Messages

91

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

« on: May 11, 2021, 10:20:56 am »

Based on the transcripts, this is who I assume is working on Liebergot's shift (question marks where I'm not sure of exact names):

FLIGHT: Gene Kranz
FIDO: Bill Stoval
GUIDO: Will Fenner
RETRO: Bobby Spencer
EECOM: Sy Liebergot (of course) edited 5/23/2021 per Naraht
GNC: Briggs "Buck" Willoughby
TELMU: Bob Heselmeyer
CONTROL: Larry Strimple
RECOVERY: Bill Hoover, Ed Bullock
INCO: Alan Glines, Gary Scott
PROCEDURES: Earl Thompson, Jim Fucci
SURGEON: Dr. Jack Ziegleschmidt
FAO: Turnage Lindsey, Spence Gardner

SPAN: Mel Brooks, Arnie Aldrich, Bill Blair?
EPS: Dick Brown, Jim Kelly
ECS: George Conway, George Bliss, Larry Sheaks

92

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

« on: May 09, 2021, 08:33:25 am »

Well, here's what I've done so far. I've created a condensed audio clip of Sy Liebergott's shift on the White team from 049:20 to 057:06 GET. This includes a rudimentary noise removal and silence removal algorithm to get rid of the background tape noise, save for long bursts of static/background talk which will require some manual edits by me to talk. This essentially shortens what would be a normally 8-hour audio file to a relatively seamless 4-hour clip.

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jq0_25sDIRxR9-Fsx53Ef_fA7DR057Ot/view?usp=sharing

In addition to that, I've also included a partial transcript which I plan to add more to in the future. This is in ".docx" format primarily because it includes an equation given by one of the EPS teams, and there's no way to write out the equation in any of the older Word formats. Maybe I ought to convert it to an image. 

I'll update this as I go along and, once I can figure out how to deal with the equation issue, probably keep a running transcript up on Google Docs.

Happy listening (and reading).

93

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 092:42:10 Lunney blows a gasket over procedure meddling

« on: May 04, 2021, 01:26:59 pm »

We all like hearing Lunney get ticked off. During the LM power transfer procedure, SPAN and EECOM posit the idea to FLIGHT of doing a main bus/battery procedure to verify that the main bus is working properly, effectively combining procedures. With little time to spare and last-minute input flooding in to change the procedures, he gets more and more torched.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=092:41:52&ch=50

94

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

« on: May 04, 2021, 08:40:14 am »

Suggestions would indeed be helpful. It also helps to know the names of the controllers, although getting the names of people in the backroom might be tricky. I know the guy working the FIDO console is a Bill, but there are multiple Bills working FIDO for Apollo 13. I've done some digging around and I know the names of the folks on the EECOM loops, including in SPAN (Mel Brooks has the ridiculously deep voice), but that's about it.

95

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / Re: 55:49:59 Conversation between surgeon and Dr. Berry TV show, accident

« on: May 02, 2021, 08:19:44 pm »

I admit one thing I find amusing about this conversation is Dr. Berry's musing about how the media "is not covering much of anything" with regards to Apollo 13, a mere six minutes before the incident that turned this into arguably the second most famous Apollo mission in history, and certainly one of the most widely covered shortly thereafter!

96

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

« on: May 02, 2021, 03:36:53 pm »

Hi there! Would there be any benefit to me transcribing the EECOM loops for Apollo 13 - for instance, starting at the beginning of Sy Liebergot's shift just before the accident occurred and then crossing into some of Clint Burton's shift - and then posting it in the "Apollo 13 Moments of Interest" board? I had been transcribing some of the shift and thought it might be of interest to some of the readers/listeners. There's a lot of interesting moments and discussions to be found in some of the flight controller loops, and having the transcript would be helpful in navigating through it. I have no problem putting it together, as I have both the software and equipment to run through it in fairly short order.

I'd attempt to transcribe the FIDO shift also, but as would be expected for anything in flight dynamics, there's a lot more jargon in there and in general it's a bit tougher to follow.

97

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 065:12:52 Lunney laments over ponderous procedures for powering CSM from LM

« on: April 27, 2021, 08:06:40 am »

It has become apparent over the hours following the accident that power will be needed from the LM to the CSM in order to carry out crucial maneuvers for the PC+2 abort. Unfortunately, the procedure for doing this is becoming very lengthy, which FLIGHT Glynn Lunney comments on as TELMU gives his report to him.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=065:12:52&ch=50

Lunney later relays this to CAPCOM Joe Kerwin. Kerwin is already a bit skeptical about having the crew do any unnecessary procedures. Earlier, he feuded with EECOM Liebergot about doing extra cryo-stirs. Not surprisingly, he is very audibly frustrated at the lengthening of the LM umbilical procedure.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=065:15:56&ch=50

98

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / Re: 119:54:13 CapCom Kerwin is told about a thermal survival blanket in the CSM!

