Spacecraft call signs are radio call signs used for communication in crewed spaceflight. These are not formalized or regulated to the same degree as other equivalent forms of transportation, like aircraft. The three nations currently launching crewed space missions use different methods to identify the ground and space radio stations; the United States uses either the names given to the space vehicles or else the project name and mission number. Russia traditionally assigns code names as call signs to individual cosmonauts, more in the manner of aviator call signs, rather than to the spacecraft.
The only continuity in call signs for spacecraft has been the issuance of "ISS"-suffixed (or "-1SS", for its visual similarity) call signs by various countries in the Amateur Radio service as a citizen of their country has been assigned there. The first Amateur Radio call sign assigned to the International Space Station was NA1SS by the United States. OR4ISS (Belgium), GB1SS (UK),[1] DP0ISS (Germany), and RS0ISS (Russia) are examples of others, but are not all-inclusive of others also issued.
United States
In America's first crewed space program Project Mercury, the astronauts named their individual spacecraft. These names each consisted of a significant word followed by the number 7 (representing the seven original astronauts) and were used as the call signs by the capsule communicators (CAPCOMs).
In Project Gemini, the astronauts were not officially permitted to name their two-man spacecraft, which was identified by "Gemini" followed by the mission number (3 through 12). A notable exception was that Gus Grissom named his Gemini 3 spacecraft Molly Brown after the Titanic survivor, as a joke based on his experience with his Liberty Bell 7 capsule sinking. This name was used as a call sign by CAPCOM L. Gordon Cooper, without NASA's approval.
The practice of using the mission number continued through the first two flights of the Project Apollo crewed lunar landing program, Apollo 7 and Apollo 8. But all remaining Apollo missions included two crewed spacecraft (Command/Service Module (CSM) and Lunar Module (LM)) on each flight, which required the use of separate call signs for each vehicle when they flew independently of each other. For this reason, NASA permitted the three-man crews to name both crafts for each of their missions, and these names were used as the call signs. A temporary exception to this was on the first Moon landing, Apollo 11: since the first Moon landing site was in the Sea of Tranquillity, the call sign Tranquillity Base was used while the LM was on the lunar surface. Before and after the independent flight of the LM, the mission number was used as the call sign. The Apollo call signs were:
For project Skylab, the practice returned to using the mission name as the spacecraft call sign, since the Skylab station was left uncrewed while the shuttle vehicle (an Apollo CSM) carried a crew to it or back to Earth.
The six Space Shuttle orbiters were given individual names (they also had letter-and-number callsigns) by NASA, which were used as the call signs: Enterprise (OV-101, which was not fitted for spaceflight), Columbia (OV-102), Challenger (OV-099), Discovery (OV-103), Atlantis (OV-104), and Endeavour (OV-105). Of these, Columbia, Challenger, and Endeavour had previously served as call-signs of Apollo spacecraft.
SpaceXCrew Dragon capsules use two calls signs. Dragon is used as a generic call sign, particularly if the capsule has not been named. The name of the spacecraft is also used as a call sign. The name and call sign of each Crew Dragon, as given by the crew of the spacecraft's initial mission, is:
Endeavour, which was named for the space shuttle Endeavour, had previously served as call signs for both an Apollo spacecraft and the spacecraft's namesake shuttle.[6] The name Freedom honors Freedom 7, the space capsule used by Alan Shepard's Mercury Redstone 3, the first United States human spaceflight mission.[7]
The call sign SpaceX is used by the Crew Operations and Resources Engineer (CORE) (the SpaceX equivalent of the CAPCOM in Houston) at SpaceX Mission Control (MCC-X) in Hawthorne, California.[8][9]
Russia (including the former Soviet Union)
The spacecraft of the Soviet Union were not individually named, nor are those of Russia today. Only the general type of spacecraft, for example, "Vostok," "Soyuz," or "Soyuz-T" is publicly announced after launch, usually followed by the number of the flight of that type of spacecraft. The Soviet and now Russian call signs are more nearly code words, and so are not disclosed before launch. Each is given to a particular cosmonaut who commands a spacecraft, generally staying as his or her designation from spacecraft to spacecraft. The other crew members use the same call sign with a number of their rank in the chain of command suffixed. Russian popular journalism refers to the crew by the plural of the call sign (for example, "the Fotons").
