Messages

76

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / Transcript correction for CONTROL at 058:17:52

« on: December 07, 2021, 01:18:08 pm »

"That needs to be taken care of before she goes" - From what I've read online, it sounds like CONTROL (Hal Loden) is actually saying "more skosh" rather than "before she goes"; which is military slang for "get this done quickly". He says this during other parts of the CONTROL loop when speaking to GUIDO and RETRO.

Reference: http://www.wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?t=3601

77

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 058:15:52 Greene calls FIDO console, gets briefing from Stoval after accident

« on: November 29, 2021, 11:39:57 am »

Jay Greene calls up the FIDO console shortly after the crew moves into the LM. FIDO Boone informs him that he, Stoval, and Bostick are at the FIDO console. (Earlier in the FIDO loop, Bostick can actually be heard telling Boone "that's okay, don't worry about it" about an unrelated dynamics issue, much to Boone's annoyance.)

Then the call is passed off to Stoval who briefs Jay on what abort maneuvers are being planned to get the crew home early. The call concludes with Jay deciding he'll probably go to the MOCR to help out, even though he isn't technically on duty.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=058:15:52&ch=20

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General Discussion / Re: Other Apollo Missions

« on: November 29, 2021, 10:03:08 am »

It'll take a while for all of those tapes to be restored. I would be interested to hear Apollo 7 myself to hear how mission control, and in particular Glynn Lunney, reacts to Wally Schirra's wanton insubordination. That said, they probably wouldn't say anything too critical of the astronauts on the loops...

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 058:35:29 FIDO Boone argues with SELECT Howell about tracking problems

« on: November 18, 2021, 09:35:02 am »

A very tense moment in the flight. The crew has now moved into and is living out of the LM. RETRO Tom Weichel and FIDO Bill Boone are busy coming up with abort maneuvers to bring the crew back home early. However, all of the maneuver planning will be immaterial unless they can establish tracking with the LM - which they are unable to do because the S-IVB booster is forcing the tracking stations to use a non-standard frequency to maintain communication with the LM. As a result, DATA SELECT Henry Howell is unable to process the data due to the uplink shift.

Without any tracking, there can be no maneuver planning. Boone argues long, hard, and bitterly with Howell about trying to find a way to get valid tracking data from the LM. Eventually, Layton simply and grimly says "There is no way, Bill."

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=058:35:29&ch=20

Solving this particular problem occupies the rest of INCO Ed Fendell's time for the next couple hours. He can be heard trying to negotiate with SELECT here, to no avail: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=058:40:17&ch=20

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General Discussion / Re: I can put together a transcript for EECOM loops

« on: August 09, 2021, 12:51:13 pm »

Yeah, I see the timestamp as being the only thing that works too. The problem is I am working from a highly compressed version (which I created) of the EECOM loop that removes the silence so as to make it a seamless listening and transcribing experience. Timestamping means I would need to go back to the original file to figure out when the dialogue actually occurs.

Not that this is unreasonable, but it will take me more time. I do plan on doing this for both the EECOM, FLIGHT and FIDO loops though.

81

General Discussion / Re: I can put together a transcript for EECOM loops

« on: August 08, 2021, 07:18:25 pm »

There's nothing I find more gratifying than a confirmation that someone reads my transcript work and wants to see more.  I will have an updated transcript soon.

82

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 051:30:21 EECOM Liebergot calls Dick Kohrs

« on: August 06, 2021, 05:53:31 pm »

If you're not sure who Dick Kohrs is, check out the Richard H. Kohrs Oral History on the NASA website. He was the Chief of the System Engineering Division and also went on to be an integral part of the Space Shuttle program.

In this phone call, EECOM Sy Liebergot calls Kohrs partially to vent about his inability to get a General Electric contractor to pull some information about hot attitudes - despite promising to have them hand-carried to Sy before the mission - but primarily to have the Systems Engineering division run some data for him since GE "flubbed the dub".

Although you don't hear it on this loop, during the call, FLIGHT Kranz - who apparently was listening in on Sy's loop - hands over control to the AFD and heads over to SPAN to grumble at the CSM engineer, Bill Blair. Bill relays this to Sy later on.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=051:30:21&ch=16

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 057:08:54 "We're bringing 'em all in, man!"

« on: August 03, 2021, 01:18:48 pm »

Before handing over to Black FIDO Bill Boone, White FIDO Bill Stoval chats with MIDCOURSE Bob Wiley about pre-perilune aborts to get the Apollo spacecraft home. Although both are fairly sure this is not as practical as a PC+2 DPS abort, they are running maneuvers anyway for comparison purposes.

At the end of the transmission, Bob relays that reinforcements are returning to the SSR to provide support for the trench.

Despite going off shift, Stoval does remain in the MOCR along with Bostick to help Boone and RETRO Weichel with the maneuver planning.

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=057:10:04&ch=20

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 051:40:50 MIDCOURSE asks FIDO Stoval if they're just doing busywork

« on: August 03, 2021, 12:43:08 pm »

During a rather quiet translunar coast, FIDO Bill Stoval is trying to figure out a way to burp (for the possible contingency of needing to relieve SHe pressure in the LM) the DPS engine in such a manner as to not significantly alter the current (immaculate) trajectory that the Apollo 13 spacecraft is currently on. In doing so, he's feeding DYNAMICS a lot of maneuvers that at this point seem to be bordering on trial-and-error.

