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Post by Martina W. on Oct 4, 2005 17:58:05 GMT -4
I believe someone may have found their avatar for this board! If it was me you had in mind: well... kind of... You may notice a certain similarity in the eye make-up if you look very closely.
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Post by Martina W. on Oct 4, 2005 18:12:38 GMT -4
Sure -- I was assuming the non-American posters wouldn't have any allegiance whatsoever to NASA, or any special reason to be intimidated by them. The notion that people are intimidated or starstruck by NASA really only applies to Americans -- and not even to them. You'd be surprised what German HBs believe. We get accused of being paid by NASA every other day.
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Al Johnston
"Cheer up!" they said, "It could be worse!" So I did, and it was.
Posts: 1,453
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Post by Al Johnston on Oct 4, 2005 18:16:04 GMT -4
Let's not get into an "our HBs are nuttier than yours" discussion ;D A no-win scenario if ever there was one
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Post by Martina W. on Oct 4, 2005 19:22:53 GMT -4
Let's not get into an "our HBs are nuttier than yours" discussion ;D They are not. Most of them copied their claims from the American and British HBs. There are only two genuine German claims I've heard of so far: One is that Armstrong did not say his "One small step..." during the live broadcast (in fact on one of the two tv stations we had back then one of the presenters was so excited he talked right over it, while on the other station it was as clear as you could get it) and that it was inserted afterwards. Don't ask about the other one Right (edited for spelling)
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Al Johnston
"Cheer up!" they said, "It could be worse!" So I did, and it was.
Posts: 1,453
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Post by Al Johnston on Oct 5, 2005 2:27:03 GMT -4
One is that Armstrong did not say his "One small step..." during the live broadcast (in fact on one of the two tv stations we had back then one of the presenters was so excited he talked right over it, while on the other station it was as clear as you could get it) and that it was inserted afterwards. That must have gone down well. So it's not just sports commentators who don't know when to shut up ;D
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Post by gwiz on Oct 5, 2005 3:25:52 GMT -4
That must have gone down well. So it's not just sports commentators who don't know when to shut up ;D I heard the nail-bitingly tense Apollo 12 launch on the radio, but found out later that the BBC TV viewers didn't realise anything was wrong because the commentator, James Burke, was talking non-stop about something else.
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Post by sts60 on Oct 5, 2005 9:01:05 GMT -4
and that it was inserted afterwards.
If they were going to insert it afterwards, dontcha think they would have made the swallowed syllable ["a man"] more distinct?
As for commentators inability to shut up, if you have a chance, track down Isacc Asimov's funny and spot-on description of a radio announcer filling in time during an Apollo launch delay. Unfortunately, I don't recall the book. But I am prompted to visit the used book store.
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Post by Martina W. on Oct 5, 2005 12:15:29 GMT -4
If they were going to insert it afterwards, dontcha think they would have made the swallowed syllable [" a man"] more distinct? Nah, that would mean to apply reason... I will look for the Asimov book - after I finished reading "Mashinostroenie" by Boris Chertok. I'm already reading four books on distantly related topics at the same time
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Post by Mr Gorsky on Oct 6, 2005 4:33:50 GMT -4
Sorry to sidetrack here ... but what was so tense about the Apollo 12 launch?
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Al Johnston
"Cheer up!" they said, "It could be worse!" So I did, and it was.
Posts: 1,453
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Post by Al Johnston on Oct 6, 2005 4:56:14 GMT -4
It was hit by lightning a few seconds after lift-off
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Bob B.
Bob the Excel Guru?
Posts: 3,072
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Post by Bob B. on Oct 6, 2005 9:06:51 GMT -4
I think there were a total of three lightning strikes in rapid succession. The strikes knocked out much of the spacecraft's electronics and almost forced an abort.
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Post by gwiz on Oct 6, 2005 9:14:20 GMT -4
Luckily, the Saturn V kept running with its electronics unscathed, while the crew, with the aid of the ground support team, struggled to bring the CM systems back up. On the radio broadcast I heard, the commentator shut up after the crew's "We just had everything in the world drop out" and they broadcast the crew/ground dialogue uninterrupted.
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Post by echnaton on Oct 6, 2005 17:45:58 GMT -4
Here is an excerpt form the Lunar Flight Journal
The Problem: 000:00:37 Gordon (onboard): What the hell was that? 000:00:38 Conrad (onboard): Huh? 000:00:39 Gordon (onboard): I lost a whole bunch of stuff; I don't know ... 000:00:40 Conrad (onboard): Turn off the buses. Public Affairs Office - "40 seconds." 000:00:42 Carr: Mark. 000:00:43 Carr: One Bravo. 000:00:43 Conrad (onboard): Roger. We had a whole bunch of buses drop out. 000:00:44 Conrad: Roger. We [garble] on that. [Long pause.] 000:00:45 Bean (onboard): There's nothing - it's nothing ... 000:00:47 Gordon (onboard): A circuit ... 000:00:48 Conrad (onboard): Where are we going? 000:00:50 Gordon (onboard): I can't see; there's something wrong. 000:00:51 Conrad (onboard): AC Bus 1 light, all the fuel cells ... 000:00:56 Conrad (onboard): I just lost the platform. Public Affairs Office - "Altitude a mile and a half now. Velocity 1,592 feet per second." 000:01:00 Bean: [Garble] Got your GDC. 000:01:02 Conrad: Okay, we just lost the platform, gang. I don't know what happened here; we had everything in the world drop out. 000:01:08 Carr: Roger. Public Affairs Office - "Plus one." 000:01:09 Gordon (onboard): I can't - There's nothing I can tell is wrong, Pete. 000:01:12 Conrad: I got three fuel cell lights, an AC bus light, a fuel cell disconnect, AC bus overload 1 and 2, Main Bus A and B out. [Long pause.]
The Solution: 000:01:36 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston. Try SCE to auxiliary. Over. 000:01:39 Conrad: Try FCE to Auxiliary. What the hell is that? 000:01:41 Conrad: NCE to auxiliary... 000:01:42 Gordon (onboard): Fuel cell... 000:01:43 Carr: SCE, SCE to auxiliary. [Long pause.] 000:01:45 Conrad (onboard): Try the buses. Get the buses back on the line. 000:01:48 Bean (onboard): It looks - Everything looks good. 000:01:50 Conrad (onboard): SCE to Aux. 000:01:52 Gordon (onboard): The GDC is good. 000:01:54 Conrad (onboard): Stand by for the - I've lost the event timer; I've lost the... Public Affairs Office - "Comm reports the reading is back." 000:01:57 Carr: Mark. One Charlie. 000:02:00 Conrad: One Charlie. 000:02:01 Gordon (onboard): Two minutes. EDS, Auto, is Off. 000:02:03 Conrad (onboard): Yes. 000:02:04 Conrad (onboard): EDS, Auto... 000:02:06 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston. Go for staging.
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Post by JayUtah on Oct 7, 2005 10:17:30 GMT -4
And the subtext is EECOM John Aaron having seen this exact pattern of failure before in a simulation and remembering exactly what caused it. The SCE (signal conditioning electronics) is a gadget that uniformalizes the signals from different kinds of sensors and converts them into a format compatible with the display electronics and telemetry. The spacecraft was actually okay, but without the instrumentation to tell them that, they were lost. Aaron's ability to diagnose an obscure problem in seconds and recommend the proper solution earned him the most coveted title in aeronautical engineering: "steely-eyed missile man."
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