Flight controller#Capsule Communicator .28CAPCOM.29

A Capsule Communicator ( Capcom ) is in manned space flight of the connection between the speaker located in space astronauts and the ground station.

With the beginning of manned space flight, it was important both for NASA and for the astronauts to always only have a single point of contact through which all communication is channeled. The Capcom sits right next to the flight director in Mission Control Center at Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. About the Capsule Communicator all instructions of the ground control are transmitted to the astronauts, even the Capcom falls the task of the daily wake-up calls to.

Originally, the radio call name was actually " Capcom ". With the relocation of ground control in the Johnson Space Center, he then changed into "Houston".

By 2001, the position of Capcom's at NASA was occupied only by astronauts, either by members of the reserve teams of the mission or by participants of previous missions. Meanwhile, experienced engineers and trainers are used for this task.