COMMAND performance For Mission Control teams, the excitement starts after a satellite is launched By Bill Seil Arocket launch is a powerful experience—flames shooting from the engines as the vehicle roars away from the pad in an explosion of light and sound and streaks into the sky on its way to the darkness of space. For the Boeing Mission Control team, the excitement doesn’t end there. Far from it. From their posts in the Mission Control Center at Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems in El Segundo, Calif., they are just beginning the task of guiding and deploying the satellite to its final orbit. “The launch phase is the most severe environment that a satellite is likely to encounter,” said Eric Roth, who serves as Attitude Control Subsystem lead in Mission Control for a government satellite program. “You typically lose spacecraft telemetry, so there’s always that question of what you’re going to see at that moment when you first reacquire the signal after the satellite has separated from the rocket.” For Vera Horoschak, a Telemetry and Command Digital Subsystem lead in Mission Control, that moment produces a combination of feelings. “Mixed emotions of relief and exuberant elation can fill the room immediately after the acquisition of signal,” she said. “The mission team members will all smile—with some exhaustion— then regroup to continue supporting the next tasks.” Combined, Roth and Horoschak have participated in nearly 20 satellite missions. In each case, they have been part of a team of professionals led by the Boeing mission director to bring the mission to a successful conclusion, when the orbiting satellite is operating as planned and the customer officially takes delivery from Boeing. It’s a process that can take months to complete. 46 BOEING FRONTIERS / DECEMBER 2013–JANUARY 2014
Frontiers December 2013—January 2014 Issue
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