Apollo Control Panel
The Apollo Command Module had 566 switches 24 instruments, 40 event indicators, and 71 lights. No touch screens, iPads or Alexas on-board. All very old-school. And I think much cooler looking than the “glass cockpits” of the latest generation of spacecraft. Even up to the early 2000s, the Space Shuttle had a very similar set of discrete devices.
This panel is from the first version of the Apollo spacecraft known as “Block I.” Originally designed before the lunar landing architecture was firm, it ultimately would have very little use as it didn’t have the docking port.
The very first manned Apollo mission, Apollo 1, was to use a Block I. However, the Apollo 1 crew would tragically die in a 1967 fire just a few weeks before their mission. The fire broke out in their spacecraft thanks to the poor mechanical and electrical design. Ultimately, only a couple of Block Is would fly, unmanned in the first test flights of the Saturn V.
This panel is from the far right side and handles the electrical systems of both the fuel cells and batteries.
In the movie, First Man, the sounds of the switches being flipped in the Apollo 11 segment where taken from this panel.
The backside