fix the small underspend with an OMS 1 burn, ie. an immediate OMS burn right then and there. they made it up with a later already planned OMS burn.

[@technowarriorstv]

stayed up all night playing KSP

[@YukonK9]

They say...all the stuff happens in the backroom...

[@ashokiimc]

Is it the commander who says that “GLS (Ground Launch Sequencer) is go for main engine start”?

[@JavanHamiltonTV]

Nope. It’s actually the GLS engineer. For different launches over the years, you’d hear different voices making those calls; Janiene Pape, George Thomas and Barbara Kennedy are three names I know off the top of my head. This one is Barbara Kennedy.

[@sidv4615]

​@@JavanHamiltonTV yeah that's what i thought. Whenever i think of GLS giving the Go for auto-sequence/main engine start, i always hear her voice in my mind

[@jorge9312]

Una pasada las conversaciones control tierra y los astronautas

[@Peyethon]

10:19 when a rocket explodes on NASASpaceflight

[@Heath-Gallagher]

this flight alone came very close to catastrophe from the gold bullet ejection causing a hydrogen leak,in wayne hales words "it would have been loss of vehicle and crew,promptly"

[@canyonblue737-8]

It's like your engine running out of gas and shutting off the moment you roll up to the pump. Just in time. Yikes.

[@damienkramer]

Just like the LOX flow, this video cut off too soon

[@JamesJohnson-ok1hn]

i think this was the flight that they discovered there was corrosion at the jets of the nozzle that was determined to be caused by the fuel exiting??

[@sidv4615]

I dont think so.

[@nathancommissariat3518]

Whew.

[@CaseyFinSF]

Was this the flight with the tether?

[@zachk302]

Chandra

[@nolancain8792]

That was STS-75

[@kidpagronprimsank05]

@@nolancain8792 Also 46

[@JamesJohnson-ok1hn]

where did you guys find that ??

[@TMRO]

We made it based on the comms audio

[@hoghogwild]

It's previously been done, kzbin.info/www/bejne/gmLCqH6Yac5_Z68 The video has been available over at NASASpaceFlight.com for many years as part of their excellent "L-2" subscription service.

[@sidv4615]

@@hoghogwild its quite expensive , last time i checked it was probably $100 for a year

[@hoghogwild]

@@sidv4615 Yes it is. $20 for 2 months, $50 for 6 and $90 for a year. If you are an insider/source, veteran, student people like myself donate subscriptions. If someone was experiencing some sort of hardship, Chris B the forum owner would find a way of financing.

[@sidv4615]

@@hoghogwild thanks for the good work you’re doing man. Really appreciate it. Have a nice day.

[@jeff122670]

Lots of errors on this. Take a look again.

[@SeligTiles]

This is a copy of something that has been on YT for at least 6 years that came from nasaspaceflight.com

[@TMRO]

Not quite. This is a full remastering from the flight control loops. The NSF version had problems with the transcription and didn’t include the entire messaging from the beginning. This is their version: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nGPGkJt7jpZspJY For our version we reached out to NASA directly. ✨Jami

[@sidv4615]

@@TMRO Ignore the haters Jami, Your Version is very very Good. I've never ever seen anything like this, I mean the Quality, Fantastic.

[@SeligTiles]

@@TMRO there is nothing unique about this audio. The audio nsf has is from nasa directly. Again, this was released more than 6 years ago.