Apollo 13 info and communication transcripts - a good read

[gristy]

I stumbled on this today. http://myweb.accessus.net/~090/as13.html#tli It's a detailed accounting of the Apollo 13 mission, with lots of technical info and communication transcripts. Very interesting read.



55:55:20 (9:07 PM CT) - Swigert: "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here."

<Screen captures of the ECS console that show the CSM CRYO tanks taken at 55:53:47 GET (nominal pressure, 906 psi ), 55:54:47 GET (increased pressure, 1008.3 psi), and 55:54:53 GET (just after rupture, 19 psi). Note the bottom line that reads 'CRYO SUPPLY', the column under the heading '02-2' is the O2 cryo tank number 2.> (loop)

Flight: "Go, Telmu."
Telmu: "We show the overhead hatch closed and the heater current looks normal."
Flight: "Okay."
55:55:28 - CapCom: "This is Houston. Say again please."

(loop)

Guido: "Flight, Guidance."
Flight: "Go, Guidance."
Guido: "We've had a (Comand Module Computer - CMC) hardware restart. I don't know what it was."
Flight: "GNC you want to look at it?":
GNC: "(garbled)":
Flight: "Roger. See a hardware restart?":

55:55:35 - Lovell: "Ah, Houston, we've had a problem. (pause) We've had a main B bus undervolt."

<Summary of events leading to the failure of O2 tank 2.>
(loop)

Flight: "You see a AC bus undervolt there Guidance, (correcting himself) er, EECom?"
EECom: "Negative, Flight."
Flight: "I believe the crew reported it."
CapCom: "We got a main B undervolt."
EECom: "Okay, Flight we've got some instrumentation flags. Let me add them up."
Flight: "Rog."
EECom: "We've may have had an instrumentation problem, Flight."
Flight: "Rog."

[phaseolus]

1. Thanks!

Now I'm busy for the rest of the night...

[DemoTex]

2. I went to a lecture by Jim Lovell at the Air & Space Museum in 1996.

He and I had a great discussion after-wards. He was scared shitless in that death-trap. Who would not have been?

[Birthmark]

3. Well...

...Reading that just ate up two hours. But it was well worth it. I know that it is out of all proportion to reality, but I don't think anything has ever caused me as much distress as the Apollo 13 mission. What's strange is how it brought the world together, much moreso than 9/11. I suppose that's because those three people represented humanity's collective hope for the future. </sappiness>