This must be the single most brilliant engineer-moment in history! Simply amazing. A program of that size, thousands of engineers, yet only one in the control room is aware of the possible solution. Picture what it must have been in the command module, pitch black, 2g of acceleration, finger on the abort switch, and then.... "try SCE to AUX". "what the hell is that???" was the immediate reply. Think about this, the guy in the control room was only 26!.
Apollo used mostly actual mechanical switches and relays--not the virtual electronic types being used in todays newest aircraft. You guys are right about the new stuff being more sensitive and fragile when zapped
It's very common around people who are being trained extraordinary to check & double check procedures and routines. And many engineers have the ability to store every little detail that occurs. Don't think John Aaron had Asperger's sydrome though.
Neil Armstrong delivered a nice tribute at the Apollo 12 40th anniversary gala on November 7, 2009 at KSC. I think you'll enjoy his speech. Which is not bad for a guy who never gives interviews, never makes public appearances and apparently has no sense of humor.
@Rob260259 I saw that. I t was very good to listen to him speak. Yeah, lol Niel has always been very reserved especially on camera. I still like to listen to hm speak though, very intelligent man.
@enm97 awesome stuff ! I am just now rediscovering my Grandpa's & Dad's generation back in the 60's. Lockeed, JPL, Grumman, NAA. I have a lot of old photo's and articles I cherish now. It is truly amazing what we can accomplish when we work together. great machines ! great teamwork !
I disagree, the kids coming out of our schools possess Johns' drive, but, WE have cut education, Primary schools cut recess to keep taxes low. They will become cogs in the corporate culture in space of the future. Training cut due to no overtime, or PO the manager who was a very promising managerial candidate from one of their fast food divisions, The SCE switch wont be there due to cost cutting by a rising star VP from accounting. The euphoria produced by Gemini or Apollo will be unknown..
It just goes to show you how valuable the thousands of man hours of training was.
They trained for every conceivable scenario. And at least two guys had the answer as a result. And Conrad kept his cool and didn't pull the abort handle.
Try this in any situation where the shit hits the fan. Your friends tell you your parents are coming home early to find you and your friends having a wild party. "Try SCE to Aux"
@RainbowManification I read your comment yesterday and I haven't stopped laughing. A couple of guys I work with who know a bit about aviation were laughing about it at lunch as well...
Your girlfriend tells you she's knocked up, have her try SCE to Aux
@bananabourbonaenima The Saturn V actually generated it's own lightning (not once but twice) as it was passing through the sound barrier. Thundering through the rainy stormy weather, the spacecraft created an electrical static discharge....like when you give someone a carpet shock.
I'm not sure, but I think the trajectory of the Saturn V would have had it well out to sea by a minute of flight time, which makes for a "safer" abort and destruct. If the Saturn's guidance was knocked out instead, things might have looked like one of those 60's rocket test failure films.
I've met Alan Bean and LOVED every moment of it and hope to again but I MUST meet John Aaron, he is the best in mission control! (Not counting Gene Kranz because he was flight director!) John Aaron deserves such accolades!
"He laughed all the way into orbit." Isn't that just like Pete Conrad? I've seen this content before, but just once. John Aaron's manner of describing this series of events is so . . . Well, I just don't know the right words. Mr. Aaron is simply beautiful in his way of describing the aftermath of the lightning strike. And to know that Pete Conrad nervously laughed the whole way up ... Well, at first I laughed, but then it just makes you cry to know that mission did actually succeed. Thanks!
I know how they feel, for me I still hold the neighborhood record for jumping 5 garbage cans on my bike, the record still holds, but it seldom comes up in my daily life.
"Jettison the spacecraft and blow up the Saturn V?" Im no NASA buff but I know for sure the Saturn V didn't have a self-destruct...do they mean blowing up the rocket by letting the dead hulk fall back to Earth?
It did have flight termination charges running along all tanks in case range safety needed to terminate the flight. It wouldn't completely destroy the vehicle as much as rip the tanks open to disperse propellant. Required, standard practice for launchers from the Cape due to public safety concerns.
