NASA Mission Control: Photos of the past and present at Johnson Space Center

Historic Mission Control

The original Mission Control has been preserved and is a national landmark. That means everything, down to the stains on the carpet are original.

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Another view of historic Mission Control

NASA monitored historic missions like Apollo 11's journey to the moon from this room.

SEE: NASA shows the world its 20-year virtual reality experiment to train astronauts: The inside story

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Mission Control console

The room was last operational in 1995.

SEE: NASA shows the world its 20-year virtual reality experiment to train astronauts: The inside story

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Buttons, screens, and dials

According to the Johnson Space Center site, "there's more technology in a modern watch than there was in this room in 1969."

SEE: NASA shows the world its 20-year virtual reality experiment to train astronauts: The inside story

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A closer look

Here's a closer look at the consoles that helped get humankind to the moon.

SEE: NASA shows the world its 20-year virtual reality experiment to train astronauts: The inside story

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Before email

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.

SEE: NASA shows the world its 20-year virtual reality experiment to train astronauts: The inside story

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Literally, an inside look

Here are the guts inside one of the Mission Control consoles.

SEE: NASA shows the world its 20-year virtual reality experiment to train astronauts: The inside story

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Modern day Mission Control

Mission Control looks much different these days.

SEE: NASA shows the world its 20-year virtual reality experiment to train astronauts: The inside story

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Always on call

Flight control teams are on duty the proverbial 24/7/365 since there's always astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

SEE: NASA shows the world its 20-year virtual reality experiment to train astronauts: The inside story

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A lot to control

Mission Control also has other control rooms, like this secondary room.

Also see

• NASA's unsung heroes: The Apollo coders who put men on the moon (PDF download)
• Photos: Inside Johnson Space Center's Neutral Buoyancy Lab
• How a NASA team of black women 'computers' sent an astronaut into orbit in 1962
• Photos: Space Tango's autonomous lab at the International Space Station
• How Mark Shuttleworth became the first African in space and launched a software revolution (PDF download)

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