Kedr, meaning "cedar," was the call sign of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. It would have disclosed nothing to a listener concerning the momentousness of the flight. The rest of the call signs of the Vostok series were the names of birds. Pavel Popovich and Andriyan Nikolayev's call signs in their joint flight in Vostok-3 and Vostok-4, Sokol ("falcon") and Berkut ("golden eagle"), were widely popularized by soviet media. The call sign of the launch facility itself for Vostok was nearly a code word: Zarya, meaning "dawn".
Early Soyuz flights intent on practicing docking procedures were given call signs elaborating on the first few letters of an alphabet. Soyuz 4, which had the call sign Amur, docked with Soyuz 5, called Baikal - the names derived from a railway project of that era, intending to link those two geographical features. Soyuz 6 was given a call sign equivalent to "Antaeus," which referred to the largest aircraft of the era, the Antonov 22. Its mission in a group flight was to film the intended docking of Soyuz 7 (called Buran, which means "snowstorm") with Soyuz 8, called Granit ("granite") - standard Soviet military call signs. The equivalent for the letter A was Aktif, meaning "Active"; it would be inappropriate for the mission of Soyuz 6.
Later Soyuz flights to the Salyut space stations and Mir had less noteworthy call signs: Foton, meaning "photon", etc.
In contrast to the naming conventions applied by the Soviet Union and now Russia, most American space flights, with the exception of those of Project Gemini and early Apollo flights, have had their spacecraft officially named. Calls to ground facilities by radiotelephone use the name of the spacecraft (e.g., "The Eagle has landed") as the call sign.
International Space Station
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The call sign of the International Space Station was Alpha, now Station.
When different space missions and different control centers work together in joint operations, for example when a Dragon capsule docks to the ISS, NASA connects all communication channels using what is known as the Big Loop.[10] When communicating on the Big Loop, one can hear the call signs Dragon, SpaceX, Houston and Station at any given time.
The following Call signs are available for use on the ISS:[11]
RUSSIAN: RS0ISS
USA: NA1SS
EUROPEAN: DP0ISS, OR4ISS, IR0ISS
The fallowing callsigns are called when the crew needs to contact one of the field centers on the ground what ever segment they are in when performing experiments:[12]
Human spaceflight is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be remotely operated from ground stations on Earth, or autonomously, without any direct human involvement. People trained for spaceflight are called astronauts, cosmonauts (Russian), or taikonauts (Chinese); and non-professionals are referred to as spaceflight participants or spacefarers.
The Soyuz programme is a human spaceflight programme initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft was originally part of a Moon landing project intended to put a Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon. It was the third Soviet human spaceflight programme after the Vostok (1961–1963) and Voskhod (1964–1965) programmes.
Splashdown is the method of landing a spacecraft by parachute in a body of water. It was used by crewed American space capsules prior to the Space Shuttle program, by SpaceX Dragon and Dragon 2 capsules and by NASA's Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle. It is also possible for the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to land in water, though this is only a contingency. The only example of an unintentional crewed splashdown in Soviet history is the Soyuz 23 landing.
Human spaceflight programs have been conducted, started, or planned by multiple countries and companies. The age of manned rocket flight was initiated by Fritz von Opel who piloted the world's first rocket-propelled flight on 30 September 1929. All space flights depend on rocket technology; von Opel was the co-designer and financier of the visionary project. Until the 21st century, human spaceflight programs were sponsored exclusively by governments, through either the military or civilian space agencies. With the launch of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of human spaceflight programs – commercial human spaceflight – arrived. By the end of 2022, three countries and one private company (SpaceX) had successfully launched humans to Earth orbit, and two private companies had launched humans on a suborbital trajectory. The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight vary. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale defines spaceflight as any flight over 100 kilometers (62 mi). In the United States professional, military, and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of 80 kilometers (50 mi) are awarded the United States Astronaut Badge. This article follows the FAI definition of spaceflight.
Project Gemini was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual astronauts flew low Earth orbit (LEO) missions during 1965 and 1966.
