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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 145:25:30 Admiral McCain greets Lovell and the crew in Hawaii

« on: April 17, 2020, 03:30:59 pm »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=145:25:30 At the reception in Honolulu, Admiral McCain greets the crew. McCain was Commanding the US Pacific fleet at the time, and the commentary makes note that his son is currently being held prisoner by the North Vietnamese. The son is of course John McCain, later to become a Republican senator, who remained in captivity till 1973. 

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 071:48:39 Surgeon call with White House staffer about Nixon meeting crew

« on: April 14, 2020, 03:24:10 pm »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=071:48:39&ch=13 Interesting conversation between surgeon and someone in The White House about Nixon's idea to be on the aircraft carrier that meets the returning capsule at splashdown. Seems that everyone thinks this is a bad plan, but Nixon is considering it. They are looking for a possible splashdown zone so they can start working on how to get The President there, but it's too early to confirm where it's going to be.

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 061:21:55 MIT won't be able to run the data on the LEM engine burn in time

« on: April 14, 2020, 04:45:22 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=061:21:52&ch=14

A time of tension (amongst many). MIT mainframe seems to be running the numbers on the LEM engine burn for the free return, but it doesn't look like they are going to have them done in time. So it's all down to the manual calculations. Brings to life the reality of computing speeds in 1970. You can hear the anxiety in the voices, Guidance and Flight Dynamics guys particularly, as it builds toward the burn. A few minutes later they and the crew do the burn, almost perfectly.

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / Re: 011:22:26 Booster phones Douglas who pick up with "McDonnell Douglas..."

« on: April 14, 2020, 04:38:42 am »

Yeah it's a little unclear. The phone rings a few times, someone picks it and answers with the company name. The room is the background is noisy and the guy on the Booster console (Bill?) needs to ask for the person he needs. Found that surprising too. Perhaps the person who picked up the phone was just passing that desk at that instant and picked up? They are focussing at this stage on planning the S-IVB lunar impact.

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 011:22:26 Booster phones Douglas who pick up with "McDonnell Douglas..."

« on: April 12, 2020, 03:40:10 pm »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=011:22:27&ch=47

You'd think they'd have a permanently open/direct line (!), but they have to find the right guy. Sounds like quite a big party in the background.

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 011:20:30 Crew joke about computer being called HAL, play & sing Age of Aquarius

« on: April 12, 2020, 03:28:42 pm »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=011:20:43&ch=47