@silversoftCEO All manned NASA spacecraft up to and including the shuttle have what are euphemistically called "range safety packages". They are basically explosive charges designed to destroy the craft in a controlled way to protect people on the ground from falling wreckage. The clip does exaggerate, but an abort would ultimately lead to the Saturn V's tanks being blown open to vent their fuel. The force of this would send the rocket tumbling and aerodynamic forces would do the rest.
@silversoftCEO ...Just about EVERY american rocket ever launched, manned included, has explosives on board (which can only be ignited by ground control.) Space Shuttles, Saturns...you name it. If something goes wrong and a rocket turns its nose towards land (populated area!!), they won't hesitate for long to blow her up. In case of a manned mission they will first try to save the crew, but if this fails, they will be blown up, too. All astronauts are well aware of this.
@silversoftCEO ...Look at the black and white area of the first stage, between the flags and the words United States. You can see two large rings going all around. Those are linear shaped charges. If something goes wrong with the first stage, they can separate it from the rest. Shortly after the crew is brought to safety with the Escape Tower, the rest of the rocket will be blown up. If necessary, the entire thing can be blown up at once. Makes you respect the astronauts a lot more, right?? ;-)
SCE = signal conditioning equipment. It was the processing circuits for the sensors, the main power to them had been tripped and they could switch over to an auxiliary supply.
You think they'd keep one or two of the Engineers who designed the control system around in mission control. It sounds as if they design and build the thing, then hand it off to the astronauts and mission control, and it's up to the later groups to figure out how it works by randomly switching things on and off in the simulator...
But the only time you would ever need such people ever coming into mission control is if you need a lot of people working on it... on Apollo 13 many dozens of astronauts and flight controllers came to mission control to help with the problem after the explosion - they do know how the spacecraft works, what would having the engineers who built it around do any good?
Rumor has it that the launch was not scrubbed because President Nixon was at the Cape for the launch.
There were so many functions and switches that were applicable, that the SCE to Aux manuver was veritably obscure, amazing as that sounds. They schedule launched Apollo 9, 10, 11, &12 all in year 1969. Staggering!
All this "...it was dumb luck..." and "...why was he the only one who knew..." crap is exactly the reason why this country couldn't do this again. Too many naysayers, too many people who see nothing except the problems.
@KSMike1 there were naysayers back then too its no different from today. The exact same situation happened on the apollo 11 lunar descent with the 1201 1202 alarms and had mission control in a panic til one person realized he'd seen that obscure warning once before and calmed everyone down. Theres no reason to think we cant do this and more again.
Hm. What I get from this is that it was pure luck that anyone in either the craft or mission control even knew about that switch. Isn't that somewhat strange? What use is a switch which nobody is required to know? What about the people who invented that switch and placed it into the CM's switch panel? Did they just randomly put any switches they liked in there without having to tell anyone what they were for? :-P
I'm actually more impressed by the fact that the spacecraft was hit by lightning and it didn't manage to go catastrophically wrong. Even if the SCE to AUX command wasn't performed the batteries could still last for 2 hours and they could abort. Would have been a shame, yes, but at least no one would have gotten killed. That to me shows the incredibly long hours of the people who worked on the spacecraft. Hit by lightning? No problem, we have a, if not the, solution.
I think it was a stroke of luck the spacecraft alone was messed up by the lightning and not Saturn's IU, too. Had that been affected, it would have been an abort. The low tech electronics back in the day probably contributed to it not being affected (at least not severely).
In 1987, NASA's Atlas-Centaur 67 mission was also struck by lightning an the rocket guidance was corrupted, the rocket took a hard turn and destroyed itself. That's what *could* have happened to Saturn V & off goes LES.
Well, it wasn't so much luck. When NASA design engineers decided early on in the program to have TWO guidance systems--one dedicated to the CSM and one dedicated to the Saturn V rocket--they anticipated such a thing as Apollo 12 happening. With CSM guidance temporarily out, Sat V guidance could still maintain the proper course heading. They were flying right with the rockets, just a little blind in the capsule. No, it wasn't a matter of low tech electronics, but great engineering imagination.