MIDCOURSE Quenton Holmes picks up on what's going on and asks Stoval in a rather roundabout manner if they're just "soldiering on the job". Stoval firmly denies this.

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=051:40:50&ch=20

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Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / Re: 108:15:37 Network controller gets in trouble for not responding to Flight

« on: July 23, 2021, 08:53:51 am »

(Apologies for the necropost.)

Comm decorum is a BIG deal in the MOCR. During Apollo 13, I think Lunney, Griffin and Windler all grumbled at controllers for not having the air-to-ground loop punched up when the crew asked a question. I can totally believe a controller would be thrown out for making that same mistake twice.

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General Discussion / Some fun Apollo 13 audio projects

« on: July 20, 2021, 10:16:07 am »

In my spare time I've been working on some audio projects using the Apollo 13 MOCR tapes (thanks to Archive.org and Ben Feist for making this possible). In the process, I've made a neat little audio -- I guess you could call it a clip but it's a little over 12 hours long. 

This is MOCR audio from the 047:44:12 to 064:30:27 GET. In this, I've isolated the EECOM audio into the left channel and the FIDO audio into the right channel, so you've got systems in one ear and dynamics in the other. Appropriately, I've named this file "Organized Chaos". You'll see why once you get to the time of the explosion.

In order to make this file listenable, I've run a noise and silence removal algorithm through GoldWave so that it removes most of the silence (except for the loud comm static when they bring the LM online) and provides for a seamless listening experience. This reduces the length of the audio file from 16 hours to 12 hours. There is a slight reverb effect whenever you have overlap in both channels (usually on the Flight Director loop) and the beginning of the audio file during Griffin's shift is a bit de-synchronized. But once you get into Kranz's shift, everything starts to sync up and it sounds a heck of a lot better.

Hope you enjoy this audio file as much as I enjoyed creating it: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t22SSWM5i3QdjOa-tTOAgtg0-7iat0Ts/view?usp=sharing

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 054:21:56 RETRO asks FIDO and GUIDO for a slide rule

« on: July 05, 2021, 11:14:04 am »

This is a neat little on-the-loop conversation in the midst of all of the mid-course vector and dynamics planning that is taking place on the FIDO loop. RETRO Bobby Spencer asks FIDO Bill Stoval, then GUIDO Will Fenner, if they have a slide rule handy. Surprisingly it seems neither of them have one spare - then again, it is a quiet shift.

Never leave your slide rule at home!

Edit: I think near the end of the conversation, Will Fenner is referring to an "alidade in the back room" though he gets cut off so it's hard to tell.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=054:21:56&ch=20

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / Re: 048:44:15 Greene: "what's this 'hey babe' stuff?"

« on: July 05, 2021, 10:59:51 am »

I did delve into the details of the conservation, and apparently Jay is referring to the changes in the projected impact point for the S-IVB that EXPERIMENTS is crashing into the Moon (this exercise also occupies a fair bit of Stoval's time during his shift). The latitude and longitude for the impact point is changing on a fairly regular basis due to the uneven surface and gravitational field of the Moon. As Jay comments earlier in the shift when giving the updated coordinates to Gerry, "They're all one on top of the other."

The best part about this is Jay mixes up minutes and decimals when first giving the coordinates. Then after the phone call, he gets into a heated row with PROCEDURES and COMM about how the updated coordinates being put on the big numbered display at the front of the MOCR are wrong, and that there's no such thing as 83 minutes.

First, his exchange with PROCEDURES to let them know that they screwed up in confusing minutes with decimals: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=048:47:44&ch=20

Then, he gets into it with COMM on the MOCR DYN loop, who tries to out-smart-aleck Jay, but doesn't succeed in doing so.

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 081:02:35 John Young grumbles at Kranz over LM PTC procedure

« on: July 01, 2021, 09:19:54 am »

At least I think it's John Young. He identifies himself as CAPCOM on the loop. Although the CAPCOM on shift is Vance Brand, there would frequently be multiple astronauts congregated around the CAPCOM console during particularly pivotal moments in the flight. Someone who is more familiar with voices on the loops can correct me.

In "Apollo: Race To The Moon" Kranz would identify this as one of the most contentious moments during the flight, where he was pulled in three different directions by Slayton, Kraft and Faget, as far as how to configure the spacecraft and crew immediately after the PC+2 burn. Because Kranz took Faget's route and opted to use a LM PTC procedure which had never been tested, he started taking a lot of heat from the other Apollo senior management and astronauts when the procedure started taking too long for the exhausted crew to implement.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=081:02:35&ch=8

Edit: In retrospect, it's possible that the voice could be Dave Scott since Kranz mentions earlier on the flight loop that he's present in the MOCR and providing input.

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 052:38:46 Liebergot chats about his day with John Aaron

« on: June 12, 2021, 10:06:38 am »

EECOM Sy Liebergot gets a phone call from fellow EECOM John Aaron while working the White Flight shift about three hours before the accident. Sy recounts what he's been dealing with throughout the day, remarking that it's "just like the simulation". This ends up being a pretty helpful summary of what's been going on in his shift.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=052:38:46&ch=16