A space rendezvous is a set of orbital maneuvers during which two spacecraft, one of which is often a space station, arrive at the same orbit and approach to a very close distance. Rendezvous requires a precise match of the orbital velocities and position vectors of the two spacecraft, allowing them to remain at a constant distance through orbital station-keeping. Rendezvous may or may not be followed by docking or berthing, procedures which bring the spacecraft into physical contact and create a link between them.
A space capsule is a spacecraft designed to transport cargo, scientific experiments, and/or astronauts to and from space. Capsules are distinguished from other spacecraft by the ability to survive reentry and return a payload to the Earth's surface from orbit, and are distinguished from other types of recoverable spacecraft by their blunt shape, not having wings and often containing little fuel other than what is necessary for a safe return. Capsule-based crewed spacecraft such as Soyuz or Orion are often supported by a service or adapter module, and sometimes augmented with an extra module for extended space operations. Capsules make up the majority of crewed spacecraft designs, although one crewed spaceplane, the Space Shuttle, has flown in orbit.
A launch escape system (LES) or launch abort system (LAS) is a crew-safety system connected to a space capsule. It is used in the event of a critical emergency to quickly separate the capsule from its launch vehicle in case of an emergency requiring the abort of the launch, such as an impending explosion. The LES is typically controlled by a combination of automatic rocket failure detection, and a manual activation for the crew commander's use. The LES may be used while the launch vehicle is still on the launch pad, or during its ascent. Such systems are usually of three types:
Flight controllers are personnel who aid space flight by working in such Mission Control Centers as NASA's Mission Control Center or ESA's European Space Operations Centre. Flight controllers work at computer consoles and use telemetry to monitor various technical aspects of a space mission in real-time. Each controller is an expert in a specific area and constantly communicates with additional experts in the "back room". The flight director, who leads the flight controllers, monitors the activities of a team of flight controllers, and has overall responsibility for success and safety.
A mission patch is a cloth reproduction of a spaceflight mission emblem worn by astronauts and other personnel affiliated with that mission. It is usually executed as an embroidered patch. The term space patch is mostly applied to an emblem designed for a crewed space mission. Traditionally, the patch is worn on the space suit that astronauts and cosmonauts wear when launched into space. Mission patches have been adopted by the crew and personnel of many other space ventures, public and private.
NASA's Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center, also known by its radio callsign, Houston, is the facility at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, that manages flight control for the United States human space program, currently involving astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The center is in Building 30 at the Johnson Space Center and is named after Christopher C. Kraft Jr., a NASA engineer and manager who was instrumental in establishing the agency's Mission Control operation, and was the first Flight Director.
The retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle fleet took place from March to July 2011. Discovery was the first of the three active Space Shuttles to be retired, completing its final mission on March 9, 2011; Endeavour did so on June 1. The final shuttle mission was completed with the landing of Atlantis on July 21, 2011, closing the 30-year Space Shuttle program.
Crew Dragon Demo-2 was the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft, named Endeavour, launched on 30 May 2020 on a Falcon 9 booster, and carried NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken to the International Space Station in the first crewed orbital spaceflight launched from the United States since the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011, and the first ever operated by a commercial provider. Demo-2 was also the first two-person orbital spaceflight launched from the United States since STS-4 in 1982. Demo-2 completed the validation of crewed spaceflight operations using SpaceX hardware and received human-rating certification for the spacecraft, including astronaut testing of Crew Dragon capabilities on orbit.
The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) provides commercially operated crew transportation service to and from the International Space Station (ISS) under contract to NASA, conducting crew rotations between the expeditions of the International Space Station program. American space manufacturer SpaceX began providing service in 2020, using the Crew Dragon spacecraft, and NASA plans to add Boeing when its Boeing Starliner spacecraft becomes operational no earlier than 2024. NASA has contracted for six operational missions from Boeing and fourteen from SpaceX, ensuring sufficient support for ISS through 2030.
SpaceX Crew-5 marked the fifth operational NASA Commercial Crew Program flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, constituting the eighth overall crewed orbital flight. The mission was successfully launched on 5 October 2022, with the aim of transporting four crew members to the International Space Station (ISS). The Crew Dragon spacecraft docked at the ISS on 6 October 2022 at 21:01 UTC.
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