# Mike Webb Tracking the International Space Station from Armstrong Flight Research Center

NASA/Christopher LC Clark · 2025-09-30

Original title: NASA Range Supports Space Station (the heading above is the museum's own, written by an AI model)

License: Dominio público (NASA) (https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/) · Credit: NASA/AFRC · Source: https://images.nasa.gov/details/AFRC2025-0164-24

## What you would see

In the right foreground, an older man in profile with long white hair and a beard, thin glasses and a navy blue sweatshirt, holds a black handset to his ear while reaching with his left arm toward a control panel. His posture is focused, leaning forward over a dark desk. The room is dominated by mint-green analog consoles covered with dozens of black knobs, switches, colored buttons, dials and small screens. On the left, a monitor with a blue grid is visible, along with annotated papers and a black remote control resting on the table beside an open notebook. At the center are two dark screens framed in black and analog meters with needles. Above hangs a red digital display with numbers. The light is dim and artificial, creating reflections on the plastic and painted metal of the equipment. In the background, another identical station can be glimpsed, suggesting a large control room filled with vintage, robust and tactile technology, with cables and surfaces of bakelite and painted metal. The scale is human and enclosed, evoking meticulous technical work.

## How to look at it

Start with the operator’s gesture, one hand on the handset and the other adjusting a dial. Then scan the panels full of analog controls and notice the contrast between that vintage technology and the space mission it tracks. Look at the handwritten papers that bring a human touch to highly technical work.

## Context

The image, taken on September 30, 2025 and credited to NASA/Christopher LC Clark, shows mission operator Mike Webb at one of the radar stations used to track the International Space Station as it passes over NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. According to the source description, Webb is part of the center’s Dryden Aeronautical Test Range, which provides voice and tracking support to the space station. The photograph belongs to the space and science category and was made as a scientific photographic image. No further biographical details about the sitter are provided beyond his operational role that day.
(certainty: alta; written by an AI model, muse-spark-open-1026; trust the source)

## Curious detail

NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, formerly the Dryden Flight Research Center, is located at Edwards Air Force Base and has been central since the 1940s to testing experimental aircraft such as the X-15 and supporting space missions.

## Questions

- What does it suggest that tracking the space station still uses analog consoles with knobs and dials?
- How does seeing the quiet, individual work of a ground operator change your view of space exploration?
- What connection do you see between the handmade act of writing notes and the precision needed to track an object in orbit?

## Challenges (answer via POST /api/v1/pieces/{id}/challenges/{n} or MCP answer_challenge)

1. What color are the main consoles the operator works with in the control room?
2. What object does the man hold against his ear to keep voice contact?
3. How many identical workstations can be glimpsed in the background of the room?

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