RARE NASA Mission Control Consoles CLOSE UP SCREEN VIEWS 1970 HD (Space Apollo Computers MOCR)

Thank you for this incredible footage.

This is one of my favorites!

Those incandescent projected digit displays really have a unique look to them.

Fascinating video showing what the state of art was back then. Sy Liebergot, Apollo EECOM flight controller (portrayed by Ron Howard's brother Clint in "Apollo 13") spoke at 1996 Silicon Valley Engineers Week Banquet. Those handles each side of monitor (used to pull for servicing) Sy called them "security handles" which when a controller was apprehensive of the situation, he can hold on to those like the Peanuts cartoon character Linus and his security blanket. I thought it was interesting to learn there was much more in background than what we see in MOCR (this single room Mission Operations Control Room) as there were several other rooms supporting each flight controller. Sy was assisted by few other guys with identical monitors but also strip-chart recorders and lots more documentation. During this time a company called Arts & Letters produced a multi-media on CD rom (Liebergot provided consultation). What is interesting is there are two other rooms, Mission Evaluation Room (MER) managed by the legendary Don "Mad Don" Arabian. And the Spacecraft Analysis (SPAN) that acts as the go between MOCR and MER. Then there are those air tube or vacuum to send papers from MOCR to other rooms and back. One incident someone packed a bunch of sharpened new pencils but didn't properly latch the spring loaded carrier so it came undone in a tube somewhere causing entire system to be down for a few hours.

This included audio tracks of Sy talking with his guys in the backroom about data going off scale after O2 tank explosion. Liebergot first thought it was PCM or "looks like we have an instrumentation problem" as spacecraft designed to not have quadruple failures. He asked about values of tank pressure and temperatures, one of the guys described values, Sy said "that doesn't make sense" which the other guy replied "I don't know but that is what the values are." When Lovell mentioned venting then things began to make sense. Off shift Liebergot went to the backroom, saw the strip-chart of O2 tank temperature, it began to climb just after Swigert turned on tank stirrer. This CD rom has image of this graph, temperature goes up and up, then straight down after sensor failed on explosion. Sy said when he first saw that strip-chart it felt his heart dropped. They could have observed the temperature increasing realtime but Sy and his other guys were looking at other values so they completely missed it.

Some years ago talking with a CHP dispatcher said the traditional rows and columns of such control rooms are the worst to manage and maintain. Another person said NORAD was laid out in rows and columns to give impression Air Force have things under control, organized and managed. These days all control rooms are laid out in work station arrangements.

Lately India fails without man satellite (Vikaram) to the moon, but don't Give up , Peace On 🌏

The Mercury Gemini and Apollo programs where indeed fascinating. But what's more impressive is the whole communication and telemetry network. Plus the mission control mainframe computers used to gather all the data and telemetry and distributing the information to each respective terminal. There is so much information out the but nobody talks about it. It's overshadowed by the main events of the launch and orbit.

I saw this System in person before it was shipped to NASA, my Father an Industrial Engineer Philco, Philco/Ford, Ford Aerospace & Communications Corporation Employee worked on the Project. They had a Family Day where all involved in the Project were allowed to bring their Families on a Sunday in to see it, before it was dissembled and shipped to Houston. I was a small Child @ that time and remember going through a maze of Tape Drives and it seemed the console took up a whole building. To think the average laptop computer produced today has more computing power is amazing.

Have to go there, that's on my bucket list 🪣. How do you get there, and is it at the nasa complex.

Does Nasa manufactures Transformers, Speakers and other Electronics items ? I want to know as there's company called NASA which manufactures and sells these in West Bengal ?

Amazing

I have no idea how they were able to design, build, setup all this stuff, and test it in such a short time.

Hard to tell this footage from that in the 90's when we were still using these consoles for shuttle flights!

glad I didn't have to wire that up, or program it.

They had all that?? But i still cant get service in northwest corner of the house or wifi in the shop?? 50 years later.

Would have been wicked if Ed Straker was the narrator. Amazing peace of film

Excellent!

Блеванул, простите

amazing. They did much more with such computers at 70s than now

OK

So, how did these computers work? Could you change the information displayed like a modern PC? The displays look very still, as if you couldn't change what was displayed.

Some of these old consoles were sampled as textures for Half Life 2. There is a control console that has many of the buttons seen here and the rotary dial wheel.

Fantastic video. Thank you for presenting this. Due to the constant and detailed telemetry that was used during the missions I would be interested know as to how much energy the telemetry systems utilised during the missions and how this data was transmitted back to mission control. Today, no doubt, it would be transmitted in digital format, however I presume then it was all in analogue radio transmission mode. Is this correct? Thanks once again for a fascinating video.

A good movie always needs a good stage set...

That is the ultimate Retro Computing Restoration!

Who had a computer at home with graphics on screen in 1970 ?!? amasing to see that especially know the ridiculous memory of thoses computers ! my 1985 casio watch have more memory than thoses huge machines !

An extraordinary, impressive adventure

I have never been interested in space science, but I am very interested in computers and their technology. I enjoyed watching the closeup look of the consoles. They are nice, even though they no typewriter-like keyboard. That is something I use with my computer. I still type without looking down at the keyboard.

Excelente!

Thanks for the informations👍👍👍👍🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿🇩🇿♥️♥️♥️

It is amazing how 60's technology was cutting edge at that time to do all this compared to what we have today. Imagine if Nasa utilized today's current technology or what would be available in 18 months from now back then. Just think what could they accomplish back then.

Thanks a lot for posting this. I have been searching for years with little success for images of the flight controllers' screens during Apollo. I've built an Apollo mission simulator for my physics classes, and I want the student flight controllers to have the same data the real ones did, but very few sources gave me specifics.

The Missile Knows Where It Is...

Huge, amazing explosion of Technology all to get Americans on the moon, and it was amazing.

What happens if one of the flight controllers pushes the wrong button?

Stronzate in 3d

Any chance of knowing about the Russian equivalents.

Thank you for uploading. I had the chance to view a rocket launch in 2018. Memorable experience. I posted a pretty fun montage of the trip to my page.

I like how they have both light and dark mode for their consoles.

All processing power you see here and much more, now in your Iphone 12. LOL

All my life I wondered what was on those screens. And I watched the moon landing on tv, I was four years old.

I'm just here to count the ashtrays.

Brilliant

I worked there, among other buildings at Johnson Space Center in the late 80's and early 90's and those consoles were still there. It wasn't until the mid to late 90s those obsolete consoles were replaced with shiny, for then, new tech consoles.

They had high res bitmaps & 80 column text 10 years before the luckiest consumers could get 40x25 text with very primitive graphics.