Every time an Apollo astronaut said the word Houston, they were referring not just to a city, but a specific room in that city: Mission Control. In that room on July 20, 1969, NASA engineers answered radio calls from the surface of the moon. Sitting in front of rows of green consoles, cigarettes in hand, they guided humans safely back to earth, channeling the efforts of the thousands and thousands of people who worked on the program through one room.
But until recently, that room was kind of a mess. After hosting Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle missions through 1992, the room hosted retirement parties, movie screenings, and the crumbs that came with them.
Spurred by the deadline of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 in 2019, the room was carefully restored with a new visitor experience. The restoration project focused on accurately portraying how the area looked at key moments during that mission, right down to the ashtrays and soda cans. In this episode, Sandra Tetley, Historic Preservation Officer at the Johnson Space Center, describes the process of restoring “one of the most significant places on earth.”
Topics and Links
00:00 Intro
00:14 Apollo Mission Control Center (https://spacecenter.org/exhibits-and-experiences/nasa-tram-tour/apollo-mission-control/)
00:49 Sandra Tetley
02:00 “History Keeps Going”
02:35 Becoming a National Historic Landmark
04:00 Starting the Restoration
04:40 Gene Kranz Steps In (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Kranz)
05:15 Mission Control Visitor’s Galley
06:30 The Visitor Experience
08:10 The Drama of the Room
09:37 Independence Hall (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Hall)
10:10 Coffee Cups and Cigarettes
11:15 Apollo Flight Controllers Get to Celebrate
13:04 Archipelago At the Movies ?️: Lisa the Iconoclast (https://www.patreon.com/museumarchipelago)
13:50 Outro/Join Club Archipelago (https://www.patreon.com/museumarchipelago)
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Transcript
Below is a transcript of Museum Archipelago episode 74. Museum Archipelago is produced for the ear, and only the audio of the episode is canonical. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, refer to the links above.


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Every time an Apollo astronaut said the word Houston, they were referring not just to a city, but a specific room in that city -- mission control.

In that room, NASA engineers -- average age: 26 -- answered radio calls from the darkness of space. Sitting in front rows of green consoles, cigarettes and cigars in hand, they guided humans to the moon and back, channeling the efforts of the half a million people who worked on the program through one room.


Sandra Tetley: I realized the value of this room to American history and to the world history. It's one of the most significant sites on earth.


But up until a few ye