Kent V. Rominger Wayne Hale and Lawrence Bourgeois monitor pre-flight data in Houston's Mission Control Center.

Astronaut Kent V. Rominger (left), Wayne Hale, and Lawrence Bourgeois (background), monitor pre-flight data at the Mission Operation Directorate (MOD) console in the shuttle flight control room (WFCR) in Houston's Mission Control Center (MCC). Several hundred miles away in Florida, the STS-109 crewmembers were awaiting countdown in the crew cabin of the Space Shuttle Columbia on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). As soon as the vehicle cleared the tower in Florida, the Houston-based team of flight controllers took over the ground control of the mission. Rominger is the Deputy Director of the Flight Crew Operations Directorate (FCOD) and was the FCOD management representative in the MCC. Hale, the Deputy Chief for Space Shuttle of the Flight Director�s Office, served as the MOD management representative. Bourgeois is the Mission Operations Director in the Flight Operations Department at United Space Alliance (USA), and was the USA management representative for STS-109.