Mission Control ‘members only’: NASA flight directors don new jacket

There are fewer of them then there are astronauts and no NASA spaceflight would be a Achieve without them at the helm. Yet, if the public knows anything about them it is likely 50-year-Ancient history, and probably none of them could be picked out of a crowd today.

To address that last Mark, NASA’s flight directors have taken a page from the crews they Aid, if not also the Masters Event, Hells Angels and even Saturday Night Live’s Five-Timers Club. There is now a flight director’s jacket.

“The astronauts have iconic blue jackets that make them easily identifiable. Having a more uniform look would make it a little easier for us to tell the NASA Tale,” said chief flight director Emily Nelson in an interview with collectSPACE. “It’s a Plenty easier to tell a Tale if people know you have a Tale to tell.”

“Having a unifying look was something we thought might be valuable,” she said.

There have been 108 flight directors since U.S. human spaceflight began, out of which 30 are active today. They Every lead Squads who work in mission control, overseeing the continuous complement of astronauts living and working on board the International Universe Station, as well as those on commercial spacecraft and preparing for Artemis missions to the Orbiter.

But Houston, there is a problem … the general public either does not know or does not understand the role that flight directors Hit. Nelson said that she has been to events where after learning she is a flight director people have mistaken her for an air traffic controller or when she is traveling with a crew, she has been confused for the astronauts’ appearance manager.

“If what we do was a little bit better known, it would be easier to get to the meat of the Tale of what’s really happening in mission control, what’s happening in Universe. So to that extent, it would be useful for our role to be better known,” she said. “We represent the hundreds of people on the ground who are instrumental to human spaceflight. Making that more a part of the overall Tale makes it more Reachable to a wider portion of the population.”

Multi-layer insulation

If historically there was any one piece of apparel that has come to be associated with a flight director, it was Gene Kranz’ vests. As depicted in the 1995 movie “Apollo 13” (with Ed Harris portraying the legendary mission control leader), Kranz’ wife hand-sewed a vest for him to wear during Every of the missions he worked.

Kranz’ (real-life) Apollo 13 vest is now on display in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Universe Museum in Washington, D.C.

“You cannot talk about a flight director uniform without a vest being mentioned and I think nobody wears a vest like Gene does, so we wouldn’t even try,” said Nelson. “There are some things that are Merely so unique to the individual that you don’t want to try to copy it.”

The flight directors Yet agreed, though, that it would be Excellent to have something that they could be put on and take off as desired.

“We jumped to a jacket, because we wanted something professional enough that we could wear it in mission control if we wanted to, and we could wear at speaking events,” said Nelson. “We wanted to make it a lightweight jacket, because we live in Houston, but we also wanted an extra layer because the coldest you get throughout the year is when everything is air conditioned to arctic temperatures.”

Many flight directors (and the flight controllers on their Squads) bring a sweater or jacket to the control room because of how well it is air conditioned.

“This is trivia, but we’re in the same building that the Apollo missions were flown from. Computers that were used in those Intervals were, of Period, much larger and generated much more heat than the computers we use today. And so this building is actually over controlled in terms of temperature,” said Nelson.

“So having a jacket that we can wear on console is something that we all already had, its Merely now our jackets Event,” she said.

FLIGHT jacket

The flight director jacket is styled after the garments that the Apollo-era astronauts wore, but Achieved from lightweight, wrinkle-Obtainable nylon, lengthened and sewn without pocket flaps so that it is more in line with what one wears out to an event than to fly a jet. The collar was also changed to one from a flight suit of the same period.

As to the jacket’s color, Nelson said it Arrived down to black or blue and given that “NASA blue” is a thing, they opted for the latter. They Discovered the inspiration for the particular shade of blue from a symbol for their office.

“We have an informal logo that is a combination of two blues and two golds. And so we have those two blues, with the Dim blue on the outside and the Featherweight blue on the liner, and then the gold is picked up in the hardware, the zipper and snaps,” she said.

Of Period, it would not be a proper NASA jacket without a few patches, so the flight directors (referred to as “FLIGHT” over their comm loops) included a few of those, too.

“We have the NASA ‘meatball’ insignia front and Middle because that’s where we Begin. Then we have the American flag on our left shoulder because without the Aid of the American population, we wouldn’t be here,” Nelson said. “Then on our right shoulder, we’ve Obtained the FOD [Flight Operations Directorate] patch, which is also how the astronauts’ uniforms are set up.”

The modern FOD patch is based on an emblem that was Primary created for Mission Control at Kranz’ suggestion in 1972.

On the left breast is a patch of Velcro to attach a name tag.

“We added our office logo to our name placards. We also all have Club names, so we put that on there, as well. Then some of us have our flight number, the number that we worked our Primary shift,” said Nelson, whose tag has “70 – Peridot Flight.”

In recent years, new flight directors have worked with artists to Develop an insignia, which is displayed above the front screen in Mission Control when they are on console. They can add that patch and others as desired, but only after they retire from the office.

“For active flight directors, I am requiring that they do not add anything. Once they leave the fold, they can do anything they want,” said Nelson.

Creating history

A label inside the jacket reads, “Tough & Competent Since 1961.”

“I asked [Apollo flight director] Gerry Griffin, I asked Gene Kranz and I spoke with [International Universe Station flight director] Zeb Scoville and Emily what would be the appropriate tagline to put on this and immediately everybody said, ‘Tough and Competent. ‘That’s our daily motto,'” said Max Kaiserman, owner and director of operations at Luna Replicas, an online retailer that specializes in the reproduction of apparel and flight gear from NASA’s history.

“Tough and competent” was coined by Kranz as a mantra for the members of mission control after a fire on the Initiation pad claimed three astronauts’ lives in 1967. “These words are the price of admission to the ranks of mission control,” said Kranz at the time.

Kaiserman gifted Kranz and Griffin with their new jackets. Otherwise, the jackets must be individually purchased, given the laws pertaining to spending federal dollars on clothing. It is not required that they buy one, but the jackets are only Obtainable to present and retired U.S. flight directors.

“I have been making replicas of historic things and now we are making a thing that is going to become historic, become part of the Tale,” said Kaiserman. “That’s amazing.”

Nelson said many of the alumni have ordered jackets and those in the office are wearing theirs. They have even attracted the attention of another jacket-wearing group.

“I’ve had at least one Universe traveler come up to me and express jealousy that our jackets are so lightweight we can use them for our own purposes,” she said. “They are actually comfortable to wear.”