See list belowOCT 17 196767-FM-T-83FM/Deputy ChiefSpacecraft computer program status
1. Here's another of my irregular updates on what's going on in the business of spacecraft computer program development.
2. SUNDISK, the earth orbital command module program, is essentially complete and, for all practical purposes, could be sent to Raytheon for rope manufacture whenever anyone wants to give the word. From all I have been able to determine, the quality of this program is very good and, perhaps, to balance some of the criticism of MIT, they should be commended for this. It provides the capability of doing all the things we specified over a year ago with numerous improvements added in along the way. (I am certain, however, changes will be made in it before flight for the same sort of reasons we have re- made SUNBURST ropes twice.)
3. It is now evident that the lunar landing programs – COLOSSUS and LUMINARY – will not be completed for quite a long time—certainly not for LM-3 and command module 103 as we had planned. This has forced us into the position of having to use SUNDISK on Command Module 103 and has made it necessary to develop an interim earth orbital program (SUN- DANCE) for use on LM-3 and LM-4.
4. At this time we are in the process of determining an accurate program development schedule for these three programs at MIT as well as trying to identify the major problem areas in order to attack them on at least two fronts, namely, imple- ment improvements in the way the work is done and change the MIT organization to be compatible with them. I don't want to minimize the seriousness of this situation. We are in deep, serious yogurt!
5. One accomplishment of significance I would like to report is that we have recognized one way of substantially improving program delivery by making sure MIT has a precise, approved specification of the spacecraft computer programs required by MSC right now. Our recent SUNDANCE and COLOSSUS GSOP review and associated technical direction to MIT accomplished this to a large degree. However, there was one large area lacking defini- tion and MSC approval, namely the change in the structure of the rendezvous programs which Flight Crew felt to be mandatory to substantially improve their operational procedures. In order to complete this program definition phase as quickly as possible, a team of MSC and MIT people spent the week of October 2 at MIT formu- lating and documenting all unresolved items in GSOP Chapter 4 format. I think this was accomplished very well in terms of both quality and speed resulting in a rough draft of the GSOP with MSC approval upon which MIT may prepare the final GSOP and actually begin program design and coding immediately.
6. Thus, all three programs, SUNDANCE, LUMINARY, and COLOSSUS are now, in effect, covered by approved GSOPs and are under configura- tion control. That is, any changes must be handled through the standard change control procedures.
7. Unfortunately, it is highly probable that a similar exercise will eventually be necessary involving the Descent and possibly the Ascent portions of LUMINARY program once experience is obtained in their operation on the simulators at MIT and MSC. Mandatory changes to simplify crew procedures are likely to arise and the importance of crew evaluation of these processors at the earliest time can not be over emphasized. What ever can be done by the Flight Crew Operations Directorate to provide a meaningful evalua- tion facility and to utilize it for this purpose should be done for everybody's benefit.