TsUP: Moscow Mission Control

• Structure
• Who is the lead center?
• Links
• Photo gallery

TsUP, Moscow Mission Control, (ЦУП, Центр Управления Полётом) (pronounced “tsoup”), is the control center for Russian ISS operations. Built in 1973 for the Soyuz-Apollo joint flight program, it is located in the main subdivision of the Central Scientific Research Institute for Machine Building (TsNIIMASH, ЦНИИМАШ), in the suburb of Korolyov (formerly Kaliningrad) to the north-east of Moscow. The Energiya corporation is also located here.

Various artificial satellites are also controlled from TsUP.

There are two similar large control rooms. The ISS control room was formerly used for the flight of the Buran space shuttle, and (in what must have added insult to injury) the room used for Mir operations is now the back-up flight control room for Houston flight controllers (in the event that a hurricane threatens or flattens MCC-Houston).

The current ЦУП flight director is former pilot-cosmonaut Vladimir Solov’ev.

ЦУП remains on Moscow Standard Time/Decreed Moscow Time (Декретое Московское Врема) all year round (i.e. it doesn’t switch to Daylight Savings in summer). (Those on the ISS follow Greenwich Mean Time – Universal Time Co-ordinated on Earth – Moscow is 3 hours ahead of GMT/UTC.)

The only place in Russia, where time adjustments are never made is the Mission Control Centre outside Moscow. According to its deputy chief, Viktor Blagov, the changeover would entail the adjustment of all computers. That may bring about major fails in the work of the computer centre, and as a result may be dangerous for the cosmonauts working in orbit.

– Greenwich Mean Time/Time Zones – Russia

Address: 4 Pionerskaya St., Korolyov, 141070, Moscow region.

TsUP structure

This table is derived from a diagram on the ЦУП site. Translations are only approximate; I don’t know what the abbreviations stand for (help appreciated! :-).

TsUP structure

ТРИ, TRI →	Ballistics Complex	Command Complex	Telemetry Complex	← ТМИ, TMI
	Orbital manoeuvring and descent	Planning, forming, organizing and issuing commands	Processing, representing and documentation of data	РРСУ-Х, RRSU-Kh
	Complex Modelling	ЛВС, LVS	КВИО, KVIO
	Flight operations modelling and analysis	Internal operations control and protection	Telecommunications interpretation to outside agencies →	→ To space centers of France, Germany, EKA, USA, etc.
	ИСО, ISO	КСО, KSO	КВО, KVO
	The means of delivery on RM	Collective representation	Analytical center of KNS

From the NASA Shuttle-Mir website:

During Shuttle-Mir, the Russian Space Agency (RSA) had three control rooms in a single complex in Kaliningrad [renamed Korolyov]. MCC-M could process data from up to ten spacecraft, although each control room was dedicated to a single program: one to Mir; one to Soyuz; and one to the Russian “space shuttle,” Buran. Flight control people were organized into teams, similar to NASA’s system at MCC-Houston:

• The Flight Director provided policy guidance and communicated with the mission management team.
• The Flight Shift Director was responsible for real-time decisions, within a set of flight rules.
• The Mission Deputy Shift Manager (MDSM) for the MCC was responsible for the control room’s consoles, computers and peripherals.
• The MDSM for Ground Control was responsible for communications.
• The MDSM for Crew Training was similar to NASA’s “cap com,” or capsule communicator. This person generally had served as the Mir crew’s lead trainer.

Back-up control center

As noted above, Houston MCC has a back-up room in the TsUP center, and at intervals conducts tests of its functions:

Starting at 5:00 a.m. EDT and running for seven hours, MCC-H and its support group in Moscow (HSG) conducted another BCC (Backup Control Center) dry run in test mode, with no involvement of the ISS crew or vehicle. Purpose of the periodic exercise was to demonstrate BCC functionality under Russian assets (RSA EIS server and RSA command drop box) as usual and this time under the new IBM Shark server, while providing proficiency training for HSG (Houston Support Group) personnel at the HSR (Houston Support Room). [The ISS EMCC (Emergency Mission Control Center), located in Russia, comprises TsUP/Moscow as the Lead Control Center, coupled with HSR at TsUP. The BCC facility provides a command and control capability from TsUP if the EMCC must be activated. This is the case in situations that render MCC-Houston unable to provide telemetry, voice, and command capability for extended periods. EMCC is also used when the threat of severe weather results in evacuation of the MCC-H building for extended periods. In su ch an emergency, both Russian servers (CMD/command & TM/telemetry) are transitioned from MCC-H connectivity to BCC configuration, after which only the BCC can connect to the CMD and TM ports. An actual contingency requiring switchover to the BCC occurred on 10/2/2002 when Hurricane Lili forced MCC-H to shut down at 4:00 a.m. EDT.] (27/9/04 On-Orbit Report)

I don’t think TsUP has an equivalent back-up at Houston; Moscow is generally not threatened by hurricanes!

