NASA’s three lunar landing pioneers blasted off to the Moon on July 16, 1969, onboard the Apollo 11 mission. The monumental journey was coordinated around-the-clock by a team of dedicated experts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. It was from this room, that NASA Mission Control watched Neil Armstrong take his very first step on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Now, as the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing approaches, the space agency has given the control room a lick of fresh paint, restoring it to its former glory
And according to NASA, “great pains were taken” to keep the control room as authentic as it was on that fateful day in 1969.
The effort involved recreating or restoring artefacts from that year, such as the control panels, coffee mugs, clothing items and even ashtrays.
NASA said: “The artefacts all were placed just as they were 50 years ago.”
Mark Geyer, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center said: “Apollo captured the world’s attention and demonstrated the power of America’s vision and technology, which has inspired generations of great achievements in space exploration, and scientific discovery.
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“Our goal 50 years ago was to prove we could land humans on the Moon and return them safely to Earth.
“Our goal now is to return to the Moon to stay, in a sustainable way.
“I’m thrilled this facility will be open for the public to view.
“It is my hope that it will serve as inspiration for generations to come.”
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The Mission Operations Control Room resides in the Mission Control Center of Building 30 at Johnson in Houston.
The historic location has served as a focal point of operations for each of the six Apollo lunar landings – Apollo 11 through to Apollo 17.
In the control room, NASA’s space flight engineers and experts successfully planned and coordinated not only Apollo but also the Gemini, Skylab and Space Shuttle programmes.
The NASA facility remained in operation until 1992 and was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service in 1985.
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The control room has now been completely restored its former glory, just as it was in 1969.
The restoration process took seven months to complete and came at a cost of more than £3.9million ($5million).
Jim Thornton, who led the restoration project, said: “By restoring the Apollo Mission Control Center, NASA is preserving the rich history of a remarkable achievement in human spaceflight.
“This will not only help share our history with visitors from around the world but also remind our current employees who are planning missions to send humans back to the Moon and then further to Mars, that anything is possible and we are standing on the shoulders of giants.”
