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 assi ...

, 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 a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS). The control centre is located at the

German Aerospace Center The German Aerospace Center (, abbreviated DLR, literally ''German Center for Air- and Space-flight'') is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany, founded in 1969. It is headquartered in Cologne with 3 ...

(DLR) facility in Oberpfaffenhofen near

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

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

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

(ESA). The Columbus Control Centre entered full-time operation during the STS-122 Shuttle Mission, which delivered the '' Columbus'' 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 spaceflight, space system used by operators and support personnel, as opposed to the Satellite space segment, space segment and user segment. The ground segment enables management of ...

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