While history often recognizes the astronauts who became the first humans to walk on the Moon, equally noteworthy are the people of Mission Control, without whom the missions would not have been possible. With less computing power than a present-day cell phone at their disposal, Apollo-era flight controllers in Houston were able to safely launch humans into space, and even land them on our nearest celestial neighbor. The Historic Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) was home to the planning, monitoring and command controls that were essential to America’s early human spaceflight program. It housed the people responsible for the success of early manned spaceflight missions, including the Gemini, Mercury, Apollo, and Soyuz missions in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as Shuttle-era missions in the early 1990s.
Due to its impactfulness and criticality to human spaceflight in America, Building 30– The Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. Mission Control Center– became a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1985. The historic Apollo Mission Control was decommissioned in the 1990s, after the Space Shuttle Discovery spent seven days in space during the STS-53 mission in 1992. In 2015, the NHL received “threatened” status after its condition declined from years of use and increased foot traffic. When the National Park Service made this determination, JSC was already in the process of restoring the Apollo Mission Control Center.
The restoration project, which was conceived in 2013, began in November 2018 and was completed in July 2019. It restored the Historic Mission Control to its Apollo-Era condition, and features the authentic consoles used to monitor nine Gemini missions, all Apollo Moon missions, and 21 space shuttle missions. This includes the Apollo 11 flight that first landed men on the moon, the Apollo 13 mission that famously experienced an in-flight emergency, and 40 other space missions. The $5 million endeavor was funded with a generous $3.1 million donation from the City of Webster, TX, and an additional $400,000 matching of the Kickstarter Campaign run by Space Center Houston. The Kickstarter raised $525k in donations, and JSC added the remaining $1 million to complete the project.
The project restored original furniture and finishes in order to return the MOCR to its classic appearance during a pivotal time in American history. The MOCR is complete with authentic consoles, mission medallions, upholstery, seats, wallpaper, and carpet, that were all either cleaned and restored to their original condition or recreated using original samples. Digitized 16-mm film taken during the Apollo 11 mission allowed restoration experts to identify otherwise unknown artifacts and colors as they were experienced in the control room during that time. This includes …