Orroral Audio and notes from Philip Clark
These recordings were made during the first flight of the Space Shuttle in April 1981. The crew of Columbia were John Young and Bob Crippen.
The tape is a recording of three communications circuits recorded on a single track recorder. Therefore there are a few occasions where conversations overlapped. The communications circuits recorded were:
1. The off-station communications between Orroral, the control centres in the United States, and other stations (External circuit.)
2. The air to ground number one circuit between Orroral and the United States (Air/ground circuit.)
3. The internal on-station communications circuit within the Orroral Valley Tracking Station.
The recording of orbit 14 includes a full H-45 interface with Goddard and Houston. After the end of Orroral 14 pass is the wake up music played to Shuttle through Quito. “Blastoff Columbia”, sung by Roy McCall.
(Some of the recordings include communications with Yarragadee. There was usually only a gap of one or two minutes between Yarragadee LOS and Orroral AOS. The Yarragadee station was a voice only communications station in Western Australia, located a little south of Geraldton, and supervised by Orroral. CAP COM is the Houston astronaut voice communicator, the only person authorised to speak to the space shuttle except in an emergency.)
|
STS-1 Commander John Young (centre) and Pilot Bob Crippen (right) present a signed photo to Orroral Station Director Lewis Wainwright when they visited in September 1981.
(Photo courtesy Philip Clark and Rob Quick.)
|
Timeline of passes for the first Space Shuttle flight tracked at Orroral.
(Z time is GMT or UTC, MET is Mission Elapsed Time – time from launch)
| Event (GMT) |
Orroral local time |
Mission Elapsed Time |
| |
|
|
| Launch 12 April 1981 12:00Z, |
01:00 13 April local time, |
00:00 MET |
| |
| Orroral Passes (approx. times) |
| Orbit 1 13:01Z 13 April, |
00:01 local time 14 April, |
01:01 MET |
| Orbit 2 14:35Z 13 April, |
01:35 local time 14 April, |
02:35 MET |
| Orbit 3 16:09Z 13 April, |
03:09 local time 14 April, |
04:09 MET |
| |
| Orbit 14 08:14Z 14 April, |
19:14 local time 14 April, |
20:14 MET |
| Orbit 15 09:55Z 14 April, |
20:55 local time 14 April, |
21:55 MET |
| Orbit 16 11:21Z 14 April, |
22:21 local time 14 April, |
23:21 MET
(Waltzing Matilda) |
| Orbit 17 12:53Z 14 April, |
23:53 local time 14 April, |
24:53 MET |
| Orbit 18 14:28Z 14 April, |
01:28 local time 15 April, |
26:28 MET |
| |
| Orbit 30 08:10 15 April |
19:10 local time 15 April, |
44:10 MET |
| Orbit 31 09:48 15 April |
20:48 local time 15 April, |
45:48 MET |
| Orbit 32 11:21 15 April |
22:21 local time 15 April, |
47:21 MET |
| Orbit 33 12:57 15 April |
23:57 local time 15 April, |
48:57 MET |
| Orbit 34 14:18 15 April |
01:18 local time 16 April, |
50:18 MET |
|
|
STS-1 Commander John Young and Pilot Bob Crippen are welcomed in the canteen at Orroral in September 1981. Note the special cake.
(Photo courtesy Philip Clark and Rob Quick.)
|
With special thanks to Philip Clark for the audio files, times and notes.
Philip’s voice, as the Orroral Comm Tech for STS-1, is heard on many of these recordings.
