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Twenty-six years old in 1969, Steve Bales was at the sharp end of many of the decisions during the Moon landing mission. During a mission, vital information had to be passed, in real time, across communication channels fed into the headsets that every flight controller wore. Mission control people such as Steve Bales referred to these channels as 'loops'. During the critical phases of the flight, information and communication were everything. And that required an unusual skill - being able to understand and act on several different conversations at once.

'One of the first things I had to learn how to do was to listen to three or four conversations at once. If something was really important, you've got to know. The words were so important and who said them. Certain words caught your attention so you thought, I'm going into that loop to talk. But it was a total shock. One of the biggest cultural shocks was how to do that.'

Photo: Stephen Bales Credit: Nasa