Restored Mission Control comes alive 50 years after Apollo

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Marcia Dunn at Associated Press reports today on the re-creation of the
Apollo-era Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Originally Posted by Marcia Dunn, AP

HOUSTON (AP) — Gone is the haze of cigarette, cigar and pipe smoke. Gone are the coffee, soda and pizza stains. With only a few exceptions, NASA’s Apollo-era Mission Control has been restored to the way it looked 50 years ago when two men landed on the moon.

It gets the stamp of approval from retired flight director Gene Kranz, a man for whom failure — or even a minor oversight — is never an option.

Seated at the console where he ruled over Apollo 11, Apollo 13 and so many other astronaut missions, Kranz pointed out that a phone was missing behind him. And he said the air vents used to be black from all the smoke, not sparkly clean like they are now.

Originally Posted by Marcia Dunn, AP

Carpeting was custom ordered with special tufting and extra yarn, then cut into 28-inch squares. The restoration team wanted a lived-in look for the carpet and chose a shade reflecting years of nicotine discoloring.

And yes, Kranz got his missing rotary-dial wall phone.

Originally Posted by Marcia Dunn, AP

There’s one artifact, though, that doesn’t fit July 1969. Following their 1970 aborted moon-landing mission, Apollo 13′s Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert presented a mirror 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 during the restoration, it’s now back in its original spot.

Kranz, 85, still looms large in the hot seat, where he oversaw the Eagle’s landing.

“It was just absolutely our day, our time, our place,” he said.

The flight controllers meet every year to celebrate the day, although their numbers are dwindling.

Story and pictures here :-
https://www.apnews.com/12556818033a470d823168a37f57ed6c