Apollo Mission Control Centre restored for moon landing anniversary

50 years ago, on July 16 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins left Earth in Apollo 11 with hopes of a lunar landing. Four days later, staff in NASA’s Johnson Space Center Houston celebrated as Armstrong and Aldrin stepped foot on the moon and made one giant leap for mankind.

Today, the Space Center Houston is welcoming visitors to the restored Apollo Mission Control Center to experience the historical room for themselves.

According to Business Insider, the restored Apollo Mission Control Center has been reupholstered and decorated to the tiniest detail. This includes rotary phones, coffee mugs, and cigarettes. The attention to detail makes the room look exactly as it did in July 1969. The entire restoration process cost $5 million (R69,678,500) to do.

The scope of the restoration project included the Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR), the Visitor Viewing Room, Simulation Control Room and the Summary Display Projection Room (also called the “bat cave”).

Guests will now see the restored flight control consoles with buttons illuminated and their screens displaying data used during the Apollo 11 mission. The five large screens across the front of the room have been reactivated with projections to recreate the exact images seen during the Apollo 11 mission.

The room was used during all 14 Apollo missions, nine Gemini missions and 21 space shuttle missions.

Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985, the room celebrates human space exploration and inspires people from around the world who visit. Space Center Houston, the city of Webster and NASA Johnson Space Center worked together over two years to restore the room that fuelled the space race and innovation that changed the course of history.