by Mike Mullane
CNO—Chief of Naval Operations. A four-star admiral who has overall responsibility for the United States Navy.
DEFCON—Defense Condition. The status of American military forces, from peacetime (DEFCON 5) to fully prepared for war (DEFCON 1).
DOD—Department of Defense.
DPS—Data Processing System. The computer heart of a space shuttle.
EMU—Extra-vehicular Mobility Unit, i.e., a spacesuit.
EOM—End of Mission. Used in reference to the end of a space shuttle mission.
ESA—European Space Agency. The European equivalent of NASA.
ET—External Tank. The orange fuel tank attached to the belly of a launching space shuttle. It carries 1.3 million pounds of liquid oxygen and 227,000 pounds of liquid hydrogen for the three liquid-fueled engines at the back of the orbiter.
EVA—Extra-Vehicular Activity. A spacewalk.
FCOD—Flight Crew Operations Directorate. The organization at Johnson Space Center having overall responsibility for crews involved in flight operations, including T-38, Vomit Comet, and shuttle flight operations. The astronaut office falls under the domain of FCOD.
FDO—Flight Dynamics Officer. The Mission Control position that oversees all aspects of the shuttle’s trajectory and vehicle maneuvers from liftoff to landing.
GIB—Guy-in-Back. Military slang for the backseat occupant of a two-place fighter aircraft.
GLS—Ground Launch Sequencer. A computer in the Launch Control Center at Kennedy Space Center that controls a shuttle countdown until thirty-one seconds prior to liftoff, at which time the shuttle’s own computers assume control of the countdown.
GPC—General Purpose Computer. One of five IBM computers that form the shuttle’s electronic “heart.” One of these is the BFS computer.See BFS.
GS—Government Servant. The title of civilians working for the government. A number system, e.g., GS-9, indicates the rank of the worker.
GWSA—George Washington Sherman Abbey.
HQ—Headquarters.
HST—Hubble Space Telescope.
ICOM—Intercom. The system used by astronauts to talk to one another when they are in the LES or separated between the upper and lower cockpits or between the shuttle cockpits and a Spacelab module.
IFR—Instrument Flight Rules. A term used in aviation to indicate a pilot is following the directions of an air traffic controller on the ground.
INCO—Instrumentation and Communication Officer. The MCC controller responsible for the command and data links between the MCC and the space shuttle.
ISS—International Space Station.
IUS—Inertial Upper Stage. A large Boeing-built booster rocket used to lift satellites into their final orbits and to accelerate space probes out of Earth orbit.
IVA—Intra-Vehicular Activity. Usually used as a crewmember title, i.e., IVA crewmember. A crewmember who helps spacewalkers prepare for a spacewalk and monitors them while they are outside the spacecraft.
JSC—Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
KSC—Kennedy Space Center in Florida
LCC—Launch Control Center. The Kennedy Space Center team that directs the countdown and launch of a space shuttle.
LCG—Liquid Cooling Garment. A netlike long underwear worn under a spacesuit and that holds a maze of small tubes that circulate chilled water to prevent spacewalkers from overheating.
LDEF—Long Duration Exposure Facility. A bus-size satellite launched on shuttle mission STS-41C in 1984 and retrieved and returned to Earth by STS-32 in January 1990. LDEF carried several hundred passive experiments to understand the effects of space exposure on various materials.
LES—Launch/Entry Suit. The orange-colored spacesuits that astronauts wear for launch and reentry. These suits would automatically pressurize if there was a cabin pressure leak.
LOS—Loss of Signal. A call to the crew that the shuttle will soon be out of contact with Mission Control. Usually the call is given in a countdown format, as in, “Atlantis, you’ll be LOS in two minutes.”
LOX—Liquid Oxygen.
