[sci.space] Apollo 11 program alarms

symon@lhotse.cs.unc.edu (James Symon) (07/19/89)

In article <2643@kepler.sw.mcc.com>, richter@kepler.sw.mcc.com (Charlie Richter) writes:
> 
> And the answer is ... Steve Bales.  Bales was the
> guidance officer for Apollo 11.  As such, he was the
> person who gave Eagle the GO to land despite the 1202
> and 1201 program alarms.
> -- 

In that CBS special it appeared that Armstrong made that decision. He
said something to the effect, "Hang tight, we're going" and just kep
going when the program alarm came up.

jim
symon@cs.unc.edu
{decvax uunet}!mcnc!unc!symon

richter@kepler.sw.mcc.com (Charlie Richter) (07/20/89)

> In that CBS special it appeared that Armstrong made that decision. He
> said something to the effect, "Hang tight, we're going" and just kep
> going when the program alarm came up.

Among recently published books, both Aldrin's MEN FROM EARTH and
Harry Hurt III's FOR ALL MANKIND describe the events surrounding
the 1202 and 1201 alarms.  Both books claim that Bales, as GUIDO,
made the decision to ignore the alarms.  (I don't believe that
Collins deals with this topic in either of his books, but I could
be wrong about that.)
-- 
Charlie Richter   MCC   Austin, Texas
  uucp: richter@milano.uucp     arpa: richter@mcc.com
"The panic ... was not due to anything fundamentally weak in either business
   or finance.  It was confined to the market itself."   - WSJ, Oct. 31, 1929

henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (07/20/89)

In article <8861@thorin.cs.unc.edu> symon@lhotse.cs.unc.edu (James Symon) writes:
>> And the answer is ... Steve Bales.  Bales was the
>> guidance officer for Apollo 11.  As such, he was the
>> person who gave Eagle the GO to land despite the 1202
>> and 1201 program alarms.
>
>In that CBS special it appeared that Armstrong made that decision. He
>said something to the effect, "Hang tight, we're going" and just kep
>going when the program alarm came up.

Nope, wrong -- it was the people back in Houston, and Bales in particular,
who decided that the problem wasn't serious enough to justify an abort.
Half a dozen sources, including official NASA ones, all agree on this.
CBS is mistaken.
-- 
$10 million equals 18 PM       |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
(Pentagon-Minutes). -Tom Neff  | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu

pierce@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (07/21/89)

> In that CBS special it appeared that Armstrong made that decision. He
> said something to the effect, "Hang tight, we're going" and just kep
> going when the program alarm came up.

Among recently published books, both Aldrin's MEN FROM EARTH and
Harry Hurt III's FOR ALL MANKIND describe the events surrounding
the 1202 and 1201 alarms.  Both books claim that Bales, as GUIDO,
made the decision to ignore the alarms.  (I don't believe that
Collins deals with this topic in either of his books, but I could
be wrong about that.)
-- 
Charlie Richter   MCC   Austin, Texas
  uucp: richter@milano.uucp     arpa: richter@mcc.com

I just read Mike Collin's first book (newly reprinted), and he mentions
this event in passing while he was monitoring the landing.

He was just going for the manuals to see what a 1202 alarm was when
somebody from Houston gave a GO to land. He thought that it was
good work on their part.

Tedd Pierce
Aero/Astro Eng. UIUC
pierce@uicfda.aae.uiuc.edu