Inside Mission Control: My Time During NASA’s Shuttle Era (Purdue Studies in Aeronautics and Astronautics)

NASA’s Space Shuttle era lasted from 1972 to 2011, a nearly forty-year window that coincided with Wayne Hale’s thirty-two-year career with NASA. During that time, he was a flight controller, flight director, and finally head of the Space Shuttle program. Hale held a role in every aspect of the Space Shuttle program’s operations, and collected here are a range of personal stories and reflections experienced during his tenure: from the lighthearted and comical account of the first and only ice cream social in Mission Control during a Space Shuttle flight to the technological marvel of servicing the Hubble Telescope and building the International Space Station. Also covered are some of the darkest moments in NASA history―the Challenger and Columbia disasters, and the management decisions that serve as a caution to anyone involved in high-risk activities.

While video and audio from Mission Control presented calm and calculating professionals performing their duties, these were also everyday people with their own fears, anxieties, triumphs, and joys. Hale’s indelible descriptions of the events and the people behind them could only be written by a member of the inner circle. Brimming with personality, Inside Mission Control is an intimate, behind-the-scenes account of one of NASA’s most important eras, told by a man who grew with the program from beginning to end.