Who is the Lead Center?

During the early joint operations of the International Space Station in 2001, relationships between the partners were somewhat tetchy. Some reasons were:

• The deorbiting of Mir earlier in the year, which symbolized the ending of the Soviet era of space and the painful loss of Russian prestige.
• The controversy over the flight of space tourist Dennis Tito, which NASA didn’t approve of.
• The Russian flight controllers were probably feeling rather annoyed for the previous two reasons, and at NASA’s assumption that it should be in charge.

An extract from Star-Crossed Orbits by James Oberg describes some of this behind-the-scenes point-scoring. And Astronaut James Voss comes across as an insensitive jerk. Perhaps the TsUP controllers did not like him for this reason!

By mid-2001, once NASA had wrapped day-to-day ISS communications in a shroud of secrecy, the temptation to exploit this secrecy to project a false public image became too great. On June 28, 2001, chief ISS flight director John Curry sent out a memo stating, “I want every ISS Flight Director to understand the U.S./Russian relationship issue is becoming a problem onboard.” And, to keep the public and the Congress from knowing how bad things were, he added a stern warning: “Please DO NOT FORWARD!!” [Too late, mate!] Somehow or other, a copy of the memo reached me anyway.

Curry’s memo was sparked by a message from Expedition-2 crew member Jim Voss, then in orbit with Susan Helms and the station commander, Yuriy Usachyov. The crew got along fine together. But on June 27, Voss had reported that the TsUP (the Russian control center in Moscow) insisted on talking only with the Russian on the station, and refused to give Voss data intended for the Russian. “We are becoming more segmented every day and the unwillingness of some people in the TsUP to deal with any crew member is making this worse,” Voss wrote.

Usachyov asked Moscow for an explanation. According to Voss, an official said that we still have no agreement that Houston is the lead control center. Months earlier, officials had told the public that Houston had assumed that role, following the activation of the U.S. Lab.

“So, who is the lead center?” asked Voss. “I realize that in many ways the Russians are still flying the Mir and we can’t get them to move ahead, but we have to keep plugging away.”

“As a professional astronaut with a lot of experience, I was insulted by their approach to this,” he continued. “To me it is totally unacceptable for them to not work with any crew member on any subject. I hope this is resolved after Yury’s discussion with the supervisor today, but I wanted you to know what we were thinking about this and what was going on off the loops. I will be patient and continue to work with them, but I will find it hard to accept another occurrence of this type.”

Voss requested that this problem be concealed from the public. “This is private/personal mail and not for release to the media.” This was in violation of written NASA policies on operational versus personal e-mail.

Private Frictions

Curry replied to Voss by another e-mail message never intended for the public to see. “I also had a very similar week regarding Russian relations,” he wrote. “The Russians ARE DEFINITELY trying to force us into segmented operations, where the Russian crew members obey the Moscow TsUP and the Americans are controlled from Houston. This is a direct violation of the fundamental principle of the ‘unified crew,’ agreed to by all the international partners.

“They REFUSE to acknowledge any type of U.S. leadership in the planning world on items such as sleep cycles, priorities, etc., and they proactively maintain a written record of instances when [Houston] makes a planning mistake. This record is then periodically shipped to Houston as justification for why they should still lead planning (i.e, [Houston] planners are a bunch of idiots who don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground).”

Curry had found out that a month earlier, TsUP boss Vladimir Solovyov instructed all his flight directors to follow the policy that the TsUP was still in charge, and they should “maintain ownership of all Russian Segment related activities.” Concluded Curry, “I believe Solov’ev’s goal is to drive us into segmented operations so they can have free reign to profit from Space Station operations without U.S. interference.”

“We’ve been trying to fight this ‘who’s in charge’ battle behind the scenes for quite some time,” Curry wrote. “We have jointly signed Flight Rules which clearly state [Houston] is in charge of all operations including Planning except in specific instances such as Russian Vehicle docking/undockings and [spacewalks] from the SM,” he explained. “In addition, we have signed protocol agreements defining the requirements which [Houston] must meet before complete handover can take place. [Houston] has now met all of these requirements.”

In public, these conflicts weren’t mentioned, and NASA denied any Houston-Moscow friction. Internally, officials knew they were covering up to ensure a public image of diplomatic concord.

Links

• Korolev city | Города Королева: this suburb to the north-east of Moscow is the location of Moscow Mission Control and related space industries.
• MSNBC.com: James Oberg’s Star-Crossed Orbits book excerpts: Part 1; Part 2
• Novosti Kosmonavtiki №1, 2001: “TsUP: yesterday, today, tomorrow…”
• ЦУП (TsUP): the official site; in Russian only

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