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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / -03:05:35 Weight increase "due to one crewman"

« on: Today at 02:47:21 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=-03:05:35&ch=50

Not my find but worth sharing for those who didn't see it on Twitter...

Retro updates Flight about the new weight of the spacecraft - 32 pounds heavier due to one crewman. In other words because Jack Swigert replaced Ken Mattingly!

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 018:17:15 Steve Bales caught snoozing??

« on: April 04, 2021, 08:11:54 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=018:17:15&ch=20

Retro calls Steve Bales in the middle of a very quiet night shift:

"Just to see if you're on the loop there. Looked like you might have been snoozing."

Bales' only response is: "Really? Oh."

I think he might have been! He was apparently notorious for oversleeping unless someone called him a couple of hours before his shift started.

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / -01:23:31 RETRO forgets Jack Garman's name

« on: March 30, 2021, 12:36:07 pm »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=-01:23:31&ch=19

I'm convinced this is why they so often called their backroom controllers "babe"! It saves a lot of brainpower not having to remember everyone's names.

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / -01:53:00 RETRO in search of extra chairs

« on: March 30, 2021, 12:33:35 pm »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=-01:53:00&ch=19

RETRO Chuck Deiterich contacts Procedures: "hey, this is not in your bailiwick but we only got one chair down here."

The reply? "There's about three behind the Flight console."

"Yeah, but they got people in them, don't they?"

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / -02:14:47 RETRO would like people to quit using this number

« on: March 30, 2021, 12:31:02 pm »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=-02:14:47&ch=19

RETRO Chuck Deiterich is getting calls that shouldn't be coming to his console. "They ought not be using that 5607 number."

He tackles an offender directly a few minutes later: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=-02:07:29&ch=19

But then literally 4 minutes before liftoff he's having to tell someone else, "don't call me unless you think it's real important": https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=-00:04:00&ch=19

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / -02:27:39 GUIDO reminds FIDO how to count to three

« on: March 30, 2021, 12:01:16 pm »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=-02:27:39&ch=20

GUIDO Gran Paules phones in to see how the count is progressing.

After listing the members of the Trench who are in Mission Control already, FIDO Jay Greene says "crew just ingressed, third man... or the second man, I'm not sure, I lost count."

Paules laughs and demonstrates how to count to three.

7

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / -02:41:44 "It was your car that they were towing away"

« on: March 30, 2021, 11:53:38 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=-02:41:44&ch=20

A mysterious, contextless little discussion, immediately followed by:

"That's when I get me one."
"Get you one what?"
"I'm not gonna say that on the loop."

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / -03:11:48 FIDO sorts out commands with Booster

« on: March 30, 2021, 11:51:49 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=-03:11:48&ch=20

FIDO Jay Greene discusses with Booster which one of them is supposed to send the "A" command and which one of them sends the "B" command. (For what? Who knows. I don't think it's abort commands.)

Certainly Booster seems casual about it all: "if you got A, I guess I got B, right?"

But Greene isn't satisfied. "Yeah, but that's not quite closing the loop."

Guidance doesn't know either.

Greene later asks Procedures, who also doesn't know: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=-03:10:15&ch=20

9

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / -06:49:22 FIDO makes a bad joke

« on: March 30, 2021, 11:27:23 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=-06:49:22&ch=20

Nearly seven hours before launch, you can probably forgive Jay Greene for kidding around a little. But this falls firmly into "dad joke" territory.

"Yeah, I'm on the console."
"Okay, get off it and get on a chair."
"Do what??"
"I would get on the chair instead of the console."

No appreciation whatsoever from the other guy.

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Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / 127:37:53 FIDO: "I did the wrong right thing, or the right wrong thing"

« on: February 21, 2021, 03:15:02 pm »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=127:37:53&ch=20

FIDO Jay Greene messes something up but it turns out correct anyway. Not sure of the fine points. Anyway, as he triumphantly concludes, "I was right."

11

Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / 126:52:31 GUIDO Steve Bales rejects the metric system

« on: February 21, 2021, 03:07:53 pm »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=126:52:31&ch=22

Someone tries to give Steve Bales a metric figure. He indignantly rejects this: "by the way, we ain't Germans down here... or whoever uses centimeters per second."

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Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / 162:14:31 Retro's mysterious "police boat on Lake Houston" anecdote

« on: July 24, 2020, 02:36:10 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=162:14:31&ch=20

Retro Chuck Deiterich tells Flight Director Glynn Lunney, apparently out of the blue: "Flight, I once got a ticket for doing that at a police boat out on Lake Houston, so you don't bother me!" The room explodes in laughter.

Anyone have any guesses??

13

Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / 166:33:33 FIDO is asked where the splashdown parties are

« on: July 24, 2020, 02:28:42 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=166:33:33&ch=20

Also: https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=167:18:34&ch=20

With the Flintlock closed, everyone is wondering where the good splashdown parties are going to be, and for some reason they think FIDO Jay Greene might know. But he hasn't heard any inside information: all he knows is that there's a sign on the Nassau Bay Hotel across the street for 5pm.

It sounds like that's where they ended up, if you read the oral histories. It also sounds like they had a bit too much fun.

Thomas Sanzone: "The Nassau Bay Resort Motor Inn—a hotel on NASA Road 1—actually had an NBC news studio on the very top floor, so they could shoot across [the street] to show the Manned Spacecraft Center. I remember that the grand piano at the Nassau Bay Resort Motor Inn ended up in the swimming pool on the night of Apollo 11."

Jay Greene: "Apollo 11 was the big blowout with the fabled piano in the swimming pool. I wouldn’t know. I think I passed out before we got that far."

And you can find a picture of the place here: https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/Nassau-Bay-NASA-vintage-photos-50th-anniversary-15085883.php

14

General Discussion / Apollo 11 Guidance loop very low

« on: July 21, 2020, 07:48:31 am »

Having followed through the lunar descent shift on the FIDO loop, I'm now trying to do the same with Guidance, but it seems like the audio on that loop is often a lot lower than on other loops. It's not inaudible but it's difficult to listen to.

I'm not certain if this was an issue with the recording or the digitisation or with Apollo in Real Time itself, but thought I'd flag up in case there was any fix?

A couple of random examples:
https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=096:18:08&ch=21
https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=096:38:40&ch=21

In the mean time I'll carry on doing my best to follow the various debates between Steve Bales and Jack Garman.

15

Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / 102:03:02 Doors locked before landing - AGC is amused

« on: July 21, 2020, 01:53:19 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=102:03:02&ch=21

AGC (Jack Garman): Yaw, AGC. They're gonna lock you in?
Yaw: In. Everyone else out.
AGC: Pretty good.
Someone else: Is that the way you want it?
Yaw: I don't know that I have any choice.