For greater details on NASA flight control personnel, see
Flight controller.
A launch status check, also known as a "go/no go poll" and several other terms, occurs at the beginning of an American spaceflight mission in which
flight controllers monitoring various systems are queried for operation and readiness status before a launch can proceed. For
Space Shuttle missions, in the firing room at the
Launch Control Center, the NASA Test Director (NTD) performed this check via a voice communications link with other NASA personnel. The NTD was the leader of the shuttle test team responsible for directing and integrating all flight crew, orbiter, external tank/solid rocket booster and ground support testing in the shuttle launch countdown. The NTD was also responsible for the safety of all personnel inside the pad after external tank loading, including the flight crew, about 10 go/no go reports. He reported to the
Launch Director, who has another about 5 go/no go reports.[1] The Launch director declares if a mission is go for launch.
Checklist of firing room positions
This section is missing information about the
Crew Dragon checklist of firing room positions. Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the
talk page.(November 2020)
In the Apollo program, the MCC launch status check was initiated by the Flight Director, or
FLIGHT. The following "preflight check" order was used before the launch of Apollo 13:[7]
BOOSTER – Booster Systems Engineer (monitored the
Saturn V in pre-launch and ascent)
RETRO – Retrofire Officer (responsible for abort procedures and Trans-Earth Injection, or TEI, retrofire burns)
FIDO – Flight Dynamics Officer (responsible for the flight path of the space vehicle)