now, this of course is the rocket that, the type of rocket that flew all of the apollo missions and brought buzz aldrin and neil armstrong to the moon 50 years ago today. this is still the most powerful rocket ever made. it s on its side right now but when standing upright it s as tall as a 36-story building. when fueled up it weighed more than 6 million pounds, had 7 million pounds of thrust. so truly an incredible engineering feat just in the creation of the rocket, itself. but, of course, this isn t the only relic here of the apollo mission here at johnson space center. people are coming also to get a glimpse of apollo mission control. that just recently went under a six-year restoration proejt. we have the great fortune of speaking with scott milliken who was in the room when neil armstrong landed on the moon 50 years ago today. he spoke about how it was a time capsule being in that room. take a listen to what he had to say.
of the moon landing nearly 50 years ago today that neil armstrong and buzz aldrin took those historic steps. yesterday, victor and christi, i had the great mortgage tune of meeting scott milliken, he was an automatic tro nstronaut trai. i asked him where he sat? he sat in the chair and he was overcome with emotion, back 50 years. he was reliving those moments when he was in this room when this incredible event took place. he said it really was like a time capsule. he couldn t believe the attention to detail. really it looked like they had stepped back in time. they even have a rocket coffee maker here. this week has been flooded with celebrations, galas, all kind of events to celebrate this historic landing, victor, christi. such a great place to be. i m sure that was a fascinating conversation you had yesterday. reporter: oh, it was, i was
overcome with emotion. i was welling up with tears when i spoke with scott. rachel crane, great to have you there this morning. we ve been talked about the storied history of nasa. the moon missions were originally intended to be a steppingstone for other manned missions deeper into space. cnn s paul vercammen went to nasa s propulsion laboratory, and he took a look at what is next for nasa, where do we go from here. reporter: 1957, the russians launched the first satellite into space. and it rattled john casani, a young air tro spaerospace engin. walking out of work, 5:30. we saw the sputnik going across the sky. that was sort of a devastating blow. we realized we where nowhere