Well, it *was* luck in the sense that the lightning strike *could have* knocked out all guidance, or all electronics for that matter, never mind their redundancy level.
The mechanism of the strike was actually pretty well understood. The main lightning currents flowed down the outside skin past the disconnected umbilical for the service module. The stroke-induced pulse traveled into the fuel cell protection circuit where it mimicked an overcurrent spike, tripped the SCR and disconnected all three fuel cells. The CM batteries took the load, but the sudden drop in voltage crashed the computer and platform and lit up the caution and warning panel.
what i don't understand is that he was the ONLY person that seemed to know what to do. all the other well-trained people didn't. glad he was there. and someone said earlier that 'they could abort'. well, easier said than done. none of those emergency actions could ever be fully practiced. look at a doc of the soviet flight where they had to use the escape tower since there was a fire on the launchpad. they hit g's that were impossible. i once met alan shepard..total awe!
@violethill They really didn't have the computing power to pack it all into one box, There were some issues with clean control signaling along 300+ feet of booster, also weight considerations. So it was economical at the time to have a dedicated Instrument Unit to guide the V, and the AGC and LGC to guide their respective vehicles.
@ugowar Agree, sometimes the old analog clunk-tronics could be just what you want controlling your destiny. Modern chips are faster and power-efficient but are so static-sensitive it would probably be zapped to a crisp, like the example you gave. This was also a factor in non-rocket aircraft, some fighter jets with vacuum tube avionics were better able to survive a nuclear EMP or various other harsh conditions. Sometimes they preferred ultra-advanced vacuum tubes to transistors or chips.
If any of you are familiar with the Apollo 13 story, or have seen the movie, John Aaron (Who solved the problem with this launch) was the man who worked with Ken Mattingly on the ground in the simulators and provided the Command Module with the random checklist for powering things up before re-entry. It worked perfectly and all the astronauts survived. Thanks to this man, the Saturn V still has a 100% safety rating. Buy him a beer. Fantastic video!
Actually, neither Apollo 12 or Apollo 13 problems were Saturn V issues.
On Apollo 12 the Apollo spacecraft went berserk after the lightning hit, but Saturn V's Instrument Unit was happily chugging along, flying the nominal trajectory. Had the IU got reset as well, it would have been a VERY bad day and not even John Aaron would have been able to save the mission.
Apollo 13 was also unrelated to the Saturn V, apart from the early 2nd stage center engine cutoff, but that didn't kill the mission.
That sounds like a happy bunch on there way to the moon. S.C.E. to A.U.X! That must have been nerve racking when all the systems went down for the brief time of the launch.
There was also the incident on Apollo 10 when the LM started rocking as it decended to the moon and Gene Cernan started cursing like the sailor he is! Fortunately Cernan and Tom Stafford quickly figured out how to compensate for the lunar gravity and the mission continued.
Apollo 10 didn't land but they did go into a descent orbit which took them to within ten miles of the lunar surface.
The mission was a full up flight test in lunar orbit. The gyrations occurred when they separated the ascent and descent stages. Luckily they were able to correct the problem and bring the LM sfly back to the CSM
That can't possibly be true, or Conrad would be in debt for life. (then there was the episode during Apollo XIII when Lovell cursed up a blue streak, not realizing he was on VOX...whoops!)
All that switch did was reset the sensors. Everything was more or less fine (well, considering they had been hit by lightning) but the sensors where having a fit. Reset them and then they are like "oh ok Im fine now"
The thing John A had seen a year before was on a Sat II (not a SatV) when a circuit breaker flipped out and that globed up mess of data showed up. They have a good thing about all this in the Lovell book Lost Moon.
Actually, as far as I know, the switch had nothing to do with the sensors themselves, but the telemetry circuitry. SCE stands for Signal Conditioning Equipment which takes data from all sensors and packs them into telemetry packets transmitted to the ground.
