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A32 FEATURE
Saturday 29 June 2019

Restored Mission Control comes alive 50 years after Apollo

By MARCIA DUNN restoration team wanted a
Associated Press lived-in look for the carpet
HOUSTON (AP) — Gone is and chose a shade reflect-
the haze of cigarette, ci- ing years of nicotine discol-
gar and pipe smoke. Gone oring.
are the coffee, soda and And yes, Kranz got his miss-
pizza stains. With only a few ing rotary-dial wall phone.
exceptions, NASA’s Apol- “I fought for everything,”
lo-era Mission Control has Tetley said. “But we’re get-
been restored to the way it ting everything we want to
looked 50 years ago when make it just completely his-
two men landed on the torically accurate.”
moon. The green consoles were
It gets the stamp of approv- trucked to the Cosmos-
al from retired flight direc- phere museum in Hutchin-
tor Gene Kranz, a man for son, Kansas, for months of
whom failure — or even a rehab. Cigarette butts were
minor oversight — is never dug out of the consoles,
an option. along with gum wrappers
Seated at the console and papers.
where he ruled over Apollo Modern LED lights and flat
11, Apollo 13 and so many screens were installed to
other astronaut missions, This July 20, 1969 photo made available by NASA shows the Mission Operations Control Room bring the consoles alive
Kranz pointed out that a (MOCR) in the Mission Control Center (MCC), Building 30, during the Apollo 11 lunar extravehicular with images and flashing
phone was missing behind activity (EVA). buttons; big screens up
him. And he said the air Associated Press front will show key footage
vents used to be black from autobiography, “Failure is a National Historic Land- 70s and 80s. They pored from the Apollo 11 mission.
all the smoke, not sparkly Not an Option.” mark,” he said. “It’s not for through old pictures and “We’re using technology to
clean like they are now. Friday’s grand opening — the brick and mortar of the brought in specialists in make it look old, basically,”
Those couple of details just three weeks shy of the building, it’s for the amaz- paint, wallpaper, carpet- Tetley explained. LEDs also
aside, Kranz could close, 50th anniversary of human- ing feats that happened ing, electricity and uphol- replaced the original over-
then open his eyes, and ity’s first otherworldly foot- inside of the building.” stery. Original swatches head fluorescent lights that
transport himself back to steps — culminates years of Johnson’s historic preserva- of carpet and wallpaper had faded the mission me-
July 20, 1969, and Neil Arm- work and millions in dona- tion officer, Sandra Tetley, and an original ceiling tile dallions on the walls.
strong and Buzz Aldrin’s tions. It opens to the public strove for accuracy. Her turned up. With the International
momentous moon landing. Monday. quest began in 2013, after Intent on authenticity, they Space Station’s Mission
“When I sit down here and Meticulously recreated the room had fallen into scoured eBay and vintage Control running 24/7 one
I’m in the chair at the con- down to the tan carpet- neglect. It was last used for shops for ashtrays and floor down and work for
sole ... I hear these words, ing, gray-green wallpa- space shuttle flights in the cups and turned to 3D-la- future moonshots going on
‘Houston, Tranquility Base per, white ceiling panels, 1990s, then abandoned ser printing to recreate lids all around, Thornton said it
here. The Eagle has land- woven-cushioned seats, and opened to tourists. for the back-of-the-seat was challenging to create
ed,’” Kranz said during a amber glass ashtrays and The restoration effort finally ashtrays in the glassed-in a museum. But the pains-
sneak preview at NASA’s retro coffee cups, Project got traction in 2017. The visitors’ section overlooking taking work paid off. Some
Johnson Space Center. Apollo’s Mission Operations room was closed, and con- the control room. Old bind- Apollo flight controllers
With all the empty seats, Control Room never looked struction began. More than ers for reams of paper were were so moved at seeing
the room reminds him of — or smelled — so good. $5 million was raised, most collected. Seat cushions the restored room that they
a shift change when flight The goal was “to capture of it donations. The city of were handwoven. Ceiling teared up.
controllers would hit the re- the look and feel of July of Webster across the street tiles were hand stamped. There’s one artifact,
stroom. ‘69,” said NASA’s restora- kicked in $3.5 million. Carpeting was custom or- though, that doesn’t fit
“It’s just nice to see the tion project manager Jim Tetley and her team inter- dered with special tufting July 1969. Following their
thing come alive again,” Thornton. viewed flight controllers and extra yarn, then cut 1970 aborted moon-land-
said Kranz, who titled his “The place is designated and directors now in their into 28-inch squares. The ing mission, Apollo 13’s Jim
Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack
Swigert presented a mir-
ror from their spacecraft
to Kranz and the rest of the
control team. Ever since,
the mirror had hung on a
plaque above the room’s
water fountain “to ‘reflect
the image’ of the people
in Mission Control who got
us back!” Removed dur-
ing the restoration, it’s now
back in its original spot.
Kranz, 85, still looms large
in the hot seat, where he
Gene Kranz, aerospace engineer, fighter pilot, an Apollo-era A wall screen shows a lunar map and the simulated position of oversaw the Eagle’s land-
flight director and later director of NASA flight operations leans the Command Module, in red, as it would orbit the moon inside ing.
on a console near the one where he worked in the mission the mission control room being restored to replicate the Apollo “It was just absolutely our
control room at the NASA Johnson Space Center Monday, June mission era 50 years earlier, at the NASA Johnson Space Center day, our time, our place,”
17, 2019, in Houston. Monday, June 17, 2019, in Houston.
Associated Press Associated Press he said.q