
McCall's (and Kranz's) design remained unchanged for ten years before undergoing the first of the five revisions. Icons for Mercury, Gemini and Apollo were punctuated on the emblem's lower border by four stars, each symbolizing one of the principles of Mission Control: discipline, morale, toughness, and competence.Īt the border's top was the inscription in Latin, "Res Gesta Par Excellentiam," or "Achieve through Excellence." From 'Mission Control' to 'Operations' The Greek letter Sigma ("∑"), which filled the left side of the emblem, represented the sum of the mission control team's efforts, which was further stressed by the words "Mission Control" running across the center of the design.
#Nasa houston mission control Patch#
McCall's round patch depicted a Saturn V rocket launching from the Earth as a satellite orbited the planet. I just brought it together in a way that could be reproduced nicely." "He was the one that asked me to do it, but also the one who really did most of the design. "He was very, very instrumental in ," McCall, who died in 2010, said in a NASA oral history. McCall, who had designed the Apollo 17 patch, worked for six months to develop the insignia, which he credited back to Kranz. "I do not think was surprised when I asked him to design an emblem for the Mission Control team," recalled Kranz in his memoirs, "Failure is Not an Option" (Simon & Schuster, 2000). Flight director Gene Kranz, noticing McCall in the room, waited until the respected artist took a coffee break to approach him with an idea. In December 1972, artist Bob McCall was sitting on a step in mission control, sketching the flight controllers as they tended to the last days of Apollo 17, NASA's final manned moon landing mission. The directorate's emblem represents that, while preserving artwork that dates back to end of NASA's Apollo program. The new directorate describes its mission as "to select and protect our astronauts and to plan, train and fly human spaceflight and aviation missions." The newly-established Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) now has responsibility for the astronauts' activities as well as the planning and execution of their missions.

Tours may be rerouted at a moment’s notice.HOUSTON - NASA's new "Flight Operations" emblem has a long history dating back decades.Īs displayed in mission control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Flight Operations insignia replaces the earlier "Mission Operations" logo, reflecting the merger of the flight crew and mission operations divisions. The NASA Tram Tour visits working government facilities which are subject to availability. Please monitor weather and plan accordingly.

Please note that this is an open-air tram tour.

These highly trained flight controllers have the skills needed to closely monitor and maintain increasingly complex missions and to respond to unexpected events. Flight controllers keep a constant watch on the crew’s activities and monitor spacecraft systems, crew health and safety as they check every system to ensure operations proceed as planned. With a permanent human presence aboard the International Space Station, flight control teams of experienced engineers and technicians are on duty 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Faced with the growing demands of increasingly complex missions, NASA Johnson Space Center designed and built an expanded Mission Control Center with modern capabilities better suited to the challenges future spaceflight will bring. This facility launched as part of a $250 million renovation project.