The primary circuit went berserk and Aaron lost his telemetry because of that. The switch to the auxiliary circuit merely enabled him to actually see what went wrong with the rest of the spacecraft and continue troubleshooting from there.
Also, some actual spacecraft systems were knocked offline as well, such as fuel cells and the inertial guidance platform on the CM went out of alignment. Had that happened to the Saturn V Instrument Unit instead, it would have been a bad day.
Correct. From my understanding, setting SCE to AUX was more about "being able to read telemetry data on the ground" as opposed to "saving the spaceship from catastrophe" or anything like that. At any rate, it prevented an abort, so it's all good!
@shutterbun You're right. The Signal Conditioning Electronics was a collection of amplifiers and control logic that took the raw signals from each sensor (temperature, voltage, current, etc) and scaled it to a standard voltage range, usually 0-5V. These conditioned (or normalized) signals then flowed through an electronic selector switch into an analog-to-digital converter and to the telemetry downlink. That switch momentarily cut the SCE power supply, letting it reset.
i cant believe that no one exept john and alan knew what the SVC/AUX switch was and how to use it. if its in the capsule, everyone should be trained on how to use it and what it does
It's understandable only John Aaron knew about the switch because that was part of the subsystem he was responsible for - *electrical* and environmental systems. You can't expect the entire mission control to know everything, why would the guidance guys or the booster systems officer need to know this?
The Apollo capsule was so complex no one person could have learned everything about it, that's part of the reason they had all the different control positions in the mission control.
Dude, it was SCE, not SVC, and that wasn't what it normally used for. ugowar is right, the complexity is more than anyone can master. you can't even get the name of the one switch you've heard of right. There were 1000s in there. This is why you had these amazing teams of nerds, pilots, engineers, guys with huge balls etc...
Never heard of that. Amazing...Alan Bean didn't know where the Van Allen Belts were but knows about an obscure svc switch, that wasn't designed for the situation, but worked. Another Apollo miracle...If you believe in miracles that is. They laughed all the way to the bank, and still do!
un4g, you have to have faith-much like the faith that your late mother had that she'd be rescued from my basement...she never escaped but I still keep her corpse on ice so I have actual proof that she drowned in my frothy urine, why right before she bit the dust (in this case "drank herself to death")she looked at me and said "please don't let my kid become a conspiracy kook".
.....you've really let her down un4g, I guess now all I can do is dig her up and take her on a date in a shopping cart
Apollo astronauts were test pilots before anything else, it was their job to know that cockpit inside and out. Bean was just proving himself worthy of the job. If you think the kind of radiation found in the Van Allen belts would have posed a lethal problem for the insulated command module then the only ones who should be laughing are those that read your posts. Even Dr. van Allen himself stated that the radiation belts he predicted wouldn't be a problem for spacecraft just passing through.
Failure Is Not An Option is a great tale of the Engineers and Technologists of the Apollo program....the unsung heroes of the Space Program. A different perspective told by Scott Glenn....SEE IT! LOL
I must install that switch in my car
01261988733 1 week ago 2
This must be the single most brilliant engineer-moment in history! Simply amazing. A program of that size, thousands of engineers, yet only one in the control room is aware of the possible solution. Picture what it must have been in the command module, pitch black, 2g of acceleration, finger on the abort switch, and then.... "try SCE to AUX". "what the hell is that???" was the immediate reply. Think about this, the guy in the control room was only 26!.
patankar11 1 week ago
2 dislikes are causing me great pain
27132lower 4 weeks ago 2
only 1 minutes between the failure and the order SCE to AUX.. they have to make the decision very quickly
MikeSkanz 1 month ago
Got to love Conrad!!!
skyprop 3 months ago
SCE to AUX!
SCE to Aux!
asvb232 4 months ago
Apollo used mostly actual mechanical switches and relays--not the virtual electronic types being used in todays newest aircraft. You guys are right about the new stuff being more sensitive and fragile when zapped
charliegoodboy 4 months ago
It was like that pattern was written in my mind... aspergers syndrome.
websuspect 5 months ago
@websuspect
It's very common around people who are being trained extraordinary to check & double check procedures and routines. And many engineers have the ability to store every little detail that occurs. Don't think John Aaron had Asperger's sydrome though.
