Personnel heard on this tape: |
| OPS2 |
Bryan Sullivan |
| COMM TECH |
Dave Ralph ? |
| GDS |
Bill Sheridan |
| TIC |
? |
| COMMS |
Keith Hiscock |
| OPS1 |
Bernard Smith |
| SB1 |
Frank Campbell |
| HOUSTON COMM TECH |
? |
| CADFISS TRACK |
? |
| NST USB |
? |
| HAW |
? |
| GODDARD VOICE |
? |
| SB2 |
Neil McVicar |
| COMPUTERS |
Don Loughead |
| GDS COMM TECH |
? |
| HAW COMM TECH |
? |
| APOLLO CONTROL |
? |
| DECOMS |
? |
| DATA |
Bill Perrin |
|
Start of Tape track # 2
Times in red are from the start of the audio file.
00:00. HOUSTON COMTECH
checks if HSK is ready for the ‘H-45 interface test’. This testing
is coordinated by OPS2 in conjunction with the local (HSK) COMMS Supervisor,
HSK COMTECH (located at the SDDS) and HOUSTON COMTECH over NET1.
00:25. CADFISS TRACK
advises a successful ‘wing’ site high speed tracking data transmission
test and requests a switch to the ‘prime’ site.
00:44. HOUSTON COMTECH
commences the air/ground testing with a ‘mark’ tone. All of the
measuring is carried out by the COMMS Supervisor at the patching and testing
panels in the Communications Centre.
01:58. HOUSTON COMTECH
commences a series of alternating keys to test the Quindar’s switching
function after which OPS2 reports the percentage of key switching.
02:17. HOUSTON COMTECH
requests the system configured for tracking the CSM spacecraft to be ‘remoted’
(switched) onto NET1 for a keying and modulation test through the USB system.
02:47. After the
HSK COMTECH (at the SDDS) is satisfied, OPS2 reports 100% keying and modulation.
02:52. HOUSTON COMTECH
conducts identical tests for the LM system and the LCRU (Lunar Communications
Relay Unit on-board the Lunar Rover Vehicle).
04:02. Finally HOUSTON
COMTECH requests down-link tones from each system’s configuration –
CSM, LM and LCRU which are each measured at MCC-H.
05:07. OPS2 talks
with SB2 (USB Supervisor, Tidbinbilla) regarding an outstanding ‘red’
item on their station status report. HSK requires an ETO (expected time
of operation) either verbally or by a status update ‘twix’. A
twix or TWX [Teletype Writer eXchange] was a printed message sent via teletype
over the NASCOM universal system for intrastation messaging. It was very
similar to today’s email, only much slower.
06:07. CADFISS TRACK
reports a success on the APP (Antenna Position Programmer) test where the
antenna is driven over a predefined sector of the sky and tracking angles
and rate measurements verify correct operation of the antenna servo drive
mechanisms (referred to as a ‘slew’ test). CADFISS TRACK then
requests the ‘wing’ site for a similar test.
06:25. OPS1 requests
SB2 to prepare for a slew test.
06:59. OPS2 requests
COMPUTERS for a LOS/ROS (loss of signal/return of signal) manual entry via
the telemetry computer console which puts a file mark on the telemetry log
tape.
07:06. CADFISS TRACK
reports a success on all HSK CADFISS testing and releases the site.
07:19. Goldstone
and Hawaii are now five minutes away from AOS (their moonrise time) as HOUSTON
COMTECH conducts a final air/ground voice check.
08:01. TIC (Telemetry
Instrumentation Coordinator, MCC-H) requests Hawaii to configure for a ‘CSM
mode 3 dump’. This referred to a playback
of the on-board recorder of all the astronauts’ conversations and telemetry
data while the spacecraft was behind the Moon and consequently out of contact
with MCC-H. This playback happened while the real time data was being received
and processed.
08:22 = 81h 4m GET. APOLLO CONTROL makes another PR briefing where he indicates that the LM
spacecraft is now in a scheduled elliptical orbit (descent orbit) which
is important to achieve before the astronaut’s rest period. The CSM
remains in a circular orbit and will appear from behind the moon just prior
to the LM.
09:27. Both Goldstone
(GDS) and Hawaii (HAW) acquire the CSM spacecraft signal and Goldstone establishes
two-way lock and announces ‘GO for command, CSM’. [Bill
Sheridan working on the M&O console at Goldstone announces they have
AOS.]
Two-way lock meant that the GDS receiver, its PA (transmitter)
and the spacecraft transponder frequencies were locked together and the
station was automatically tracking (auto-track) the spacecraft. Since the
GDS PA was radiating, the ‘GO for command’ enabled the RTC (Real
Time Command) controller in MCC-H to send digital data in the form of discrete
commands and blocks of ‘software’ to the spacecraft subsystems
and to on-board computer respectively. The HAW station receivers were passively
locked onto the stable transponder’s down-link signal, referred to
as three-way lock.
09:43. OPS2 checks
with the DATA supervisor regarding the ‘SM 6 bits’.
This was in reference to the telemetry data from the
scientific experiments located in the service module (SM) of the CSM spacecraft.
09:51. TIC queries
HSK regarding the absence of LM data.
Due to the HSK geographical displacement from Hawaii
and the difference between the two spacecraft orbits, the HSK received signal
strength from the LM was slightly too low for the decomutators to synchronise
with the telemetry bit stream, hence no data transfer to the telemetry computer
and hence no data was being transmitted to the MCC-H on the high speed lines.
End of audio tape part 2.
Back to Part 1.
Notes by Bryan Sullivan. Times and other notes in
red by Colin Mackellar.