Mach—The engineering term for the speed of sound. Astronauts wear a Mach-25 patch indicating they have traveled twenty-five times the speed of sound.
max-q—An engineering term for the point in flight when an aircraft or spacecraft experiences the maximum aerodynamic pressure. Max-q (where the M is capitalized) is also the name of the astronaut band. Though there have been several generations of astronaut band members, the band name remains the same.
MCC—Mission Control Center. The Johnson Space Center team that directs a shuttle mission from “tower clear” (the moment the shuttle rises above the launchpad) until the “wheel stop” call at landing, at which time control is returned to Kennedy Space Center.
MDF—Manipulator Development Facility. A full-scale simulation of the Canadian robot arm and shuttle cargo bay in a building at Johnson Space Center.
MEC—Master Events Controller. A black box on the space shuttle that controls critical events like the commands to jettison the booster rockets and the empty gas tank.
MECO—Main Engine Cutoff. The moment in a shuttle launch when the three liquid-fueled engines shut down.
MLP—Mobile Launch Platform. The “launchpad” on which the space shuttle is stacked and that is carried to either Pad 39A or B by a massive tracked crawler.
MMU—Manned Maneuvering Unit. A space jet pack. An MMU has high-pressure gas thruster jets that allow an untethered astronaut to fly short distances from the space shuttle.
MS—Mission Specialist. Astronauts trained for mission payload activities, e.g., using the robot arm, doing a spacewalk, conducting experiments, etc.
MSE—Military Space Engineer. Department of Defense personnel flown on some DOD missions.
MSFC—Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA—National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
O2—Gaseous oxygen breathed by astronauts.
OFT—Orbital Flight Test. The first four space shuttle flights. After these were successfully concluded, the STS was proclaimedoperational .
OMS—Orbital Maneuvering System. Two six-thousand-pound-thrust liquid-fueled engines at the tail of the orbiter. These are used for the final boost into orbit, the brake from orbit, and for large orbit changes.
PAM—Propulsion Assist Module. A solid-fueled rocket motor attached to the bottom of a communication satellite to lift it to a 22,300-mile-high equatorial orbit.
PAO—Public Affairs Officer. An MCC position filled by NASA’s representative to the public.
PEAP—Personal Emergency Air Pack. A portable container of breathing air, which astronauts would use in a ground escape through toxic fumes.
PLBD—Payload Bay Doors. The clamshell doors that cover the space shuttle payload bay.
PLT—Pilot. The pilot astronaut who sits in the right front seat during a shuttle launch and landing. Like the mission commander, the PLT is trained to fly the shuttle.
PPK—Personal Preference Kit. The twenty items of personal significance that NASA permits astronauts to fly in space.
PR—Public Relations. Refers to all things associated with NASA’s interface with the public.
PROP—Propulsion. An MCC controller who monitors the shuttle RCS and OMS propulsion systems.
PS—Payload Specialist. A “part-time” astronaut trained for a specific experiment. PSes are not career NASA astronauts and receive only safety and habitability training on the shuttle.
RCS—Reaction Control System. A system of forty-four small rocket motors on the tail and nose of the orbiter that control the vehicle’s attitude and are also used in small orbit changes, e.g., during the final stages of a rendezvous or separation from a deployed satellite.
RHC—Rotational Hand Controller. The “stick” used to rotate the tip of the robot arm about a point. The CDR’s and PLT’s control sticks, used to maneuver the orbiter, are also referred to as RHCs.
RMS—Remote Manipulator System. The
Canadian-built robot arm operated from the rear cockpit of the orbiter. It is used to capture and release satellites, maneuver spacewalking astronauts and cargo, and for vehicle inspections (through its end-mounted TV camera).
RSLS—Redundant Set Launch Sequencer. The software module in the shuttle’s computers that controls the final thirty-one seconds of a shuttle countdown.
RSO—Range Safety Officer. A USAF officer who monitors a shuttle launch and is prepared to blow up the vehicle if it goes out of control and threatens a civilian population center.