Rob260259 4 months ago
@websuspect No need to give it a name other than genius
hunterhalo2 4 months ago
Pete & Alan chuckling together all the way up after the CM came back online, "so many lights I couldn't read em all !"
I can relate. after surviving that harrowing launch I think I would've laughed with Pete too. what a guy.
1MtnBoy 5 months ago
@1MtnBoy
Neil Armstrong delivered a nice tribute at the Apollo 12 40th anniversary gala on November 7, 2009 at KSC. I think you'll enjoy his speech. Which is not bad for a guy who never gives interviews, never makes public appearances and apparently has no sense of humor.
watch?v=sEdtO6U3StU
Rob260259 5 months ago
@Rob260259 I saw that. I t was very good to listen to him speak. Yeah, lol Niel has always been very reserved especially on camera. I still like to listen to hm speak though, very intelligent man.
1MtnBoy 5 months ago
SCE to AUX. my new motto ! This is John Aaron, same guy who took charge of saving the CM & LEM batteries on Apollo 13 !
"you sir are a steely eyed missile man"
1MtnBoy 5 months ago
@1MtnBoy and he was only 26 years of age at the time!!!
enm97 4 months ago
@enm97 awesome stuff ! I am just now rediscovering my Grandpa's & Dad's generation back in the 60's. Lockeed, JPL, Grumman, NAA. I have a lot of old photo's and articles I cherish now. It is truly amazing what we can accomplish when we work together. great machines ! great teamwork !
1MtnBoy 3 months ago
I disagree, the kids coming out of our schools possess Johns' drive, but, WE have cut education, Primary schools cut recess to keep taxes low. They will become cogs in the corporate culture in space of the future. Training cut due to no overtime, or PO the manager who was a very promising managerial candidate from one of their fast food divisions, The SCE switch wont be there due to cost cutting by a rising star VP from accounting. The euphoria produced by Gemini or Apollo will be unknown..
pikappbh526 5 months ago
what we did then was amazing, now look at us now. hitching rides with the Russkies like third world bums. freaking outrageous.
usaeagle1776 5 months ago
Smart men. Just as well the space program is dead because what they're churning out of schools these days is not the right stuff.
Nautilus1972 5 months ago
It just goes to show you how valuable the thousands of man hours of training was.
They trained for every conceivable scenario. And at least two guys had the answer as a result. And Conrad kept his cool and didn't pull the abort handle.
patton303 6 months ago
"What the hell is that?" :D I love Pete Conrad!
r0ckt3hc4sb4h 6 months ago
loving so much this sequence !
cobraa4 7 months ago
he's a hero !! really they would of considered an abort....
spikeri812 10 months ago
Try this in any situation where the shit hits the fan. Your friends tell you your parents are coming home early to find you and your friends having a wild party. "Try SCE to Aux"
RainbowManification 11 months ago 12
@RainbowManification I read your comment yesterday and I haven't stopped laughing. A couple of guys I work with who know a bit about aviation were laughing about it at lunch as well...
Your girlfriend tells you she's knocked up, have her try SCE to Aux
hibob418 8 months ago
@hibob418 The bomb will blow up in 30 seconds, their are two wires, red or blue, which one will you cut? "Let's try SCE to Aux."
RainbowManification 8 months ago
@RainbowManification Great bit, man. Thanks for the laughs.
hibob418 8 months ago
@hibob418 Your doctor tells you you have HIV, he says "however, we could try SCE to Aux."
RainbowManification 8 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@hibob418 The bomb will blow up in 30 seconds, their are two wires, red or blue, which one will you cut? "Let's try SCE to Aux."
RainbowManification 8 months ago
"What the hell is that?" lol
11AMERICANO11 1 year ago
@11AMERICANO11 five words you never want to here from an aviator if your a passenger.
