JSC2001-E-24994 (10 August 2001) --- Flight director John Shannon finds a moment of levity while working at his console in the shuttle flight control room (WFCR) in Houston's Mission Control Center (MCC). Several hundred miles away in Florida, the STS-105 and Expedition Three crew members were awaiting countdown in the crew cabin of the Space Shuttle Discovery 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 flight.
Photographer Bill Stafford