Much of the television coverage of the Apollo era featured the famous Mission Operation Control Room (MOCR) in the Houston Mission Control Center. Throughout this "Golden Age" of human spaceflight, the flight controllers stationed at the room's tiered rows of consoles played as important a role as the spacecraft and crews. In 1985, its systems long obsolete, the Houston Mission Control Center was retired by NASA "in situ." The facility is now being restored as a Historic National Landmark to enable the public to view what had previously been seen only on television.

This book details how the concept of flight and mission operations came to be and chronicles the origins of the facility. It takes the reader behind the scenes of the historic television coverage to explain how the flight controllers worked with "backroom" staff and contractors across the nation to accomplish momentous tasks, in particular the Apollo 11 lunar landing and returning the crew of Apollo 13 to Earth after an explosion crippled their spacecraft.

The book goes on to explain the effort to preserve, rehabilitate, restore, and reconstruct the MOCR and surrounding support rooms and facilities. In particular, it describes the research, contracting, raising of funds, and industrial team needed to turn the site into a national landmark.

Much of the television coverage of the Apollo era featured the famous Mission Operation Control Room (MOCR) in the Houston Mission Control Center. Throughout this "Golden Age" of human spaceflight, the flight controllers stationed at the room's tiered rows of consoles played as important a role as the spacecraft and crews. In 1985, its systems long obsolete, the Houston Mission Control Center was retired by NASA "in situ." The facility is now being restored as a Historic National Landmark to enable the public to view what had previously been seen only on television.

This book details how the concept of flight and mission operations came to be and chronicles the origins of the facility. It takes the reader behind the scenes of the historic television coverage to explain how the flight controllers worked with "backroom" staff and contractors across the nation to accomplish momentous tasks, in particular the Apollo 11 lunar landing and returning the crew of Apollo 13 to Earth after an explosion crippled their spacecraft.

The book goes on to explain the effort to preserve, rehabilitate, restore, and reconstruct the MOCR and surrounding support rooms and facilities. In particular, it describes the research, contracting, raising of funds, and industrial team needed to turn the site into a national landmark.