"During this first five years of operation of the International Space Station, we have learned quite a bit about building and operating a world-class research facility that now orbits the Earth," said Dr. Donald Thomas, ISS Program Scientist. "The scientific research program has gotten off to a great start and the possibilities for new discoveries are as limitless as the number of stars that form the background for the Space Station as it orbits above."
The first three-man crew inhabited the Station on Nov. 2, 2000, taking their place on the most ambitious space research project in human history. Since then, science operations have expanded to include a varied cross section of important scientific research -- thanks to the crewmembers, as well as the partnership of ground controllers and scientists around the world.
The Space Station's many residents, who have lived and worked onboard the orbiting laboratory anywhere from four to six months at a time, have performed research in bioastronautics, physical sciences, fundamental space biology, space product development and space flight disciplines. In the U.S. Destiny laboratory alone, 22 crew members had worked on more than 70 different science experiments by the end of 2003.
But the Space Station is a work in progress. Conducting science on the Station has been compared to having a dinner party at your home while it is still being built. John Uri, who served as the lead scientist for the International Space Station's first four expeditions, said, "Right now, we are at a place with science on the Space Station where we have served up the appetizers, and have started on the main course. But the kitchen is still being expanded with new facilities being added."
That's why an extra set of eyes or pair of hands can always come in handy. Although physically, there have always been two or three crewmembers onboard the Station at all times, an "extra" crewmember has always been "right there" with them. That crewmember is actually a team of people who work in a sophisticated facility known as NASA's Payload Operations Center, or POC, at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
A little more than three years ago, the Payload Operations Center began full-time operations as the science command post for the Station. Staffed around the clock by three shifts of eight to 10 flight controllers, this science command and control center links Earth-bound researchers with their experiments - or payloads - in orbit. Together with the flight controllers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, they serve as an extra set of eyes or pair of hands devoted to science, thus increasing experiment efficiency and saving precious crew time for operations that require a human touch.
This group of dedicated professionals create the weekly schedule of science activities; to coordinate the use of valuable on-orbit resources, such as power and crew time; to orchestrate delivery and retrieval of payloads; to ensure the safety for Space Station crews performing experiments and to configure research facilities aboard the Space Station to support payloads.
Working with scientists and other control centers around the world, the Payload Operations Center team sends commands to experiments, watches their progress, monitors their health and receives data. The team members are always available to answer questions from the Space Station crew and assist them in their research activities.
In addition to managing all science research experiment operations onboard the Station, the Payload Operations Center also is responsible for coordination of the mission planning work of the Space Station's international partners, all science experiments going to and coming from the Station, and experiment training and safety programs for Space Station crews and ground personnel.
Teams of planners look days, weeks and months into the future to orchestrate the use of Space Station on-orbit resources such as equipment, electrical power and crew time to fulfill science and research objectives. The planners develop timelines of activities for U.S. experiments, then integrate those timelines with those of the other International Partners to create schedules of all payload activities aboard the Space Station.
