Collections

Other collections

Employee badges

Restoration projects

Private collections of Firing Room materials

Scott Unterberg collection

Apollo-era launch equipment and mementos in public and private collections

NASA has displayed LCC Firing Room equipment to the public since the end of the Apollo program in 1975.

Firing Room 3 was a stop on tours of KSC during the 1976 Bicentennial. The photo below is from a postcard from 1976, which shows tourists in the Visitors Gallery watching a re-creation of the events leading up to the launch of Apollo 11. Keen observers will note that most of Area C, at the far end of the Firing Room, has been walled off.

US Space Walk of Fame

Pad 26 Blockhouse, CCAFS

Pad 5/6 Blockhouse, CCAFS

Public exhibitions of Firing Room equipment

Apollo 8 Exhibit, KSC Apollo/Saturn V Center

The public had only a brief ability to see an actual Apollo Firing Room, as the Firing Rooms had to be renovated to support the Space Shuttle program. In late 1976, the Flight Crew Training Building (FCTB) in the Industrial Area of KSC was converted into a stop on the KSC visitors tours. The FTCB housed some Firing Room equipment as well as LM-9. Public tours of the VAB and LCC ceased as renovations and construction to support the Space Shuttle got underway in earnest.

It is my understanding that Apollo-Saturn Firing Room equipment could also be seen in the 1970‘s via escorted access to the blockhouse at LC-34. The blockhouse was decommissioned and all the equipment removed 

Seeing and Collecting Firing Room Equipment for Yourself

After renovations for Shuttle began, the control panels and equipment in the LCC were decommissioned and surplused. Where did they go? Where can you see them today?

Apollo 8 Firing Room 1 Exhibit, Apollo/Saturn V Center, Kennedy Space Center

The primary place to see Firing Room equipment, albeit from a distance, is at the Apollo/Saturn V Center at KSC. An exhibit recreates the look and feel of Firing Room 1 (minus the people) in the minutes leading up to the launch of Apollo 8. More detailed information about this exhibit can be found on this page.

Materials in private collections

There are perhaps 50 Apollo Firing Room control panels that I am aware of in private collections. There are likely many more in storage that have not been made available for purchase yet. These all appear to come from a common source: they were purchased by Charles Bell when NASA surplussed them and sold them for scrap in the 1980s. See this page for information on control panels in private collections.

Museums

There are several museums in the vicinity of the Kennedy Space Center which have preserved Firing Room equipment, although not from Apollo.

  1. •The Air Force Space and Missile Museum, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station/Patrick Air Force Base (official site: http://www.afspacemuseum.org/ ) Blockhouses for launch pad 26 (Explorer 1 launch, America’s first satellite) and pad 5/6 (Mercury-Redstone 3, Alan Shepard, first American in space) are accessible as part of public tours. Firing equipment is protected by Plexiglas covers but is easy to see.

  2. •The U. S. Space Walk of Fame, Titusville, Florida (official site: http://www.spacewalkoffame.com/). Hands-on display of Atlas-Centaur Firing Room control panels from CCAFS Complex 36A/B. Fiddling with the switches is encouraged!