Firing Room Layout
in the Apollo Era

 

The three Firing Rooms that were active during the Apollo era were essentially identical in layout. were divided into Areas (A through F), with lettered Rows and numbered Console locations. 


In the corners of the room closest to the windows that faced toward the launch pad were two triangular, glassed-in areas:

  1. •Operations Management Room (OMR), where senior leaders of NASA (e.g. Wernher von Braun and the Apollo Program Manager) and the military attachés sat

  2. •Visitors Gallery, which housed other officially-invited guests


Above the Visitors Gallery, with an entrance from the 4th floor of the LCC, was a small triangular glassed-in room, which was for the highest-ranking VIPs who were witnessing the launch.


The sections of the Firing Room were designated by letters indicating Area, Row, and Console number. For example, console BC12 was in Area B, Row C, 12th console from the left end of the row.


The Areas of the Firing Rooms were are described below.

Area A

On a raised floor, between the Operations Management Room and the Visitors Gallery, were four rows of consoles. These were the stations of the NASA and contractor managers who oversaw the test and launch processes. The setup of Area A paralleled an organization chart, with the senior leaders at the top and their reporting chains in the rows below them, closer to where the “action” was going on.


Typically sitting in Row A (closest to the windows) on launch day were senior NASA managers such as Kurt Debus (Director of Kennedy Space Center), Rocco Petrone, Hans Gruene (Director of Launch Vehicle Operations), and Walt Kapryan (Director of Launch Operations). Row B housed the Test Directors, with a console near the center of the row being that of the Launch Director. Row C was occupied by Stage Test Conductors (contractors). Row D was NASA and contractor engineering managers.


The raised platform of Area A allowed management to survey the entire room. There were four huge rear-projection screens in the ceiling in front of Area A, as well as large status boards on either side of the room that showed significant events of the tests and countdowns.


Most of the desk consoles in Area A included TV monitors and Operational Intercom System (OIS) terminals, so that managers could see what was happening and dial into the appropriate voice loops to communicate with people as needed. Many consoles had control panels that provided summary-level information.

The photos albums below are of the consoles that were in Area B of Firing Room 1 as of October, 1966, following the AS-500F facilities integration test. The photos within each album are arranged in order of console position. The first letters of each photo’s caption are the row and console number. The panel designation follows the row and console number. Where there are multiple panels within a console, both panels are listed in the caption.

Area B

Area B consisted of 5 rows of 30 consoles, with an aisle dividing each row into two halves. At these 150 consoles sat contractors and NASA engineers whose control panels monitored specific functions of the launch vehicle, ground support equipment (GSE), or electrical support equipment (ESE).