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NASA Restores Mission Control
NASA, the Texas Historical Commission and National Park Service have restored the Apollo era Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) to its Apollo 15 configuration. [collectspace.com]
The Apollo 15 configuration was used as the most complete records are available for that mission. Tours of Johnson Space enter will include taking guests to the actual Mission Control where visitors
will hear the real voices of the flight controllers from 50 years ago just as Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were preparing to begin their descent to the lunar surface. Taking a seat in the same glassed-in viewing gallery where the astronauts' families and other guests witnessed the mission unfold live in 1969, the public will watch as the consoles and screens play back the first moon landing, moonwalk and the astronauts' return to Earth.
The restoration included removing the original cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays and backlight assemblies and replacing them
with modern electronics and screens, enabling the consoles to glow again as they did half a century ago. Each of the control stations now shine with data and indicators as it did when it was in active use.
"They're artifacts and so you don't destroy artifacts," said Sandra Tetley, NASA's historic preservation officer at Johnson Space Center. "We took the CRTs out and they've been saved. We put flat screens [in their place] and then they recreated the fronts. Behind the buttons are LED lights. So everything is placed in there non-destructively."
The recreation extends from the floor to the ceiling. Carpet, wallpaper, paint fragments, personal artifacts, coffee cups, ashtrays, cigarettes, an actual RC Cola pull tab can and many other items down to the brand of the pens flight controllers used were evaluated, analyzed and compared against archival photos and sourced, reused or recreated.
Included in the article is a time lapse video of the restoration and an extensive photo gallery.
The site was designated a national historic landmark in 1985.
