TechRepublic visited NASA’s Johnson Space Center to see how Mission Control has changed over the years.
NASA’s Mission Control Center is located at the Johnson Space Center and has a long and storied history. It’s been in the same building (building 30) since 1965’s Gemini IV mission.
The original Mission Control has been preserved and is a national landmark. That means everything, down to the stains on the carpet are original.
NASA monitored historic missions like Apollo 11’s journey to the moon from this room.
The room was last operational in 1995.
According to the Johnson Space Center site, “there’s more technology in a modern watch than there was in this room in 1969.”
In the days before email, Mission Control used pneumatic tubes to deliver messages. Also, if they wanted to print something, it happened at another location and got sent back to them.
Here are the guts inside one of the Mission Control consoles.
Mission Control looks much different these days.
Flight control teams are on duty the proverbial 24/7/365 since there’s always astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Mission Control also has other control rooms, like this secondary room.
Erin Carson is a Staff Reporter for CNET and a former Multimedia Editor for TechRepublic.
