The Manned Spacecraft Center opened in 1963, relocated from Langley, Virginia, to Houston at the urging of Lyndon Johnson and the Texas congressional delegation. The 1,620-acre complex southeast of Houston became the hub of human spaceflight operations: astronaut training, mission control, spacecraft development. The location was chosen for reasons both practical (barge access, mild climate for year-round training) and political (Texas pork, Johnson's influence). What emerged was the operational heart of American space exploration, the place where astronauts prepared and missions were controlled, renamed Johnson Space Center after LBJ's death in 1973.

Mission Control Center - MCC - is where flights are managed from launch through landing. During Apollo, the room of consoles became the iconic image of the technological effort behind the astronauts: rows of young men (they were almost all men) with headsets and clipboards, tracking every system, solving every problem. The Apollo MCC has been restored to its 1969 appearance, the consoles with their green-screen displays, the viewing gallery where VIPs watched history happen. The room is a National Historic Landmark, preserved exactly as it was when Armstrong stepped onto the Moon. Modern mission control operates from a different room, managing Station operations continuously.

'Houston, we've had a problem.' Jack Swigert's words from Apollo 13, sometimes misquoted as 'we have a problem,' began the most dramatic hours in spaceflight history. An oxygen tank explosion had crippled the command module 200,000 miles from Earth. The flight directors in Houston had to improvise survival, using the lunar module as lifeboat, calculating power budgets by hand, guiding the crew through procedures never tested. Four days later, the crew splashed down safely. Mission Control earned its reputation: when everything went wrong, the people in Houston brought them home. The story became a movie; the reality was more desperate and more heroic than any film could capture.

Johnson Space Center remains operational. The International Space Station is controlled from Houston, with rotating teams maintaining continuous coverage for the six-person crew. Astronaut training continues in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, a 6.2-million-gallon pool containing full-scale Station mockups. New spacecraft - Orion for lunar return, commercial crew vehicles for Station access - are tested and integrated. The center that began with Apollo continues toward the Moon again, the Artemis program building on foundations laid in the 1960s. The historic Mission Control is museum; the working Mission Control is busy.

Space Center Houston, the official visitor center for Johnson Space Center, is located 25 miles southeast of downtown Houston. Tram tours access the historic Mission Control Center (currently under ongoing restoration - check availability) and other NASA facilities including astronaut training areas. The museum houses spacecraft including the Independence, a shuttle replica mounted on the original NASA 905 shuttle carrier aircraft. Astronaut encounters are scheduled regularly. Full Saturn V display at the rocket park. Allow 4-5 hours for thorough exploration; tram tours fill early. The experience connects visitors to the actual places where spaceflight history happened - not reproductions but the rooms where decisions were made and words from the Moon were first heard.