NASA celebrates successful Apollo 11 mission with a look back in time

NASA legend Gene Krantz cut the ribbon to his old office. The original mission control has now turned into a time capsule.

"It made me fifty years younger. I was back in mission control doing the things I was passionate about," he said.

It's been passionately and painstakingly restored to exactly how it looked back in July of 1969.

The restoration team went all out, finding the original wallpaper carpet and paint. They even found period coffee cups, ashtrays and cigarette packs. It's like everyone suddenly got up and left the room the moment of the first landing.

"We won the Space Race there and indeed it needed to be brought back, and when you do a historic preservation of this magnitude, you have to be completely accurate. " said JSC historic preservation officer Sandra Tetley.

The whole project took six years. The actual work took two years. 

Money came from a federal grant. Donations were rallied from 30 countries.

Starting the first week of July, visitors will be able to see it while touring.

It may have been fifty years ago but there are some real parallels to now. In 1969 the country was being torn apart by Vietnam and the civil rights movement. Now the challenges are different now, but there's an opportunity.

That day, for one exquisite moment the world watched and the country stood United to watch the first human set foot on the moon..

 Krantz says  we need something like this to unite our country like that again today.

"We need to fire people up, our population up and get them marching again in a common direction to achieve some goal. Space could provide it but it's too far out," He said.

   He says a large transportation project or effort to house the homeless could do it. NASA is indeed planning to return to the moon and then on to Mars.

   What remains to be seen if those rockets will lift the souls and spirits of Americans.the way Apollo 11 did fifty years ago.