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We see lots of video from mission control during ISS operations and at the front of the room there are big screens displaying things which are important to all the controllers. One of the most prominent displays is the map which shows the location of the ISS & other spacecraft as well as a bunch of cryptic, wavy lines.So, let’s explain what all these mean and why they’re important to the control room staff when operating the most complicated machine ever flown.
Image Credits:
Roscosmos
James Blair
Bill Ingalis
Please do not ever again upload a video that is 7:39 long.
7:38 would be ok, 5:39 and 3:36 also just to name a few.
Thank you for your understanding and have a good day!
Good, informative content Scott. Thank you for explaining that.
Best explanation of beta angles I’ve seen! It’s not something that gets much attention.
I have always wanted to learn about this. Thanks Scott!
I love that as you say at around 7:10 that the smart people do importand stuff, you can see two actualy watching a stream or news in the bottom right corner of their screen.
Nice. I feel just a little bit smarter knowing these things.
Great video!
Looks like the crew are more like space slaves. (I want to be one tho)
Looks like my dream gaming room…
omg thank you. ive always wondered about that.
Congratulations on 1M.
The Mission Control room gets a lot busier during a launch, just like we all can testify next 18th January.
I’ve been to the Johnson Space Centre 3 times and it has never failed to impress me how small the mission control room actually is to how space I imagined they’d require.
One thing I don’t believe they require is that theme park area they’ve plonked at the entrance. Beyond that however the tour around the research facilities and museum areas is truly fascinating. But maybe that’s just me getting older. Regards.
Thank you for the interesting info! It could just be me but the volume of the voice over seemed to change quite a bit in this video.
Thanks for the breakdown.
I’ve seen most of your videos, but this one is so succinct and perfectly describes advanced concepts to a layman like me. Thank you!
thanks Scott, it’s always a pleasure listening to your explanations
Well, shoot– even *I* can read some of these maps. (points at different places) That’s the US, Canada, and Mexico; that’s England… 😀
How is the ISS location monitored throughout its orbit?
Could you explain the north Korean mission control? It’s just a vidieo of less than 1 minute 😂
Hooray 1M subs great work Scott keeping people interested on science
Ha! Last video I asked how it comes that those orbit lines are in a wave shape. I now take comfort in thinking that Scott might have read that question and was inspired to do this video. Even though that’s probably not true
0:39 please can someone please hack the Roscosmos Mission Control and substitute pictures of Jeb, Bill and Valentina in that top left screen?
Thanks Scott, this is most helpful!
I got to visit Mission Control on my birthday back in September. really fascinating to watch the controls work.
Very interesting!
Many thanks for those explanations!
Greets from germany! ^^
I’d recommend you download Orbitron if you want to play with these maps some more.
Thank you, that was a crystal clear explanation
3:30 that is why we use flexbox!
Thanks so much for this. This is just what I needed!
I never even thought about trying to understand everything on the big screen aside from: thats the earth and the wavy lines are the orbits.
So thank you for broadening my horizon, again!
Everyone knows they play ksp on the small screen you never see. KSP is spacy enough looking to not get caught by mission director at quick glance.
What was on the big ‘screen’ back in the 60s and 70s, before we had all these big, flat screens?
7:12 is it just me or is someone in ground control watching Harry Potter in a teensy window on that one screen?…
Scott congratulations on your 1,000,000 subs. i ve watching your videos for i don’t know how many years ago, so i love seing you reach this landmark.
Get well soon Scott <3
The something awful area cracked me up.
5:44 Some would argue that the most complex machine that humans have ever built is the Internet.
Thanks Scott, again, never disappointed..
DPC is the Daily Planning Conference
I’ve always wondered why the orbits looked so wonky on those maps. Thanks Scott, keep up the quality!!
Bruv do a 1 mil special
Are those two controllers watching tele on her monitor at the end there
Thanks Scott, this was really interesting and cool.
It’s impressive how you can judge how old pictures are just examining the smartphones.
Nice to finally understand some of those letters, cheers Scott 👍🏼😊
Great insights there, thank you!
What OS does Mission Control use?
Some Linux Distro?
How many keyboards and phones are per person in NASA?
And this is the machine that goes Bing! 😉😆
Love the info, keep up the good work Scott ☺️
So NASA runs on Windows XP ^_^
Yay, science. I liked this video. That was cool.
Waiting for comments from flat-earthers.
+
Random comment just for the interaction for the channel
A heck of a lot of those taskbars are WinXP ones. Hope they’ve got a solid VPN!
