Recent Posts

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 003:56:32 TLI dynamics error shows Apollo 13 hurtling back to earth

« Last post by MadDogBV on January 22, 2025, 08:54:39 am »

The DYNAMICS team Ray Reynolds and Bob Torres had a rough mission.

The Apollo 13 Mission Operations Report notes the following incident in the Problems & Resolutions section of FIDO's report:

The SIVB LOX dump and evasive maneuvers were input to the RTCC at (approximately) 3:46:00. At this time, the Selects requested that the 2:59:00 zero ΔV maneuver (used for CSM separation attitude definition) be moved back to TLI cutoff. Dynamics was so instructed, however, TLI was moved instead. This resulted in the ephemeris re-anchoring on the pre-TLI CYI vector. This situation was ultimately corrected by deleting TLI and re-anchoring on CCHU08. (The consequence of this was to "turn on" the RTCC pre-TLI vent model. With this vent on, and unknown, later impact point evaluations with MSFC would not compare. It was not until 24 hrs later that the "vent on" situation was noted as having invalidated impact point comparisons attempted prior to a GET of approximately 6 hrs.)

The re-anchoring of the ephemeris on the pre-TLI vector also had the side effect of impacting multiple displays used by the MOCR personnel, including the CLAD - the command module looking angle display - which was used by the INCO to configure the high-gain antenna and also identify which spacecraft omni provided the best comm. At ~3:56 after the dynamics error, the CLAD was now showing the spacecraft Apollo 13 hurtling back towards the earth, because all the ephemeris knew was that 13 was still in orbit.

COMM Ed Fendell has a field day with this, delighting in embarrassing the FIDO over it. In the FIDO loop, Dave Reed is noticeably annoyed at DYNAMICS. "Mark yourself down for one," he orders them. Whether this is part of a disciplinary action or to buy Dave a beer later is unclear.

Link (COMM&INCO): https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=003:56:32&ch=53
Link (FIDO): https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=003:57:26&ch=20

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / -02:01:30 Slayton doesn't want Mattingly to self-quarantine

« Last post by MadDogBV on January 21, 2025, 06:48:28 pm »

Those who might have listened to the pre-launch loops may have heard at some point an isolated "CAPCOM, Stony, come up super-loop, Joe." The subsequent transmission was apparently to notify Kerwin that there is an incoming phone call from Slayton. This timestamp concerns that call.

Deke Slayton, Director of Flight Crew Operations, calls CAPCOM Joe Kerwin on the telephone during the launch countdown sequence. They chat briefly; his main druther is he wants someone to make it crystal-clear to Ken Mattingly that he shouldn't feel afraid (and by extension, no one around him should feel afraid) to have him in the MOCR pre-launch. This is an interesting deviation from the party line that was held during the pre-launch press conference where there seemed to be a unanimous agreement that Mattingly shouldn't fly due to measles exposure. Based on Slayton's language here, it seems that he's not at all convinced that there is any need for him to quarantine himself.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=-02:01:30&ch=15

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General Discussion / Re: Other Apollo Missions

« Last post by Naraht on January 07, 2025, 03:46:51 pm »

Sorry for the late reply to this Naraht, but -- this is definitely a worthwhile update. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

I'm reading tea leaves! But we'll keep hope alive. Glad you found it useful.

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General Discussion / Re: Other Apollo Missions

« Last post by MadDogBV on January 05, 2025, 10:42:53 am »

Sorry for the late reply to this Naraht, but -- this is definitely a worthwhile update. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 139:13:22 John Aaron proposes unthinkable power-saving solution

« Last post by MadDogBV on December 16, 2024, 10:08:02 pm »

During the re-entry shift, EECOM John Aaron and EECOM Sy Liebergot make their case for never powering up the glycol pump (nominally it was to come up 1 hour prior to re-entry) in order to save power in the CSM. John cites 2TV-1, a test run where Apollo mission-critical equipment was tested under thermo-vacuum conditions to determine when it would actually fail, and makes the supposition that the spacecraft could still make a G&N re-entry safely even without glycol cooling.

