Columbus Control Center at DLR Oberpfaffenhoffen (8182061318)

The Columbus Control Centre also known by its radio

callsign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

, Mission Control Munich, is the mission control centre which is used to control the ''Columbus'' research laboratory, which is part of the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

(ISS). The control centre is located at the

German Aerospace Center The German Aerospace Center (german: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., abbreviated DLR, literally ''German Center for Air- and Space-flight'') is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany ...

(DLR) facility in

Oberpfaffenhofen Oberpfaffenhofen is a village that is part of the municipality of Weßling in the district of Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany. It is located about from the city center of Munich. Village The village is home to the Oberpfaffenhofen Airport and a m ...

near

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The centre is operated by the DLR, under contract from the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

(ESA). The Columbus Control Centre entered full-time operation during the STS-122 Shuttle Mission, which delivered the ''

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

'' module to the ISS. The module was attached to the ISS on 11 February 2008.

Identification and call sign

The Columbus Control Centre is known by the acronym COL-CC. The crew on board the

use the call sign 'Munich' when calling down to COL-CC.

Flight Control Room positions

The Col-CC Flight Control Room is permanently staffed by three full times positions, COL FLIGHT, STRATOS (Safeguarding Thermal Resources Avionics Telecommunications Operations Systems), and GC. These are supported by COMET during the day 7 days a week as well as EUROCOM and COSMO during crew wake times, Monday to Friday. COL FLIGHT is responsible for real time Columbus Operations and reports to ISS FLIGHT at MCC-H. COMET (formerly COL OC (Operations Coordinator)) coordinates Payload operations and real time planning as part of the EPIC team. STRATOS controls the onboard power, thermal and environmental subsystems plus the onboard data, video and communication subsystems, as well as payload interfaces . EUROCOM is the interface to the

crew, communicating over the space to ground loops. COSMO (COlumbus Stowage and Maintenance Officer) is responsible for inventory management, on-orbit maintenance and Plug in Plan.

Support to USOCs and ATV missions

The Columbus Control Centre is also responsible for providing the

Ground Segment A ground segment consists of all the ground-based elements of a space system used by operators and support personnel, as opposed to the space segment and user segment. The ground segment enables management of a spacecraft, and distribution of p ...

Services for all European crewed space flight activities. This includes connecting the User Support Operations Centres (USOCs) with the Columbus Control Centre, and routing data for the

Automated Transfer Vehicle The Automated Transfer Vehicle, originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle or ATV, was an expendable cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), used for space cargo transport in 2008–2015. The ATV design was launched to orbit fiv ...

s (ATVs) to the ATV Control Centre located in Toulouse.

ESA , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

will use the ATVs to bring supplies and future science experiments to the ISS. The Columbus Control Centre, "will supervise the ISS-based tasks of the uncrewed European space transporter ATV."

References

*
Columbus Control Centre
from ESA Columbus (ISS module) Space technology research institutes Space programme of Germany Buildings and structures in Starnberg (district) {{germany-stub

Identification and call sign

Flight Control Room positions

Support to USOCs and ATV missions

See also

References