The Evolution of Mission Control

It could almost pass for an ordinary office. Rows upon rows of computers. Muted tones on the wall. The tense hush preserved from a bygone era. NASA’s original Mission Control room is now a tourist site, a historic time capsule that commemorates Neil Armstrong’s “One small step.” But NASA has recently built a new control room, one that it hopes will witness the first steps on the Martian surface. And it’s renovating yet another to be used for the International Space Station.

Across the country, new control rooms are popping up. SpaceX, the upstart company founded by Elon Musk, has put its right near the entrance of its headquarters outside of Los Angeles. The sleek, glass-encased room has already witnessed several historic feats: the first commercial spacecraft to reach the station, the first landings of an orbital-class rocket.  Boeing, which along with SpaceX has a contract to fly astronauts to the space station, is building its own control room at Cape Canaveral Florida.

Now the two companies are getting closer to restoring the United States’ ability to fly humans again. And with the growth of the commercial space industry, which also promises to soon start flying paying tourists, there is much history yet to be written.

Houston is home to NASA’s Mission Control Facilities