Both Arnie Aldrich and Neil Hutchinson in SPAN explode with outrage at the idea. Although John's engineering analysis makes sense, especially since the command module is still freezing cold, it's unthinkable precisely because no CAPCOM would be willing to make the call to the crew to shut off cooling equipment required to preserve the spacecraft's sensitive electronics. They are especially concerned about the G&N and the components which rely on the glycol pump (PIPAs and IRIGs).

Thankfully, this was relatively far down on the list of the "emergency power-down" list and never ended up being needed.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=139:13:22&ch=16

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General Discussion / Re: Other Apollo Missions

« Last post by Naraht on December 12, 2024, 04:33:09 am »

The NSF grant information says the end date for the project is now July 2025.

The most recent paper I can find says they've preserved over 75,000 hours out of an estimated 150,000 hours of audio. (Apollo 11 is apparently 19,000 hours in total.) See: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10446811

So... maybe they're getting somewhere? But I'm not sure this is an advance from the previous news that they'd digitized Apollo 8, 9 and 10.

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 116:55:33 The possible sim at 2 o'clock has been scrubbed

« Last post by MadDogBV on November 01, 2024, 09:16:36 am »

A re-entry simulation that was due to be conducted at 2pm in the afternoon is officially stricken when AFD calls the SIM SUP, letting him know that Gene Kranz ordered for it to be canceled due to timeline considerations. This later thrills the FIDO on duty (Dave Reed), who was concerned about having to give up real-time tracking data due to the simulation requirements.

It is indeed rescheduled to 6am the following day, the same time that the White Team is going on shift - and a nail-biting eight hours prior to entry interface!

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=116:55:33&ch=6

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / -03:59:38 "Watch your six, STONEY." GO for crew departure

« Last post by MadDogBV on November 01, 2024, 08:53:23 am »

STONEY Paul Weitz gives the go for crew departure to Skip Chauvin. Vance Brand then chimes in.

It's worth noting that both Weitz and Brand were Naval aviators, thus the friendly and jovial warning, "watch your six".

Note Apollo 13 preceded Top Gun by about 16 years, and the use of that phrase in the armed forces as a "keep your eyes out/watch your back" type warning has persisted for even longer!

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=-03:59:38&ch=7

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Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / -04:18:35 Vance Brand checks out the command module

« Last post by MadDogBV on November 01, 2024, 08:34:29 am »

Per the PAO transcript, courtesy of the Apollo 13 Flight Journal:

(-04:19:58 GET) This is Apollo Saturn Launch Control; we're continuing in our hold at the T minus 3 hour and 30 minute mark. This is a planned hold at this time scheduled to last for 1 hour. The close-out crew has just recently arrived at the 320-foot level. They went across the swing arm to the White Room area and have now opened the hatch of the Command Module, which has been named Odyssey. The backup pilot, Vance Brand, has entered the spacecraft at this time. The close-out crew consists of 6 men. The pad leader, the backup pilot, a NASA quality control man, two spacecraft technicians, and [...] two suit technicians.

Some interesting things to note about the checkout procedure:

• It appears that as Vance goes through the tests, his callsign changes depending on where in the center couch he is seated. His first spoken lines over the loop identify himself as the "CDR" when he attempts to begin the chlorination procedure, until Skip redirects him. Later, he identifies as "BCMP" when he's inspecting the MC&W lights, given that he's the backup backup pilot (with the backup pilot, Swigert, of course having been placed into the prime crew).
• The STONEY or capsule communicator is nominally Paul Weitz, though at this point, he was apparently running late getting to the launch site. One of the Cape technicians named Joe Battaglia was going to sit in for Weitz until he arrived, but it doesn't appear that this happened. (Little is known about Joe other than that he was an engineer at the Merritt Island facilities.)

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=-04:18:35&ch=7

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Apollo 11 Moments of Interest / Improved Apollo 11 MOCR audio transcripts

« Last post by bfeist on October 25, 2024, 04:31:08 pm »

I've taken the 11,000 hours of Apollo 11 MOCR audio recordings and have re-transcribed them using the latest Whisper "large-v3" model and a wrapper system called WhisperX. This has provided fewer hallucinations in the transcripts and provides much better utterance timestamps.

These new transcripts replace the existing "large-v2" transcripts and are now live on apolloinrealtime.org/11

New stats:
4,803,618 utterances
42,684,618 words
224MB of text