3:15 – what an old political map!
West and East Germany
Czechoslovakia
Yugoslavia
one Sudan
and the USSR
Congrats on 1M!!! My couter was just at exactly 1.000.000 when I loaded the video!!!!
It’s flat … Proof right there……..
Scott never disappoints, there is always more to learn, and he makes that easy.
I am forever banned from being within 1000 feet of the “Smart People”.
1.000.000 subs right now! Congratulations from Argentina!
6:10 “Looking fine right now” … shows messages with 4 lines saying “Failed”, 1 saying “Error”, and the remaining 3 showing “Loss”.
Bonus points, it all runs on a version of linux!
SAA: The Bermuda Triangle of Space Flight. Break out the tin foil hats!
Wait wut, so this isn’t a map of our flat earF?
I’m just jealous of the guy with 6 screens.
Something Awful Area… I’d almost forgotten you were a goon Scott
Great job! How about a video with brief explanations of each station in mission control? I toured mission control recently but they went through it really fast.
Rewatching “From the earth to the moon” right now on sky Atlantic 😀
Great video Congratulations on 1 million subscribers!
Game time! Drink a beer everytime he says “it’s also important”
Oh, when you started talking about the small screens, I hoped to get more information about what they are showing and indicating…
SAA comment made me giggle so hard. Goon trap sprung! Love the videos Scott!
I wish you could interview Chris Hatfield.
Be carefull to enter the SAA! The Goon Squads are hunting therre!
3:33 That window-frame colour keeps screaming “Windows XP” at me …
Is it me or does it look like NASA is running Windows XP
7:10 They watching a Disney movie in a small window on one of the screens?
That Mjölnir on THOR Team just for safety. 6:55
The stuff that everybody get to see is on the big screens…

The real shape of Earth is on small screens and you’ll never be able to read this!
Only The Chosen Smart People Know The Truth!
At 0:22 The person who folds their hands and prays when something starts to go wrong, the Flight Rector.
Hi Scott! How far you’ve come from teaching me about Eve online! You’re the man, congrats on 1mil subs
When you’re looking at a SpaceX webcast and they deploy either Dragon or Starlink or any satellite, if you use the vis-viva equation and input the actual velocity and altitude displayed on the telemetry you get a suborbital trajectory rather than an orbital one. Can you do a video about why this discrepancy? I’m assuming it has to do with the extra push from Earth’s rotation not being displayed in the velocity telemetry but I’d love an in-depth understanding.
Thanks
Didn’t you see on the small screen, they’re watching a youtube video!
I watch Mission Control to see if anyone’s playing KSP.
It’d be funny if we caught someones screen viewing a Scott Manley tutorial video on how to navigate a spaceship.
35 years of corporate piloting and having lived through every space event, i can now read a map I have seen my entire life. Thank you!
“SAA: Something awefull area ” haha cought me offguard
“Something awful area”…
Never heard it referred to that way before, but now that I have, I’d say that’s somewhat accurate.
Scott, you are my absolute favorite content creator. My daughter and I can actually hold a conversation about rockets and orbital mechanics, because she watches you all the time. She’s 8. I don’t know anyone else who can explain the jist of rocket science well enough for a 6-8 year old can understand (she’s been watching for a while now.) I woke up one morning and she had Valentina Kerman walking around on Eve. She then proceeded to return from Eve. Something I can say, with slight embarrassment, that I haven’t been able to do yet. 🤷.
So thank you, Scott Manley, and you fly safe as well. 🚀✴️
Captions are great: “Hello, it’s got manly here.”
0:37 The Russians also have something else: sponsorship placards.
We totally need a video on the South Atlantic Anomaly now.
Capcom: “Those guys play monster hunter. The windows are just spreadsheets with rare drop tables.”
“Scott Manley 1M subscribers” is the best thing I’ve ever read.
As a ground station software developer I really liked this video 👍🏻
Now we can analyse all the movie Mission Controls and see how realistic they are! Thanks Scott!
T minus 5 seconds to crew sleep… 3… 2… 1… and we have confirmation of successful crew sleep, see you again in 8 hours
hey, could you do a video about the terminology mission control uses, specifically for countdowns and in flight? stuff like how go-no-go polls are structured etc. as well as this, how it differs between NASA, SpaceX, ULA would also be interesting to hear
SAA: Here there be space dragons.
Would you do a video on the South Atlantic Anomaly???? I have never heard of this and it sounds fascinating!!
From now on I’ll always refer to the South Atlantic Anomaly as the Something Awful Area.