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The mini-saga of Austin’s secret NASA crew
A terse statement from NASA on Thursday set a minor Hurricane Ike odyssey in motion: “The International Space Station Flight Control Room at Mission Control in Houston was shut down Thursday morning. Station flight control continued through backup teams located near Austin and Huntsville, Ala.”
But near Austin? Is there a secret control room here? At a federal facility? At a university or utility plant? At a conference center?
Calls to Central Texas public agencies, evacuation officials, hospitality-industry leaders and hotel managers Friday failed to produce results.
“Yes, a team of flight controllers with high-speed laptop computers has moved to an Austin-area hotel and is controlling the space station through high-rate data lines back to computers at Mission Control in Houston,” said NASA spokesman Michael Curie late on Friday. “Mission Control has power and generators in case it loses power. A backup plan in case Mission Control loses power will hand control to another team of Johnson Spacecraft Center flight controllers who traveled to Huntsville, Ala.”
A hotel near Austin. But where? Lost Pines? Lakeway? Barton Creek? Round Rock? It would have to be someplace pretty wired and comfortable.
“We don’t have an exact location, other than they are in the Austin area,” Curie said on Saturday. “They will remain until Houston’s Mission Control Center returns to normal operation. It is too early to know how long it will be before that happens.”
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