The golden era of Nasa's space race with Soviet Russia is brought back to life in stunning colourised images

Irish artist Matt Loughrey transformed the images to educate young people on Nasa's golden years
His work forms part of a short visual documentary named Astro which is narrated by Micah Cottingham
Highlights include shots of Mission Control during the Apollo 11 mission and an image of astronaut Gordon Cooper in May of 1963 during project Mercury

Published: 09:41 EST, 7 February 2017 | Updated: 10:19 EST, 7 February 2017

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The golden years of Nasa's space race against Soviet Russia have been brought back to life in striking colour thanks to these behind the scenes photographs.

The stunning pictures offer a new glimpse into the inner workings of Nasa through the ages.

The images, which have been expertly colourised over hundreds of hours of painstaking work, show intense discussions raging at Mission Control as well as astronauts in their space suits.

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The golden years of Nasa's space race against Soviet Russia have been brought back to life in striking colour thanks to these behind the scenes photographs. These images show astronaut Gordon Cooper in May of 1963 during project Mercury (left) - the first human spaceflight program of the United States, and John Young on the first manned Gemini flight which saw a spacescraft fly in low orbit around Earth in March of 1965 (right)

Other revealing images show the tense atmosphere in Mission Control during the Apollo 11 mission, when humans first set foot on the moon, as well as a candid shot of Margaret Hamilton in 1969, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution that led to Apollo 11's successful landing.

The striking colourisations were carried out by Irish colouriser Matt Loughrey as part of his project for 'My Colourful Past', who spent over 300 hours colourising the images.

'I want people, particularly young people, to see these photographs in colour as a testament to technology, good science and bravery combined,' said the Westport-based artist.

This image shows celebrations at Mission Control as Commander James Lovell, is seen on screen at the conclusion of Apollo 13 in 1970, which saw a spacecraft aborted from a moon landing after an oxygen tank exploded on board. Eugene Kranz can be seen in the foreground - middle

The striking colourisations were carried out by Irish-based colouriser My Colorful Past, from Westport, who spent over 300 hours colourising the images. This colourised shot captures Nasa software engineer and mathematician Margaret Hamilton in 1969, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution that led to Apollo 11's successful landing

Some of the restored images show Mission Control during the Apollo 11 mission, when humans first set foot on the moon, including this picture of Mission Control and Nasa flight controller John Aaron in 1969

'Moreover, several astronauts are leaving us now in that they are in their closing years, it's a good time to look back.

'I saw an opportunity to match grayscale imagery to colours in the RGB chart and therefore maintain accuracy, that made the project educational and worthwhile.

'You're seeing the truth of the past using an algorithm to magnify it, you're seeing hours and hours of work undertaken by hand using a digital stylus, you're seeing the advent of Apollo, Gemini, Mercury and STS.'

The researchers matched the grayscale imagery to colours in the RGB chart to create the colourised images. Pictured is Charles Duke, who became the voice of mission control for Apollo 11, the first landing on the Moon, where his distinctive Southern drawl became familiar to audiences around the world

The artist colourised the images, such as this shot of astronaut John Glenn in 1962 during project Mercury, which saw Glenn make three orbits around the Earth on the Friendship 7 mission

The work forms part of a short visual documentary named Astro and narrated by Micah Cottingham.

My Colourful Past, who uses a WACOM Intous Pro to achieve his outstanding results, hopes his work can shed new light on these historic events.

'People are generally speechless when they see some of this work,' he said.

This image shows Thomas Moser, Eugene Kranz and Christopher Kraft at Mission Control during STS-3 in 1982. STS-3 was NASA's third Space Shuttle mission, and was the third mission for the Space Shuttle Columbia. It launched on 22 March 1982, and landed eight days later on 30 March. The mission involved extensive orbital endurance testing of the Columbia itself, as well as numerous scientific experiments

This image shows Nasa Flight Director Eugene Kranz at Mission Control in April 1970. Kranz led a team that worked around the clock to rescue Apollo 13 astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, after an explosion of an oxygen tank partially crippled the moon-bound spacecraft

Discussions at Mission Control between Neil Hutchinson, Eugene Kranz and Gerald Griffin in 1972 are brought to life in this colourisation. Kranz served as flight director for Apollo 17 (December 7-19, 1972), the final mission in the lunar landing series

WHAT HAPPENED TO APOLLO 13?

Apollo 13 was supposed to land three astronauts - Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise - on the moon, but an explosion on board forced Apollo 13 to circle the moon without landing.

One of the shuttle's two oxygen tanks exploded, severely damaging the second one, as the command module's normal supply of electricity, light and water was also lost

The astronauts were about 200,000 miles from Earth and only had a few days to get back to Earth before air supplies ran out.

After the explosion, a message came from Swigert after he saw a warning light that accompanied the bang: 'Houston, we've had a problem here.'

An exploration mission quickly became a survival mission as Mission Control raced to find a way to get the astronauts back to safety.

The astronauts were eventually rescued as Mission Control changed the shuttle's trajectory to quickly slingshot it around the moon and back toward Earth.

The mission was the focus of the 1995 'Apollo 13' starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton.

'I think that's down to not understanding how it can be done and then realising that colour brings new meaning to these photographs.

'I began colourising by chance and realized I had a skill so I investigated further and realized I could expand on the idea, people liked what I produced and requests began to come from the world over.

'I'm a father of two living in the West of Ireland and even though I am geographically isolated, the internet has brought my service to a lot of people.'

This colourised snap reveals the tense atmosphere of Mission Control during the Apollo 11 mission, which saw two humans - Neil Armstong and Buzz Aldrin - land on the moon for the very first time in 1969