NASA’s Mission Control Center at the Johnson Space Center has to remain powered up at all times to maintain communications with the International Space Station. Johnson Space Center is one of three NASA space centers where PAE provides operations and maintenance services. More than 500 people work to keep the center running 24/7, year-round.
Through Lean Six Sigma practices, PAE devised a smarter way to keep uninterrupted power flowing to NASA’s critical hub in Houston.
Keeping Mission Control operational: If power to Mission Control goes down, communications to the International Space Station goes dark. It’s not enough to have just a backup generator; there’s a potential lag of up to 45 minutes between initial loss of power and the generator coming fully online.
PAE devised a system of lithium-ion batteries that will provide 2.5 megawatts of continuous power in the event of a power plant failure. The $17 million project is scheduled to be completed by spring of 2020.
