[X] My Assistant

[dvandorn]

I discovered a while back that Eric Jones' excellent NASA website. the Apollo Lunar Surface Journals, has been incorporating links to MP3 files of the air-to-ground audio. So far, it's complete for Apollos 15 and 16, and I believe is complete through EVA-1 for Apollo 17.

Now, I grew up with Apollo -- I was born 10/17/55, so I was 13 in the summer of 1969. And, just the way the dates lined up, I was 15 years old when Apollo 15 flew, 16 y.o. during Apollo 16, and 17 y.o. during Apollo 17.

I took pictures off the TV screen of the moonwalks, and I set up a microphone from my little tape recorder in front of the TV set's speaker and recorded audio of the (progressively more scarce) TV coverage of the moonwalks. For several years I fell asleep at night listening to the moonwalks, memorizing details and allowing my subconscious to fly me to the moon in my dreams...

So, when I discovered the MP3s, it occurred to me that I could download them from their source and burn CDs from them... hehehehe...

I finished Apollo 16 -- every bit of air-to-ground from the beginning of Rev 16 (PDI Rev) until ascent and injection into lunar orbit three days later. A total of 32 CDs. And I can listen to them in my car as I drive to work... *big grin*...

I guess this is just a heads-up for any other Apollo junkies out there who might want to do something similar.

-the other Doug

[edstrick]

What I *don't* have, probably is the quote from Apollo 16 after the first EVA, when they were eating and relaxing and having "private time' with the link to Houston nominally turned off... the switch wasn't quite in the off position and they had a live mike... (I'd have to dig up the source for a perfect quote but...)

"Christ, Charlie, I had the farts out there.. I don't know what does it .. I think it's that G__dammed orange juice.... I really do...
....
...
Houston: Apollo.. you're on the way to having a hot mike...

(Printed in Aviation "Leak" the following week)

I said to myself... My ghod!... this proves it, despite the best effort of the NASA PR flacks... The astronauts are human after all!

[ElkGroveDan]

What I *don't* have, probably is the quote from Apollo 16 after the first EVA, when they were eating and relaxing and having "private time' with the link to Houston nominally turned off... the switch wasn't quite in the off position and they had a live mike... (I'd have to dig up the source for a perfect quote but...)

"Christ, Charlie, I had the farts out there.. I don't know what does it .. I think it's that G__dammed orange juice.... I really do...
....
...
Houston: Apollo.. you're on the way to having a hot mike...

(Printed in Aviation "Leak" the following week)

I said to myself... My ghod!... this proves it, despite the best effort of the NASA PR flacks... The astronauts are human after all!

According to Encyclopedia Astronautica, the story goes like this:

Duke had been hypnotized to keep him from using his customary cuss words while being broadcast live from the moon, which led to his constant singing to compensate... Tang, orange-drink sponsor of CBS coverage of the mission, was not pleased when Young confided to a crewmate, not knowing that his words were being broadcast live: "I got the farts again... I mean, I haven't eaten this much citrus fruit in twenty year...in another twelve f***ing days, I ain't never eating any more...I'll be damned if I'm goint to be buried in oranges.."

here: http://www.astronautix.com/flights/apollo16.htm

[dvandorn]

What I *don't* have, probably is the quote from Apollo 16 after the first EVA, when they were eating and relaxing and having "private time' with the link to Houston nominally turned off... the switch wasn't quite in the off position and they had a live mike... (I'd have to dig up the source for a perfect quote but...)

"Christ, Charlie, I had the farts out there.. I don't know what does it .. I think it's that G__dammed orange juice.... I really do...
....
...
Houston: Apollo.. you're on the way to having a hot mike...

(Printed in Aviation "Leak" the following week)

I said to myself... My ghod!... this proves it, despite the best effort of the NASA PR flacks... The astronauts are human after all!

According to Encyclopedia Astronautica, the story goes like this:

Duke had been hypnotized to keep him from using his customary cuss words while being broadcast live from the moon, which led to his constant singing to compensate... Tang, orange-drink sponsor of CBS coverage of the mission, was not pleased when Young confided to a crewmate, not knowing that his words were being broadcast live: "I got the farts again... I mean, I haven't eaten this much citrus fruit in twenty year...in another twelve f***ing days, I ain't never eating any more...I'll be damned if I'm goint to be buried in oranges.."

here: http://www.astronautix.com/flights/apollo16.htm

It's something of a shame that John Young, one of the most capable astronauts who ever wore the pin, is remembered by most people primarily for two things:

1) The corned-beef sandwich he "smuggled" onto Gemini 3, and

2) The "acid stomach" comments he made on a hot mike (that he had *no* idea was hot) on Apollo 16.

Actually, my favorite moment in re the "acid stomach" incident during Apollo 16 happened the next day, near the end of EVA-2. Young and Duke were lobbying Houston for an EVA extension, so they could finish up their close-out without the need to hurry through it (and perhaps forget something, or screw something up). Since I have the exchange memorized, I can tell you it went like this:


Duke: Tony, how about an extension, you guys? We feelin' good.

Young: Yeah -- you said all we was gonna do tonight was sit around and talk! ((Young spoke the word "talk" like it was the most disgusting thing he could think of.))

CapCom Tony England: Oh, we like to hear you talk. Especially about the orange juice...


((Less than two minutes later, the Flight Director agreed to grant a 15-minute extension, to which Duke replied "Let's here it for ol' Flight! An Attaboy for Flight!" To which Tony added a spontaneous "yea!"))

BTW, I don't know how the otherwise excellent Encyclopedia Astronautica got this so wrong, but the story about Duke is actually about Pete Conrad, and it is an apocryphal story. Conrad, as anyone who ever spoke with him could tell you, used profane words as grace notes. He swore every three or four words, usually. In Bartlett's Quotations, the phrase "swear like a sailor" has a picture of Pete next to it...

Anyway, before Apollo 12, NASA PAO was having conniptions, convinced that their Third Man on the Moon was *never* going to be able to control his language. His LMP, Al Bean, even talked to Pete about it, saying he was really concerned that Pete was going to slip and swear a lot on the Moon. Pete told Al not to worry, he would be fine -- and that, furthermore, it was guys like Al, who rarely swore in everyday life, who would be *more* likely to slip up and swear on a live mike. Sure enough, Pete only swore once or twice, mild things like "damnits" under his breath, and Al slipped up five or six times.

Now, a naturally ebullient Conrad was absolutely ecstatic to be walking on the Moon, so as he went about his business, he hummed and sang little wordless ditties. The apocryphal story was that NASA had convinced Pete to undergo hypnosis, and that he was under a post-hypnotic suggestion forcing him to hum or sing whenever he felt like swearing. But it's not true -- Pete, good to his word, knew how to keep his language fit for a G-rated audience when he was on a live mike.

As for Duke, he was a good ol' Carolina boy, but also a devout Christian who, after his astronaut career, took up a career in the ministry. Charlie was naturally pretty mild-mannered and soft-spoken, with that marvelous deep-South accent that will forever be linked in my mind with the moment men first landed on the Moon (Duke was the CapCom who responded to Armstrong's declaration that Eagle was now Tranquility base with an emotion-choked "Rog, Twan - Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathin' again -- thanks a lot.") His swearing, as revealed on the onboard recordings, was always very mild and infrequent. So this entry is a little unfair to Duke.

I need to remember to write Mark Wade an e-mail about this...

-the other Doug