Mission Control Station

Provides guidance data to rocket pilots within range, to improve rocket speed.

Research

Hydrocarbon Propulsion

Dimensions

3×3 tiles

Mechanics

To use a mission control station:

the building must be powered, enabled, and located inside a valid Laboratory room;
at least one of the three cells of the building must have a clear line of sight to space;
there must be a duplicant with the Astronomy skill;
there must be an eligible rocket mid-flight (not grounded):
- vanilla rockets do not have a range requirement;
- Spaced Out! rockets must be within range (2 tiles) and must have sufficient fuel to move;

An eligible rocket is a rocket that has neither been boosted yet nor targeted by another station. Hence, a rocket can only receive one boost at a time.

The station targets an eligible rocket and requests a duplicant to complete the work with a Research errand. When the duplicant is done, the targeted rocket is boosted for 1 cycle (600 seconds).

Tips

Airflow Tiles, Pneumatic Doors, Window Tiles and Mesh Tiles do not impede its line of sight.
In the base game, the Mission Control Station is unlocked under Solid Fuel Combustion research; in Spaced Out!, it is unlocked under Hydrocarbon Propulsion instead.
Duplicants complete work at the station faster if there is light over the middle cell. Because mission control stations require a clear view of the sky, it usually requires little to no effort to benefit from the 15% Lit Workspace speed bonus.
Operating the station is a Research task, so duplicants' operation speed is affected by their Science attribute, and duplicants will receive experience in Science by operating the station.
As the only resource consumed by the station is power (and even that is only used while it is being operated by a duplicant), the Mission Control Station can be a very easy way to reduce the length of rocket missions.