Mission Control 'members only': NASA flight directors don new jacket

a woman in a blue jacket sits at a console with computers in mission control
Emily Nelson, NASA's chief flight director, is seen wearing the flight director office's new jacket, while at the flight director console in the International Space Station control room inside the Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. (Image credit: NASA/Jaden Jennings)

There are fewer of them then there are astronauts and no NASA spaceflight would be a success without them at the helm. Yet, if the public knows anything about them it is likely 50-year-old history, and probably none of them could be picked out of a crowd today.

To address that last point, NASA's flight directors have taken a page from the crews they support, if not also the Masters Tournament, Hells Angels and even Saturday Night Live's Five-Timers Club. There is now a flight director's jacket.

"The astronauts have iconic blue jackets that make them easily identifiable. Having a more uniform look would make it a little easier for us to tell the NASA story," said chief flight director Emily Nelson in an interview with collectSPACE. "It's a lot easier to tell a story if people know you have a story to tell."

"Having a unifying look was something we thought might be valuable," she said.

four men and a woman pose together for a photo in front of the entrance to NASA's Mission Control Center

Chief flight director Emily Nelson (second from left) and flight director Scott Stover (second from right) wear their flight director jackets while posing with Steve Koerner, acting director of the Johnson Space Center (at left); Michael Altenhofen, senior advisor to the NASA Administrator (center); and astronaut Kjell Lindgren, deputy director of the flight ops directorate. (Image credit: NASA/Josh Valcarce)

There have been 108 flight directors since U.S. human spaceflight began, out of which 30 are active today. They each lead teams who work in mission control, overseeing the continuous complement of astronauts living and working on board the International Space Station, as well as those on commercial spacecraft and preparing for Artemis missions to the moon.

But Houston, there is a problem ... the general public either does not know or does not understand the role that flight directors serve. Nelson said that she has been to events where after learning she is a flight director people have mistaken her for an air traffic controller or when she is traveling with a crew, she has been confused for the astronauts' appearance manager.

"If what we do was a little bit better known, it would be easier to get to the meat of the story of what's really happening in mission control, what's happening in space. So to that extent, it would be useful for our role to be better known," she said. "We represent the hundreds of people on the ground who are instrumental to human spaceflight. Making that more a part of the overall story makes it more accessible to a wider portion of the population."

Multi-layer insulation

If historically there was any one piece of apparel that has come to be associated with a flight director, it was Gene Kranz' vests. As depicted in the 1995 movie "Apollo 13" (with Ed Harris portraying the legendary mission control leader), Kranz' wife hand-sewed a vest for him to wear during each of the missions he worked.

Kranz' (real-life) Apollo 13 vest is now on display in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

"You cannot talk about a flight director uniform without a vest being mentioned and I think nobody wears a vest like Gene does, so we wouldn't even try," said Nelson. "There are some things that are just so unique to the individual that you don't want to try to copy it."

The flight directors still agreed, though, that it would be good to have something that they could be put on and take off as desired.

a blue jacket with NASA patches and an American flag sewn to its shoulders and chest

The NASA flight director's jacket is a lightweight, modified version of the Apollo-era garment worn by the astronauts. (Image credit: Luna Replicas)

"We jumped to a jacket, because we wanted something professional enough that we could wear it in mission control if we wanted to, and we could wear at speaking events," said Nelson. "We wanted to make it a lightweight jacket, because we live in Houston, but we also wanted an extra layer because the coldest you get throughout the year is when everything is air conditioned to arctic temperatures."

Many flight directors (and the flight controllers on their teams) bring a sweater or jacket to the control room because of how well it is air conditioned.

"This is trivia, but we're in the same building that the Apollo missions were flown from. Computers that were used in those days were, of course, much larger and generated much more heat than the computers we use today. And so this building is actually over controlled in terms of temperature," said Nelson.

"So having a jacket that we can wear on console is something that we all already had, its just now our jackets match," she said.

