Aerial view of the Johnson Manned Space Flight Center, with Building 30 in the lower center of the photo Photo from National Historic Landmarks collection, courtesy of NASA

The Apollo Mission Control Center, in Building 30 at the Lyndon B. Johnson Manned Space Flight Center in Houston, Texas, consists of a mission operations wing (MOW), operations support wing (OSW) and an interconnecting lobby wing. This facility was used to monitor nine Gemini and all Apollo flights, including the flight of Apollo 11 that first landed men on the moon. The Apollo Mission Control Center, provided critical support to the success of the mission, exercised full mission control of the flight of Apollo 11 from the time of liftoff from Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center to the time of splashdown in the Pacific.

View of Mission Control during lunar surface Apollo 11 Photo courtesy of NASA

The technical management of all areas of vehicle systems of Apollo 11 including flight dynamics, life systems, flight crew activities, recovery support and ground operations were handled at the Apollo Mission Control Center. Through the use of television and the print news media the scene of activity at the Apollo Mission Control during the first manned landing on the moon was made familiar to millions of Americans. When Neil Armstrong reported his "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" to Mission Control his words went immediately around the world and into history. After the end of the Apollo Program this facility was used to monitor manned spaceflights for Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and all recent Space Shuttle flights. For most Americans the Apollo Mission Control Center and Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center symbolize achievements of the manned space program. For a complete copy of the National Historic Landmark registration form for the Apollo Mission Control Center, click here.

The Apollo Mission Control Center, a National Historic Landmark, is part of the Lyndon B.Johnson Manned Space Flight Center, located at 1601 NASA Rd. approximately 25 miles south of downtown Houston in the NASA/Clear Lake area. Space Center Houston, the Official Visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center, is open from 10:00am to 7:00pm weekdays in June, 9:00am to 7:00pm in July, 10:00am to 5:00pm in August, and on summer weekends from 10:00am to 7:00pm. During the winter it is open weekdays 10:00am to 5:00pm and 10:00am to 6:00pm on weekends. There is a fee for admission. Please call 281-244-2105 or visit the space center's website for more information. You can also download (in pdf) the Apollo Mission Control Center National Historic Landmark nomination.

The Apollo Mission Control Center is the subject of an online-lesson plan produced by Teaching with Historic Places, a National Register program that offers classroom-ready lesson plans on properties listed in the National Register. To learn more, visit the Teaching with Historic Places home page.