Posts: 192
From: Great Britain
Registered: Jan 2005

posted 07-23-2020 12:31 PM               

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I've been engaged for a while now in creating complete recordings for each of the Mercury manned flights, available on YouTube if anyone's interested, and I intend to go on through Gemini and Apollo.

I'm just completing Wally Schirra's Sigma 7 mission, but does anyone know where the complete tapes are for Gordon Cooper's flight? It seems only the onboard tapes are available for most of the Mercury flights, particularly if one wants the whole mission uninterrupted. But I've come across very few recordings from Cooper's mission. Anyone point me in the right direction?

Posts: 175
From: Next to LEM, Descartes Highlands, Moon
Registered: Jan 2017

posted 07-25-2020 08:21 AM               

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Thank you Colin. I know I got tons of amateur tape recordings of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo myself and still need to go through them.

Also missions like Surveyor, Ranger, Luna, Lunar Orbiter and stuff. One day I will put them on YouTube.

I know I received from you some recordings of the MA-8 recovery. I also found some on archive.org. Should be able to combine it with the 8mm recording I got of it.

Posts: 192
From: Great Britain
Registered: Jan 2005

posted 07-26-2020 04:48 AM               

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Thanks for your response. How much audio of Schirra's recovery did you end up getting? Only the other day I was searching my archive, and came across quite a lengthy piece of reporter's comments during the MA8 recovery.

As this was the first Pacific splashdown, the audio was a bit rough, but the best possible at the time. (I'm sure you know this from your own tapes.)

Posts: 175
From: Next to LEM, Descartes Highlands, Moon
Registered: Jan 2017

posted 07-26-2020 07:42 AM               

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Colin, this PDF of the NASA historical audio archive contains tons of early manned spaceflight recordings. I have found that searching for the filename does sometimes return a result on Google to the audio file.

Like here for Mercury Atlas 8. Unfortunately that recording doesn't go very far into the recovery.

I think I have received from you a digital transfer of a 45rpm single. It does have several parts of the recovery.

If the new recording you found contains more that would be great for my 8mm film. The audio really adds a second layer of context.

I am currently going through the tape collection I was talking about. It was donated by Bill and contains at least 100 hours of audio from John Glenn to Skylab and tons of robotic/probe missions as well. I really should put more of this on YouTube.

Not much coverage of the Mercury missions unfortunately. One tape says it has Mercury 6, 7 an 8. Currently listening to my transfer.

Posts: 192
From: Great Britain
Registered: Jan 2005

posted 07-27-2020 03:43 AM               

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Yes, the audio report I heard recently from my collection goes MUCH further than the 45rpm disc. I'll search it out for you.

I'm looking forward to you having another go at your Gemini 11 tapes, the ones where you can hear the adjacent track's audio coming through. If you're interested, I have two reel-to-reel tape decks, one of which I adjust to work with old tapes, and one which is set correctly. If it's not possible to do it yourself, I'd be happy to work on them to retrieve the pure sound from the Gemini 11 tracks. The offer's always there.

Posts: 192
From: Great Britain
Registered: Jan 2005

posted 07-27-2020 04:21 AM               

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I've just gone and checked this out, and I've copied the files you may be interested in.

The first contains the report (by Herb Kaplow, I believe) of the last five minutes of the flight, and goes on about a minute after splash. The second piece is about eleven minutes long, and includes the commentary as Schirra exits the spacecraft.

The quality is rough at the start of the first recording, but improves as splashdown nears. The second is rather better.

It amazes me how quickly communication links improved during those early years. Do you use G-Mail? If so, I can send them direct to you via Google Drive.

Posts: 111
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Oct 2004

posted 07-27-2020 11:31 AM               

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Here is 13-minute condensed version of the Faith 7 audio which comes from a rare record album, which actually has excerpts from all the Mercury flights.

It is interesting to hear Paul Haney's voice on part of this. I believe this was the first mission he worked as PAO, taking some of the reigns from Shorty Powers, who you also hear on this segment.

Posts: 192
From: Great Britain
Registered: Jan 2005

posted 07-27-2020 12:25 PM               

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Hey, thanks for that, MOL. I do actually have that, but I think your copy is a bit better quality than mine.

I don't like messing with recordings too much, but I might have a go at improving that audio. Sounds like it may be possible. Thanks again.

Posts: 175
From: Next to LEM, Descartes Highlands, Moon
Registered: Jan 2017

posted 07-29-2020 04:59 AM               

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quote:

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Originally posted by Colin Anderton:
I can send them direct to you via Google Drive.

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I have G-Mail, send a mail to your address.

The film footage that I have is coming together now. I am synchronizing four different sources, two amateur and two from NASA. Combined with the audio it could really be something else.

Posts: 192
From: Great Britain
Registered: Jan 2005