FA/Director of Flight OperationsNOV 14 196767-FM-T-106FM/Deputy ChiefEMS software verification doesn’t exist
1. I am pretty sure the verification of the Entry Monitoring System (EMS) scrolls is screwed up and I am sorry to say that, even though I suspected it for quite a while, I have not gotten around to doing much of anything. As soon as Bob Gardiner gets back from the Cape, Claude Graves and I will go talk to him. I'm pretty sure that no one besides NAA can generate the lines for the scroll nor can anyone but NAA figure out if the manufacturer put them in the right place on the scrolls. I've attached an NAA letter, which I'm sure they must have written tongue-in-cheek, that pretty well shows what I mean.
2. Claude Graves and his people can do some checking but only to the extent of plotting different reentry trajectories as they would appear on the EMS and looking for possible violations. But this could certainly not be considered verification of the “software,” which, in effect, the EMS scroll lines are.
3. This note is just to alert you to the situation. I will let you know if I cannot get things straightened out. Personally, I think it would be desirable to have G&C report EMS status to your Software Change Control Board. One final remark, perhaps worth making, is that neither Gardiner not Chilton conceal their distaste for the EMS. Both wish to see it torn by its roots from the spacecraft and flung out the window. So you can imagine the attention their people must give to it.