RSS—Range Safety System. The explosives aboard the solid rocket boosters and the external gas tank and the supporting electronic equipment that would be used to blow up an out-of-control space shuttle.
RTLS—Return to Launch Site Abort. A launch abort in which the space shuttle returns to land at the Kennedy Space Center.
SAIL—Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory. An electronic lab in which shuttle software can be evaluated. SAIL has a replica of the shuttle cockpit.
SAS—Space Adaptation Syndrome. Space sickness.
SEAL—Sea, Air, Land. An acronym for an elite navy force that is trained for special covert operations against the enemy.
Sim Sup—Simulator Supervisor. The team leader who prepares scripts of malfunctions to train astronauts and MCC controllers. The Sim Sup’s team inputs malfunctions and evaluates the response of astronauts and the MCC to simulated emergencies.
SLF—Shuttle Landing Facility. The 15,000-foot-long runway at Kennedy Space Center used by landing shuttles.
SMS—Shuttle Mission Simulator. The primary simulators at Johnson Space Center for training astronauts to operate the shuttle systems and respond to emergencies.
SRB—Solid Rocket Booster. Twin boosters attached to the sides of the external gas tank. The term “solid” in the title refers to the propellant, which has the consistency of hard rubber.
SSME—Space Shuttle Main Engine. A liquid-fueled engine at the back of the orbiter that burns the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen carried in the external gas tank. There are three SSMEs at the tail of the orbiter.
STA—Shuttle Training Aircraft. A Gulfstream business jet modified to have the landing characteristics of a shuttle. Pilot astronauts (CDRs and PLTs) train for shuttle landings in the STA.
STS—Space Transportation System. A fancy name for what the public would call the space shuttle. The STS is made up of the winged vehicle (the orbiter), the solid-fueled rocket boosters, and the external gas tank.
TAL—Trans-Atlantic Landing abort. A launch abort in which the shuttle makes an emergency landing at an airport in Europe or Africa.
TDRS—Tracking and Data Relay Satellite. A satellite used by NASA to relay commands, data, and astronaut voice communication between the orbiter and MCC.
TFNG—Thirty-Five New Guys. The nickname adopted by the astronaut class of 1978. The name is a play on an obscene military acronym FNG (F***ing New Guy), used to describe someone new to a military unit.
THC—Translational Hand Controller. A square-shaped controller that can be moved in or out, up or down, and left or right. These control inputs will produce the corresponding movement at the tip of the robot arm. The CDR and PLT also have THCs that will fire the orbiter’s thrusters to move it in the direction commanded.
UCD—Urine Collection Device. A condom/nylon bladder arrangement or an adult diaper worn by astronauts on the three occasions when they cannot use the shuttle toilet: launch, spacewalks, and reentry/landing.
UHF—Ultra-High Frequency. A radio frequency.
USAF—United States Air Force.
USMC—United States Marine Corps.
USN—United States Navy.
VAB—Vertical Assembly Building. The 500-foot-high building originally used to prepare theSaturn V moon rockets. The shuttle stack is completed in the VAB before being transported to the launchpad.
VFR—Visual Flight Rules. An aviation term referring to flights where the pilot is responsible for his/her own clearance from other aircraft and objects.
VITT—Vehicle Integration Test Team. The team at Kennedy Space Center that supports the checkout of the orbiters as they are prepared for a mission.
WETF—Weightless Environment Training Facility. A large swimming pool used by astronauts to train for spacewalks.
WSO—Weapons Systems Operator. The air force crewmember (usually in two-place fighters like the F-4 or F-111) who is responsible for navigation, electronic warfare, and weapons status. WSO is used interchangeably with GIB (guy-in-back).
I was a child of the space race—twelve years old at the time of Sputnik I’s launch, October 4, 1957. I wanted to be an astronaut from the moment I heard the word.
The Hugh Mullane family in Albuquerque, New Mexico, circa 1960. I’m second from the left. My dad was rendered a paraplegic at age thirty-three by polio. His leg braces are visible at his atrophied ankles.