« on: April 25, 2021, 09:09:15 pm »

Especially given Kerwin, according to Sy, is very protective of the crew and frequently questions the decisions made by flight control if they aren't to the astronauts' benefits.

It's possible they were still trying to follow some semblance of a strict flight plan and chose not to use the blanket since it's meant for post-landing purposes and not for actual use during flight.

99

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 049:37:46 EECOM back room discusses probe failure w/ Dumis and Liebergot

« on: April 23, 2021, 09:46:21 am »

This is somewhat technical in nature but it does give an interesting glimpse into the day-to-day troubleshooting that EECOM engineers have to do in order to solve open issues. Jim from the back room chats with Sy Liebergot and Charlie Dumis (still on console from the previous shift) about the failure of a capacitance probe and how it might have occurred. Both are particularly impatient, given that it seems to be a re-explanation of details that they already know. Dumis* does give an amusing exclamation near the end of the conversation.

Eventually, Sy just tunes out and moves on to discussing another open issue with FLIGHT - fixing the quantity balance on the H2 tanks.

https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=049:37:46&ch=16

* Edit: After listening to the tape a few times, I'm pretty sure that it's George Conway and not Charlie Dumis who explodes "Bullshit!" at the end of the conversation.

100

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 084:48:25 Lousma: "You got any recovery plans, FLIGHT?"

« on: April 08, 2021, 01:58:56 pm »

CAPCOM Jack Lousma asks FLIGHT (Milt Windler) if he has recovery plans. Milt misunderstands at first and thinks that Lousma is joking around, but then as the conversation progresses, he realizes they are referring to the crew on board the spacecraft (since the MPL and AOL has been changing frequently throughout the flight).

Pago Pago, or Hawaii?

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=084:48:25&ch=8

Edit: Looking back at the clip, it sounds like Milt is laughing at Jack's Freudian slip of referring to him as "fright" instead of "flight", rather than the recovery plans inquiry. Most people in the business would probably agree that if anyone would be referred to as a fright director, it would likely be Kranz or Kraft.

101

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / Re: Apollo 13 Film vs Reality

« on: April 06, 2021, 02:13:49 pm »

Didn't Ed Fendell also suggest shutting off both BIOMED and the POWERAMP to save power and water during Lunney's shift immediately after the explosion? Unless they turned BIOMED back on for some reason or another. (Maybe SURGEON got antsy about having it off indefinitely.)

Edit: And indeed, as I listened to the loops later on, that is exactly what happened; the SURGEONs wanted BIOMED data to serve as a backup sensor while they were running the LM LiOH cartridges to their limits.

102

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 056:12:37 RECOVERY gets ready to abort

« on: March 30, 2021, 02:37:41 pm »

Immediately after news of the O2 leak, RETRO is already preparing for the worst and getting abort procedures underway with RECOVERY coordinator Edward Bullock.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=056:12:37&ch=32

RECOVERY does later dial up PACIFIC RECOVERY to lay down the law on a potential PC+2 abort and/or T+60 fast abort plan and ensure that the Navy ships are still in recovery range.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=056:33:18&ch=32

103

General Discussion / Re: Way to skip gaps in audio?

« on: March 30, 2021, 01:48:40 pm »

One thing I've done mostly as a side hobby is downloaded the audio files for the loops directly from the NASA Audio Collection on Archive.org, ran a noise removal algorithm in GoldWave to get rid of the warbling noise in the background produced by the tapes, and then a silence removal to get rid of the gaps. The result is a relatively seamless track that can be listened to through a multimedia player like VLC or AIMP. I could produce a step-by-step guide for doing this if need be.

Of course, this is not the same thing as skipping the files directly through the Apolloinrealtime.org website, but I can imagine that being a general pain to program in.

104

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 064:38:54 Jay Greene's first appearance on the FLIGHT loop since accident

« on: March 28, 2021, 02:39:17 pm »

Pretty self-explanatory. He's not explicitly identified as Jay, but the voice is unmistakably his. I haven't monitored the FIDO loops to determine if Jay was chatting to the backroom prior to this, though I gather there were multiple FIDO's and GUIDO's working the consoles after the accident occurred. He's not heard from again on the FLIGHT loop until Lunney's second shift at around 089 hours or so.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=064:38:54&ch=7

Edit: He was actually on the FIDO loops a good while prior to this, to talk to SELECT specifically. Jay wanted to sort out some confusion regarding tracking requirements after Bill Boone scared the hell out of them by suggesting they might not have the transponder beacon for more than an hour at most.

105

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 065:06:14 Minor goof: Kerwin on the wrong loop

« on: March 20, 2021, 09:10:41 am »

Short but sweet one here. In his first shift in the MOCR as CAPCOM after the explosion, Joe Kerwin tells the crew to commence the planned yaw maneuver. Problem is the crew can't hear him.

I suspect Kerwin probably didn't get much sleep after the accident. 

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=065:06:16&ch=7
Isolated Flight Director Loop: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=065:06:14&ch=50