Recent Posts

71

Apollo General Discussion / Re: Identifying speakers/ Mission Control teams

« Last post by MadDogBV on March 20, 2024, 08:37:54 am »

It's a webhost issue; the files are still technically there, just inaccessible and locked off until the webhost makes them available again. I did save a local copy. Here it is: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y9mjRT6vvmsq9Gy7xcAoAdRP8NM0d2Ko/view?usp=sharing

As others have mentioned, the MOCR manning situation is a mess post-accident and it's not out of the realm of possibility to hear two or more distinct voices on a loop during any given shift (Greene, Boone, Stoval, and Reed can all be heard on the FIDO loop throughout the GET 90+00 White team shift.

72

Apollo General Discussion / Re: Identifying speakers/ Mission Control teams

« Last post by ke6jjj on March 10, 2024, 07:10:03 pm »

The attachement has gone 404 again.

73

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 089:30:00 Trench can't keep track of all the meetings going on

« Last post by MadDogBV on February 21, 2024, 08:53:05 am »

It is now 8:43AM local time. FAO Bob Lindsey is reaching out to RETRO (but instead getting FIDO Bill Boone) to ask whether there's going to be an 8am re-entry meeting. Boone doesn't know about that - but he does know about Bill Tyndall's data priority meeting, and he wonders if perhaps that's what FAO means?

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=089:30:00&ch=20

Apollo 13 was on its way back to Earth. Although the PC+2 abort burn was executed as correctly as could be under the circumstances (with subsequent tracking indicating that a MCC5 would still be necessary), flight control still had one major problem to contend with: re-entry - all the activities that would be needed in the last six hours of flight.

One of the most key aspects of Apollo 13 after the oxygen tank disaster is the total, industry-wide mobilization that occurred in order to solve rapidly-developing problems that urgently needed an answer by a certain timeframe. From one end of the Manned Spacecraft Center to the other, there was one practice that was a near-constant throughout the mission: Meetings. Meetings. Meetings. Sometimes planned, but more often improvised, all to tackle different problems, all vacuuming up different flight controllers with all of their varying levels of expertise.

This is why when listening to the FD loops after the abort burn, you sometimes can hear up to 3 or 4 different officers manning one station during a single shift. They frequently had to be swapped out as managers such as Gene Kranz, Bill Tyndall, Neil Hutchinson and Jerry Bostick yoinked controllers and brought them from one meeting to the next.

74

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 061:27:28 Burn time freakout: "Is he loaded correctly?!"

« Last post by MadDogBV on February 16, 2024, 02:44:11 pm »

Within three minutes of the free return burn, FLIGHT Glynn Lunney suddenly notices that the wall clock in the MOCR is off by a large amount. Once RETRO Tom Weichel provides a countdown from his retro clock indicating the time left before the burn, Glynn suddenly becomes a lot more animated over the loop.

It was shortly thereafter determined that the wall clock had been improperly set by the comm staff, and that both the spacecraft and the retro clock were properly synchronized to the burn time.

Link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=061:27:28&ch=19

As an addendum, later before the PC+2 burn, FIDO Bill Stoval (also in the MOCR at the time of the free return burn, sitting next to Bill Boone) reminds Bobby Spencer to check the wall and retro clock to make sure both are aligned - "I'd hate to get zapped on that one again."

75

Apollo General Discussion / Re: Mobile Device Website Issue

« Last post by RobatRobot on February 07, 2024, 06:09:59 pm »

No rush. History isn't going anywhere. Glad you're still engaged with it. My projects are notoriously unfinished. Thanks for the update. 

76

Apollo General Discussion / Re: Mobile Device Website Issue

« Last post by bfeist on February 05, 2024, 06:27:08 pm »

My apologies for how sub-par the mobile version of AiRT is. It's entirely due to me running out of time when building the original app. There's work in progress now to redesign/build the whole web experience. This time around, mobile will be given much more consideration.

77

Apollo 13 Moments of Interest / 110:32:09 GUIDO gives the first words on CSM alignment techniques to CAPCOM

« Last post by MadDogBV on February 05, 2024, 09:53:53 am »

This is prompted by a question from Jim Lovell, who wanted to know how the command module will be aligned for re-entry, particularly with the LM still hanging onto it. As far as I know, these are the absolute first ever words spoken over the Flight Director loop regarding the actual techniques involved. It comes across as a somewhat informal conversation, with GUIDO Gary Renick essentially walking through the process and CAPCOM Jack Lousma repeating his own interpretation of the words back to him (off the loop), to make sure that his understanding is correct for when he passes it up to the crew.

There's a lot of background noise on the GUIDO and CAPCOM loops, so for the sake of ease on the ears, this is just the isolated flight director loop.

LINK: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/?t=110:32:39&ch=50

78

Apollo General Discussion / Mobile Device Website Issue

« Last post by RobatRobot on February 03, 2024, 02:00:45 am »

Hi,
For some time I have had an issue with the mobile site layout for Apollo 13. I have tried installing different browsers, and I tried borrowing a friend's phone to check it wasn't an Android/Apple thing. I've also tried changing the default zoom, and switching to desktop mode, but that comes with its own problems which makes having the mobile site all the more valuable. It's hard to describe without a picture, but the biggest issue is that all the buttons to select the backroom loops are beyond the bottom edge of the screen and cannot be accessed. A few years back when I first started using the site, I was able to see the graphical layout of Control below the audio stream and loops graphics, with the various backroom loops represented as a block of buttons below that. I was able to select SPAN for instance. However, for at least a year now I have a large gap between the audio graphic and the control room graphic, with no access to the backroom buttons. One other thing to note: the buttons for the various controllers loops used to be slightly offset from where you had to tap, but this seems fixed since the change. I wondered if there was some imported third party script used in the layout which has been updated and introduced a bug?

79

Apollo General Discussion / Re: Other Apollo Missions

« Last post by bfeist on December 01, 2023, 02:20:20 pm »

It's a hangup with the process, not the material. Every transfer is still pending.

80

Apollo General Discussion / Re: Other Apollo Missions

« Last post by Naraht on November 30, 2023, 08:58:45 am »

Short answer: NASA is having difficulty getting the historical tapes from the National Archives.

Wow! Are there issues with other missions or just 16?