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[background music]

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You are now in the Mission
Operations Room. This is the

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command center where flight
engineers communicate with

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Hubble. Every day they send
commands to Hubble’s computers

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to perform daily tasks, such as
coordinating the science

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instruments. They also retrieve
all of Hubble’s science and

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engineering data and make sure
that none of it is missing or

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corrupted. The flight engineers
are also responsible for

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monitoring the 10,000 plus items
in that engineering data to make

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sure that Hubble is operating
safely and properly. If

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something isn’t working
correctly, they follow prepared

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contingency plans. Right now the
team is doing routine activities

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that include uplinking orbit
information and clearing memory

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on the spacecraft for new
messages. Prior to 2011, this

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room was staffed 24 hours a day,
7 days a week. But now most of

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the daily functions are
automated and it is only staffed

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8 hours a day, 5 days a week. If
a problem comes up while the

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team is not present, they
receive notifications on their

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cell phones, which they can use
to access some of the spacecraft

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information and determine how
serious the issue is. Depending

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on the severity, they may have
to come into this room to

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address the issue. As you look
around the room you will see a

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large screen with a graphical
display of Hubble that is driven

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with real-time data. It includes
accurate star charts, the

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Earth’s position, the Sun’s
location, and other

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environmental data to allow the
team to see how Hubble is

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oriented. An operations clock in
the corner of the room can be

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set to track the length of an
event, or simply display the

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current time, in Universal Time
- a standard time used in

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astronomy and spacecraft
operations. A model of the main

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spacecraft computer sits in the
back of the room. The actual

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computer on Hubble manages the
spacecraft’s daily functions

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such as its power,
communications, and pointing,

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and it monitors the health of
the spacecraft. It’s also

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programmed to put Hubble in a
safe state and be ready to talk

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to the ground if a major problem
occurs. An engineering model of

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the spacecraft is also in the
back of the room, which flight

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engineers can use for reference
if they need to.