Go/No Go: Inside the Firing Room

Kennedy Space Center is known for being the heart of rocket launches, but the brains behind it all come from the firing room—where the best and brightest handle preparations for liftoff and all things in between.

Before a rocket lifts off the pad and clears the towers, the firing room is the hub where all vital pre-launch checks and preparations can be conducted by the click of a computer. From the computer terminals, engineers can control activities related to the spacecraft, payloads, and the launchpad.

When preparing for launch, the control room team conducts procedures and protocol testing several months before the final countdown. In such a high-energy and time-critical environment, retired NASA Test Director Debra Kral says repetitive training is the way to go in getting these rockets off the pad safely.

“The first time you go through that countdown, and it’s the real thing with the astronauts on board, there’s no other word I can describe it, but it is a rush,” Debra says. “Launching rockets is a rush… It’s the whole reason you’re here at NASA…”

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