From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishground controlˈground conˌtrol noun [uncountable] TTAthe people on the ground who are responsible for guiding the flight of spacecraft or aircraft
Examples from the Corpus
ground control• From the start there were communications difficulties between ground control and the lunar module.• Jet fighters practicing interception maneuvers no longer can approach nonmilitary aircraft without consulting ground control first, Sen.• Who is best able to see the overall picture: the people in the rocket or ground control?• The ground control asked the crew to describe the creatures - bat-like, horrible - and then the sound went dead.• Even so, the system on board the spacecraft retained some independence should contact with ground control be lost. 