TRW Systems released the AS-207/208 Preliminary Spacecraft Reference Trajectory during the first week of May. This report was put together on a compressed schedule, starting from rather hastily defined mission requirements. As a result, there are a number of things about it which were recognized as being in error even before release; however, since we…
Category: AS-207/208
Spacecraft computer program requirements for AS-207/208, AS-503, and AS-504
On May 13 and 14, 1966, a flock of MSC people met with MIT people in Boston to discuss the spacecraft computer program requirements for missions AS-207/208, AS-503, and AS-504. This memorandum is probably one of several on the subject you will be getting in the near future. My main purpose is to describe the…
Apollo spacecraft computer program development newsletter
There are a number of us who feel that the computer programs for the Apollo spacecraft will soon become the most pacing item for the Apollo flights. This is certainly likely to be the case for AS-207/208, by which time spacecraft, and booster delivery and Cape operations are likely to have become relatively routine, with…
Spacecraft computer program status report
Tom Gibson and I went to MIT on May 25 and 26 with one of our primary objectives to determine exactly what the program schedule situation was for the AS-504 (AS-207/208) spacecraft computer programs. Although we had a number of very fruitful discussions with MIT people, such as Ed Copps, Dick Battin, John Dahlen, and…
Capability to do orbit navigation in earth orbit will not be implemented for AS-207 or AS-504.
MIT currently has plans for supplying a number of different modes for using their basic orbit determination program. (MIT calls this process “navigation,” so I will, too.) These modes differ in that there is a variety of types of observational data used during different mission phases….
Rendezvous terminal phase guidance program in the Apollo spacecraft computer
On July 7, 1966, a team of MSC and MIT “experts in rendezvous” (including Paul Kramer, Ed Lineberry, John Dablen, and Norm Sears) met at MIT to discuss and review the preliminary Guidance System Operation Plan (GSOP)which MIT has unofficially distributed, covering the terminal phase and External ΔV programs for the AS-207/208 mission. This meeting…
Automatic rendezvous braking maneuver
As you know, MIT is currently designing the command module and lunar module computer programs without provision for automatic braking maneuvers. There has been some thought to reversing this direction. However, Don Cheatham, Aaron Cohen, and I agreed today to proceed as we are for the AS-207/208 programs–that is, do not provide automatic braking maneuvers…
Notes regarding the AS-207/208 Guidance Systems Operation Plan (GSOP) meeting with MIT
During the week of August 15, we held a review of the AS-207/208 Guidance Systems Operation Plan (GSOP) at MIT. Some things interested me which I will pass on to you here. I will also include some of the more significant decisions–that is, direction to MIT–that were made at that time….
Alternative rendezvous technique – mission planning status
Since our meeting in your office on the stable orbit rendezvous, Ed Lineberry and I have met on a number of occasions with other interested people in an attempt to lay out a schedule of work needed to arrive at the decision as to how to go on 278 and subsequent missions. This note is…
Apollo rendezvous navigation data edit is too complicated
In my notes of the AS-207/208 GSOP meeting with MIT, reference 66-FM1-100 of August 30, I indicated that MIT was including an automatic data edit scheme in the rendezvous navigational program for both the LM and the CSM. As you recall, this scheme was to accept radar or SXT data automatically if its effect on…