Messages

76

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / Re: 56:17:26 "Did it just kinda go away? Is it just a glitch?"

« on: May 01, 2020, 11:12:18 am »

You're welcome! I have been doing so much listening trying to identify people on the Trench loops. I'd be happy to join forces if there's anything you want to try to figure out - I made a post about this in the general discussion forum.

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 56:17:26 "Did it just kinda go away? Is it just a glitch?"

« on: May 01, 2020, 07:16:58 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=056:17:26&ch=20

Early in the crisis, GUIDO Gran Paules (who's presumably at home off shift) calls FIDO Bill Stoval to ask what's going on with the spacecraft. Conversation subsequently continues on the GUIDO loop as Paules is transferred to talk with Will (Fenner?).

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General Discussion / Re: Identifying speakers/ Mission Control teams

« on: April 30, 2020, 10:22:32 am »

Further thoughts... this problem is obviously particularly acute on Apollo 13, with various people being pulled off console for Kranz's Tiger Team (including some who weren't on the White Team to start with, like John Aaron), swapping around to fill in for one another during procedures meetings etc, and people hanging around even when they weren't on shift.

For example: at 95:46 or so, Glynn Lunney is on as Flight Director and Jay Greene (whose voice is unmistakable) is working the FIDO console, although he's not listed on the Black Team in the published manning lists and wasn't on console during Lunney's shifts earlier in the flight.

He gets a call from Charlie Parker, asking "who's on the Guido console?" https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=095:46:49&ch=20

Greene's response: "Who's on the Guido console? You wanna go from left to right or right to left? I got Bales, Mill(?), Wells, Fenner and Pressley."

Who was actually speaking on the Guido loop? I know it wasn't Bales, because his voice is just as distinctive as Greene's, but beyond that... well, your guess is as good as mine...

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General Discussion / Identifying speakers/ Mission Control teams

« on: April 27, 2020, 04:34:17 pm »

It occurs to me that an interesting crowdsourcing project could be to try to gather together a list of some of the actual participants in some of the key phases of the mission.

It would be relatively easy to pull together a list of Mission Control shift changes and hence teams and flight directors on duty at particular times, since all of that seems to be announced by the PAO. But beyond that, it's not always easy to tell who's on console, given the specialist ascent/descent/entry teams that worked some shifts (plus possible changes in manning after the manning lists were published?).

For example, in Apollo 11, if you look at the manning lists reproduced in the 20th anniversary flight operations reunion book, you get the following selection:

Shift 2: Flight Director Gene Kranz, FIDO Jerry Bostick, GUIDO Ken Russell and Charley Parker
Shift 3: Flight Director Glynn Lunney, FIDO Jay Greene and Phil Shaffer, GUIDO Bill Fenner and Steve Bales

Whereas what you actually had (per ALSJ, oral histories, etc) was the following:

Descent team: Flight Director Gene Kranz, FIDO Jay Greene (who says he only worked this shift in the whole mission), GUIDO Steve Bales
Ascent team: Flight Director Glynn Lunney, FIDO Dave Reed (I'm sorry, it was Phil Shaffer!), GUIDO Steve Bales (again)

Is anyone besides me interested in trying to figure some of this out? I can recognise some people's voices, and sometimes names are used, but it's a monumental task...

80

General Discussion / Re: Download of a complete "mission".

« on: April 21, 2020, 04:53:54 pm »

Thanks daniel for your help.

I've also discovered this rather useful guide to the content of the tapes: http://users.umiacs.umd.edu/~oard/teaching/269/spring19/hw/E4/

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Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / 95:58:07 Someone in Flight Dynamics is late...

« on: April 20, 2020, 01:42:21 pm »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=095:58:07&ch=20

It's a few hours before the first lunar landing, and someone in Flight Dynamics hasn't turned up yet.

"If he's not here, ten more minutes... you guys have his phone back there?"

"I believe so."

"OK, if he's not here in five more minutes, call him. At his home. It is his day."

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Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / 95:53:06 FIDO: "I feel groovy"

« on: April 20, 2020, 12:55:40 pm »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=095:53:06&ch=20

Select, in the back room, has a moment of chit-chat with his FIDO a few hours before the lunar landing: "How you feeling, Jay?"

FIDO: "I feel groovy. How do you feel?"

Select: "I'm tired, ready to go. We'll eat a few sugar cubes down here in a little bit."

FIDO: "With William down there, I don't doubt it."

83

General Discussion / Re: Download of a complete "mission".

« on: April 20, 2020, 11:22:34 am »

Can anyone offer any insight into how to figure out which of the Archive.org tapes corresponds to which loop and which part of the mission? Or do you just have to dip into them and listen until you get some idea? The file names on Archive.org don't seem to correspond to anything else that I can figure out. Or am I missing something?

ETA: Ah, I think I get it... the channel numbers from the image are in the filename. So "CH17" is EECOM and "CH20" is FIDO, for example. I think.

84

General Discussion / Re: Thank you

« on: April 20, 2020, 11:19:54 am »

I'd like to add my thanks to the chorus. Since 2005 or so, if not earlier, I've been dreaming about these tapes being digitised. But it never occurred to me to dream that they would be presented in such a rich format. To take one tiny example, I had no idea that John Aaron was contributing on the loop during the Black Team's shift during the initial Apollo 13 crisis - but there he was, identified as "Maroon EECOM" and all. Wow.

I found myself getting up at 5am this morning (almost certainly a mistake) because I was so excited about listening to more of the FIDO loop on the Apollo 11 descent. Found some gems too.

I would love to contribute to future work on the site, if there's any opportunity.

85

Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / 104:13:11 CAPCOM to FIDO: "Time's flying, boy"

« on: April 20, 2020, 11:14:25 am »

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=104:13:11&ch=20

A rare case of the Capcom communicating directly with a flight controller!

FIDO (Jay Greene) and Rendezvous think that the Capcom (Charlie Duke) told the crew 37 minutes to T3, rather than the correct 27 minutes.

"That was ten minutes ago!" says Duke. "Time's flying, boy."

Disagreement ensues.

Subsequently, and I believe related, the question of who Phil Shaffer was laughing at: https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=104:16:06&ch=20

"I'm getting a horse laugh from Shaffer," says Greene.

"That's deserved."

"How do you know?"

"Well, I'm sure he was laughing at me."

"Nah, he wasn't. He was laughing at me."

Even more subsequently, Rendezvous concludes that they were listening to the PAO tape, which was exactly 10 minutes delayed: https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=104:33:29&ch=20

"I'll extend your apologies," says Jay Greene dryly.