posted 07-13-2021 03:37 PM
In this short video of Mission Control during the Apollo 11 mission, who is Deke Slayton talking to?
I could be wrong but he doesn't seem to be speaking to Capcom Charlie Duke — he seems to be talking through his headset microphone. Would there be a record of this conversation?
jimsz Member
Posts: 630 From: Registered: Aug 2006
posted 07-13-2021 04:31 PM
Maybe you can find that video at Apollo 11 in Real Time. Click on mission control audio and you find out. Post back if you discover the answer!
ejectr Member
Posts: 1845 From: Killingly, CT Registered: Mar 2002
posted 07-13-2021 04:44 PM
Looks like he's talking to Charlie to me. He talks and Charlie reacts.
Paul78zephyr Member
Posts: 725 From: Hudson, MA Registered: Jul 2005
posted 07-13-2021 06:59 PM
Maybe you are right. I just could not tell if Duke is reacting to something Slayton says or whether they both are reacting to something they heard on the loop.
quote:Originally posted by jimsz: Maybe you can find that video at Apollo 11 in Real Time.
I don't think Slayton was on the flight director's loop.
Wow, that site is difficult to navigate.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 46636 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 07-13-2021 07:17 PM
Apollo 11 in Real Time includes much more than the flight director's loop. It has every audio loop from every console in the front and backrooms. If something was said over a comm set, it is available through the site (including private phone calls routed to the consoles).
NavyPilot Member
Posts: 59 From: Registered: Nov 2015
posted 07-14-2021 06:48 PM
After scanning the loops, it's increasingly apparent that Slayton's comment wasn't transmitted, which means Slayton must've been speaking directly into Duke's ear. Too bad we didn't record ambient audio in the MOCR that evening.
Paul78zephyr Member
Posts: 725 From: Hudson, MA Registered: Jul 2005
posted 07-14-2021 07:05 PM
Thanks to all that replied.
Delta7 Member
Posts: 1663 From: Bluffton IN USA Registered: Oct 2007
posted 07-14-2021 08:01 PM
Didn't Slayton at one point during the final phase of the landing tell Duke to "shut up", the inference being that Deke thought Duke's communications stream was a potential distraction?
NavyPilot Member
Posts: 59 From: Registered: Nov 2015
posted 07-18-2021 07:47 AM
With their reactions, Duke's grimace clearly expresses "doggone it, of all times not now" while Slayton's smirk suggests that he might have just won a wager, as in, "Betcha we lose comms right as we power up." Anyway, Slayton clearly understands that there's time to sort it out.
Perhaps this is a good leadership example, of the difference between someone invested in the means — CAPCOM, who has trained for rote procedures to be done — and someone invested in the ends — management, who has built processes that can compensate for variations along the way. Charlie wants to make some important calls, but Deke just wants to pass all of the GO/NO-GO gates successfully.
Suppose we make Slayton CAPCOM and put Duke in the peanut gallery: would the expressions be swapped too?
Imagine too if they had gotten program alarms during an S-band dropout in the approach phase. The lunar module pilot would have been busy surmising a need to switch to the omnis (as he had during PDI), and perhaps the commander would have figured out progressively that targeting and DAP seemed unaffected by them and continued anyway. Which leads me to the big question:
Does anyone know if any of the missions were cleared to land autonomously (without MOCR comms) as long as the call for delta-H converged got copied? My gut says no way, but I would not have put it past Alan Shepard on Apollo 14.
posted 07-13-2021 03:37 PM
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