At about age sixteen, I’m posed with one of my homemade rockets. My “capsule” was a coffee can; the nose cone was a rolled-up sheet of plastic. My mom and dad were huge supporters of my interest in space. After taking this photo, my dad drove me into the desert for the launch.
Donna and I walk out of the Kirtland AFB chapel, June 14, 1967. We both married for the wrong reasons—me for sex, she for escape from her parents. Somewhere in our marriage (thirty-eight years and counting), we fell in love. We would have three children, who would give us six grandchildren.
In 1969, I flew 134 combat missions in Vietnam in the backseat of the RF-4C, the reconnaissance version of the F-4 Phantom. My flawed eyesight prevented me from being a fighter pilot.
George Abbey, a midlevel bureaucrat, was God to the astronaut corps. He had supreme authority over shuttle mission assignments. Morale suffered significantly under his despotic and secretive leadership style, and many astronauts came to loathe him.
Judy Resnik, the second American woman in space, helps me prepare for a spacewalk simulation in early 1984. In our year of training for our rookie mission, STS-41D, we became close friends. Judy opened my male, sexist-pig eyes to the reality that women could do the astronaut job as well as any man. She would die aboardChallenger while flying her second space mission.
The heartrending final astronaut-spouse good-byes occur approximately twenty-four hours prior to launch at the astronaut beach house. For theChallenger andColumbia spouses, the good-byes were forever. The beach house sits on sacred ground.
Donna and I sought the privacy of the beach house sands for our farewells. Before all of my missions, I told her, “If I die tomorrow, I died doing what I loved.”
Donna slumps in emotional and physical exhaustion after one of my many mission scrubs. At T–9 minutes in the countdown, spouses and children are escorted to the roof of the Launch Control Center to watch the liftoff in the company of an astronaut family escort, aka “an escort into widowhood.”
The STS-41D in-orbit crew self-portrait. I’m floating at the left (legs extended). At the bottom, from right to left, are Pilot Mike Coats and Commander Hank Hartsfield. At Judy Resnik’s left side is Mission Specialist Steve Hawley. Payload Specialist Charlie Walker floats behind me. Judy received hate mail from a handful of feminists for the cheerleader effect the pose suggested.
A lifetime dream comes true—floating in Discovery’s upper cockpit on my rookie mission, STS-41D, August 30–September 5, 1984.
Donna greets me after landing at Edwards AFB from my first mission, September 5, 1984. Mission Commander Hank Hartsfield and his wife, Fran, are in the background.
Located a few blocks from the Johnson Space Center main gate, the decrepit Outpost Tavern is a popular astronaut hangout.
Challenger’s forward fuselage(arrow) was part of the breakup debris, January 28, 1986. The fact that some cockpit switches were found in the wreckage in emergency positions proves that the crew was alive and functioning for at least some period after vehicle destruction. But escape was impossible. The space shuttle had no bailout system.
The STS-27 Swine Flight crew after arriving at the Kennedy Space Center for our December 2–6, 1988, mission.From left to right: Mission Specialist Jerry Ross and Pilot Guy Gardner. I’m standing in the middle. To my immediate left is Mission Specialist Bill Shepherd. Robert “Hoot” Gibson, the commander, is at the microphone.
Viewing the severe heat-shield damage sustained during our STS-27 launch. The tip of the right side SRB broke off during ascent and damaged seven hundred belly heat tiles, by far the worst shuttle heat-shield damage sustained prior to theColumbia tragedy. I’m leaning around Pilot Guy Gardner.
Christie Brinkley is all smiles while standing next to me at a Super Bowl XXIII halftime photo-op, January 22, 1989. Bill Shepherd is at my right. Guy Gardner stands on Christie’s left side. No doubt it was meeting me that doomed her marriage to Billy Joel…or so I tell everybody.