Well, I am more interested in the "boring" questions right now: How is the work of a FDO like beyond the console? (Or how NASAs homepage puts it: "the other 75% of the time"). How is a FDO for example involved in mission preparation?
Awesome question, and YES ... FDOs were critically involved with mission design and preparation. There was an entire Flight Design organization, which was HUGE, that was responsible for a lot of the pre-flight planning, generic and flight-specific techniques and procedures, post-flight evaluation and updates, etc. The FDO was a key part of that, with the Lead FDO assigned for each flight participating directly with the Flight Design Manager assigned for that flight. Together, they would work with the mission objectives, review if previous missions were similar for reuse, work with the FD teams for trajectory optimization, be the primary interfaces with the crews when new trajectory techniques were to be developed, work with the other Flight Controllers when things overlapped (working with Payloads, PROP, Guidance/GPO, etc.).
Then - there were the simulations. LOTS and LOTS of simulations. We had "generic" (training for both new and experienced teams) sims and "Flight Specific" sims that used the actual assigned crew, performed actual planned flight objectives, etc. The sim types included Ascent sims (including both nominal and abort runs - they'd do numerous ones in a given day, with debriefs after each one), Orbit sims (sometimes "just the one day" and sometimes multi-day "Long Duration" sims to practice planning/handover/execution activities), and Entry sims (which would be either a Deorbit-through-Landing sim or sometimes just the "200K" runs, which would be from 200K feet through landing - so they could do several in a given day).
Remember, too, that FDOs were assigned to multiple flights at any given time - so while I might have been Lead FDO on one or two upcoming flights, I was also assigned to a non-Lead shift for several others... or, as a Senior FDO, would be training new people - so had to both provide sim scenarios *and* sit with the newbies on console for training... or sometimes sit in the generic sims if they wanted a few more experienced team members sprinkled into the mix to show the newbies how to respond to the failures that the Sim team ALWAYS threw at us!
... and, of course, there was the training. Always looking at Flight Rules, new procedures (participating in and defending them in Flight Techniques meetings with crew/Flight Directors asking oh-so-tough-but-necessary questions), documentation updates, and the normal office stuff.
We were *never* without something (really really cool) to do.
And of course: In many German workplaces, its common to play more or less evil jokes on the new employees, and from what I can tell, its not unknown in other countries... did anything like that happen to you on our first day at NASA?
First Day? Not so much ... but throughout the career? Oh yes indeed!
In the "old MCC" (Apollo era) before we transitioned to the new MCC, the consoles still had pneumatic tube systems for sending hardcopies, notes, etc., to other console stations both in the MCC and in our back-rooms (MPSRs). One of my favorite jokes was to send a p-tube full of "anti holes" (the little paper circles cut out by the three-hole punch so that documents could be put into three-ring binders) to an unsuspecting newbie in the MPSR. They'd hear the p-tube "arrive" with a resounding THUNK, dutifully think "Oh! FDO just sent me something, I'd better go open it right away!"
Which, of course, would result in the newbie being showered with anti-holes.
On a side note, and "not intended as a joke", jelly donuts do *not* travel well in p-tubes.
