Topics

16

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.

17

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."

18

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

19

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.

20

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."

21

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."

22

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??

23

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

24

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.

25

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.

26

Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / 062:31:15 MIT wants two beds in the bunkroom

« on: July 19, 2020, 05:15:30 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=062:31:15&ch=21

Apparently at the time of Apollo 11, the bunkroom had room for about 24 people, and in this recording MIT are negotiating hard for a couple of beds for their people. Guidance officer Ken Russell explains: "There was a big thing... they had more people than they had room for, apparently.... Steve [Bales] and I are on call all the time and we have one bunk, one allocation."

Discussion continues – https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=062:35:06&ch=21 – "They have already filled 24 bunks.... It's not too hopeful."

But MIT have a couple of guys staying in Galveston and so the problem-solving continues...

"Well, one thing, Russell and Bales aren't going to sleep the entire day. You might could trade off with them."
"They don't sleep the whole mission, do they?"
"Well, I don't know."

One conclusion: "I think I'll bring in my bed roll and sleep behind the plot board." Discussion continues until 062:38:11: "Do you snore? I do!"

Interestingly, Steve Bales recalls that when he slept in the bunkroom the night before the landing, there weren't more than two other people there. (Source: From the Trench of Mission Control to the Craters of the Moon.) We know that one of them was Jay Greene, and that Jay and Steve also slept there the night after the landing, after watching the EVA in the flight controllers' lounge. (Source: Jay Greene's JSC oral history.)

We also know that Sy Liebergot had a bunk allocated to him, with a little sticker on it that said 'Rendezvous EECOM': https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=096:04:35&ch=17

27

Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / 069:41:37 Jack Garman's color TV EVA party

« on: July 19, 2020, 04:52:40 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=069:41:37&ch=21

Yaw: AGC, Yaw
Someone: Go ahead
Yaw: Hey, is Jack there?
AGC (Jack Garman): Yeah
Yaw: Hey Jack, is the wild rumor that Jurgenson was talking about you and a TV party still true?
AGC: TV party?
Yaw: Yeah, Sunday?
AGC: Oh! I might - I have a color television. Anybody who wishes is welcome to come over and watch the EVA, yes, certainly. I didn't really mean to say that it was a party.
Yaw: Oh, that was sort of the impression that he had given.
AGC: Are you kidding, after being on the console, everybody, for twelve hours at a shot? And then you think we're going to be drinking and partying at that time? (pause) Heck, yes, you're right!
Yaw: That's what I thought. (pause) No, I thought everybody would be beat, but I still don't think anybody would be morose.

Speaking of partying, Jack Garman got married on August 1st 1969 – only a week after the Apollo 11 splashdown – after meeting his future wife during the Apollo 8 sims at the end of 1968. So he was pretty busy in 1969!

28

Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / 044:06:03 System 4 at Honeysuckle has melted down

« on: July 18, 2020, 03:21:13 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=044:06:03&ch=20

What does it mean? Luckily for us, FIDO has it explained to him by the Assistant Flight Director (and a few others). They then go on to discuss at 7.7 earthquake that just happened in China.

29

Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / 044:01:05 Jerry Bostick's missing headset

« on: July 18, 2020, 03:12:01 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=044:01:05&ch=20

Jerry Bostick's (chief of the Flight Dynamics Branch, AKA the boss of the Trench) headset goes missing and the saga enlivens another dull sleep shift. It had a long cord and everything.

Discussion runs until 044:05:36 or so, at which point the participants are commenting: "it's good to start a flap over something simple... hey, we could probably carry this on for two or three hours."

30

Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / 015:01:11 Even on Apollo 11 there are boring shifts...

« on: July 16, 2020, 08:39:56 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=015:01:11&ch=20

FIDO (Jay Greene): Hey, if you've memorized the flight plan, I'm all set to give you a spot quiz on what's happening this shift.
GUIDO (Will Fenner): Sleep
FIDO: You just flunked. It's sleep and PTC. You only knew half of what's going on, Fenner.
GUIDO: I have been watching the PTC here for an hour. It's going around and around.