FLIGHT jacket

The flight director jacket is styled after the garments that the Apollo-era astronauts wore, but made from lightweight, wrinkle-free nylon, lengthened and sewn without pocket flaps so that it is more in line with what one wears out to an event than to fly a jet. The collar was also changed to one from a flight suit of the same period.

As to the jacket's color, Nelson said it came down to black or blue and given that "NASA blue" is a thing, they opted for the latter. They found the inspiration for the particular shade of blue from a symbol for their office.

"We have an informal logo that is a combination of two blues and two golds. And so we have those two blues, with the dark blue on the outside and the light blue on the liner, and then the gold is picked up in the hardware, the zipper and snaps," she said.

a logo with a two tone blue and gold symbol at its center

The colors of the NASA flight director jacket were borrowed from this informal logo for the flight director office. (Image credit: NASA)

Of course, it would not be a proper NASA jacket without a few patches, so the flight directors (referred to as "FLIGHT" over their comm loops) included a few of those, too.

"We have the NASA 'meatball' insignia front and center because that's where we start. Then we have the American flag on our left shoulder because without the support of the American population, we wouldn't be here," Nelson said. "Then on our right shoulder, we've got the FOD [Flight Operations Directorate] patch, which is also how the astronauts' uniforms are set up."

The modern FOD patch is based on an emblem that was first created for Mission Control at Kranz' suggestion in 1972.

a red, blue and gold embroidered patch representing nasa's flight operations is seen sewn to a blue jacket's shoulder

The NASA flight director jacket is adorned by the modern Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) patch, which was based on a 1972 insignia designed to represent Mission Control. (Image credit: Luna Replicas)

On the left breast is a patch of Velcro to attach a name tag.

"We added our office logo to our name placards. We also all have team names, so we put that on there, as well. Then some of us have our flight number, the number that we worked our first shift," said Nelson, whose tag has "70 - Peridot Flight."

In recent years, new flight directors have worked with artists to create an insignia, which is displayed above the front screen in Mission Control when they are on console. They can add that patch and others as desired, but only after they retire from the office.

"For active flight directors, I am requiring that they do not add anything. Once they leave the fold, they can do anything they want," said Nelson.

Creating history

A label inside the jacket reads, "Tough & Competent Since 1961."

"I asked [Apollo flight director] Gerry Griffin, I asked Gene Kranz and I spoke with [International Space Station flight director] Zeb Scoville and Emily what would be the appropriate tagline to put on this and immediately everybody said, 'Tough and Competent. 'That's our daily motto,'" said Max Kaiserman, owner and director of operations at Luna Replicas, an online retailer that specializes in the reproduction of apparel and flight gear from NASA's history.

"Tough and competent" was coined by Kranz as a mantra for the members of mission control after a fire on the launch pad claimed three astronauts' lives in 1967. "These words are the price of admission to the ranks of mission control," said Kranz at the time.

a look at the labels inside a blue nasa jacket

The label inside the NASA flight director jacket includes the words "Tough & Competent," flight director Gene Kranz' mantra for all of the members of mission control. (Image credit: Luna Replicas)

Kaiserman gifted Kranz and Griffin with their new jackets. Otherwise, the jackets must be individually purchased, given the laws pertaining to spending federal dollars on clothing. It is not required that they buy one, but the jackets are only available to present and retired U.S. flight directors.

"I have been making replicas of historic things and now we are making a thing that is going to become historic, become part of the story," said Kaiserman. "That's amazing."

Nelson said many of the alumni have ordered jackets and those in the office are wearing theirs. They have even attracted the attention of another jacket-wearing group.

"I've had at least one astronaut come up to me and express jealousy that our jackets are so lightweight we can use them for our own purposes," she said. "They are actually comfortable to wear."

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Robert Z. Pearlman
collectSPACE.com Editor, Space.com Contributor

Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com, a daily news publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018.In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History. In 2023, the National Space Club Florida Committee recognized Pearlman with the Kolcum News and Communications Award for excellence in telling the space story along the Space Coast and throughout the world.

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