NASA Flight Control Center Houston Celebrates 50th Anniversary

ivansychev June 5, 2015 at 11:56

NASA Flight Control Center Houston Celebrates 50th Anniversary

In 1965, the NASA Space Flight Control Center, known as Houston, was launched. The center was created for the landing of man on the moon. One of the most high-tech places on the planet cost $ 100 million - today it is about 750 million. Equipment was designed to perform a variety of scenarios, even the most unpredictable ones.

Houston continues to work, only computer screens have become more color and wider.

December 7, 1965

In the 1960s, the USSR and the USA competed in space exploration. To win the space race, NASA planned a moon landing, and to complete this mission, it designed the Mission Control Center near Houston, at the Lyndon Johnson Space Center.

In a press release about the launch of the center, NASA talked about 16 thousand wires with two million connectors, 140 command consoles, 136 television cameras, 384 television sets. In the center, they made a pneumatic mail system with 53 stations, 1.6 kilometers of pipes and valves, which automatically delivered a message to the addressee.

And most importantly, the employees had a button that allowed them to take a screenshot and immediately print it on a printer.

The first mission managed by the new center was the flight of Gemini 4. Then the first astronaut Edward White went into outer space. By this date, NASA had released a documentary on spacewalks, Suit Up.