RainbowManification 8 months ago
John Aaron. Smart smart man. Never met the guy, but I do know I am related to him. It's awesome to know a guy he saved lives, wow.
Jcaldwell92 1 year ago
Apollo 12..easily my favourite crew of all the Apollo crews
KINGKENNYTHEHOLY 1 year ago 4
@KINGKENNYTHEHOLY Indeed! Precision lunar landing!
"18 feet, coming down at 2. He's got it made!"
Hairysteed 10 months ago
lol, image that. Listening to someone laughing all the way into orbit!
Doctor699 1 year ago
Had to do that to my Washer Once- She can seperate Colors from Whites now!
tsns1 1 year ago 2
John Aaron, the steely eyed missle man!
GreatExterminator 1 year ago 5
@GreatExterminator Hey! I was gonna say that!!
PooManchoo2 11 months ago
The rocket got hit by 'freaking lightning, hit. by. freaking. lightning. And the thing just keeps on going. Even God couldn't destroy the Saturn.
bananabourbonaenima 1 year ago 3
@bananabourbonaenima The Saturn V actually generated it's own lightning (not once but twice) as it was passing through the sound barrier. Thundering through the rainy stormy weather, the spacecraft created an electrical static discharge....like when you give someone a carpet shock.
thevmanvj 1 year ago
I'm not sure, but I think the trajectory of the Saturn V would have had it well out to sea by a minute of flight time, which makes for a "safer" abort and destruct. If the Saturn's guidance was knocked out instead, things might have looked like one of those 60's rocket test failure films.
moboutmen 1 year ago
John Aaron is an unsung American hero! Saved Apollo 12 & 13 but most people don't know his name!
Seamonkey555 1 year ago
@Seamonkey555 I believe Aaron was key to saving Skylab and Pete Conrad was involved there as well.
bc1969214 1 year ago
I've met Alan Bean and LOVED every moment of it and hope to again but I MUST meet John Aaron, he is the best in mission control! (Not counting Gene Kranz because he was flight director!) John Aaron deserves such accolades!
Seamonkey555 1 year ago
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Gelafeban 1 year ago
This is a result of preparation -
CTIimpact 1 year ago
Aaron is the kinda guy who would have done that job for free and worked a 2nd job to make money :)
Zoomer30 1 year ago
thank you John Aaron for knowing the SCE system that well, and thank you for figuring out the start up sequence for Odyssey!
spec10 1 year ago
"He laughed all the way into orbit." Isn't that just like Pete Conrad? I've seen this content before, but just once. John Aaron's manner of describing this series of events is so . . . Well, I just don't know the right words. Mr. Aaron is simply beautiful in his way of describing the aftermath of the lightning strike. And to know that Pete Conrad nervously laughed the whole way up ... Well, at first I laughed, but then it just makes you cry to know that mission did actually succeed. Thanks!
tonyny77 1 year ago
Truly inspiring stuff. We need this type of spirit back.
tantivymuckermaffikk 1 year ago
Apollo 12 had all back up crew members on the apollo 12 misson
gtvideos100 1 year ago
@gtvideos100 No - it was the prime crew that went. The backup crew were the prime crew for Apollo 15.
paul1952 1 year ago
Pete Conrad,Dick Gordon and Al Bean.....the best TEAM of astronauts Nasa ever sent into space.
ynp1978 1 year ago
Pete Conrad, you legend !!! rest in peace.
mivlisa 1 year ago 2
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cibexx 2 years ago
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cibexx 2 years ago
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cibexx 2 years ago
Each time I see these rockets I am still amazed at how it is just a somewhat controlled explosion of massive proportions.
And what kind of people would strap on of those on and go for a ride! :o)
HollywoodWags 2 years ago 3
When all else fails press some buttons and see what happens
FlyingBoxHead 2 years ago
this story just amazes me
mikemoair 2 years ago
I know how they feel, for me I still hold the neighborhood record for jumping 5 garbage cans on my bike, the record still holds, but it seldom comes up in my daily life.
mikemoair 2 years ago
One of the best. Thanks.
JCassian 2 years ago
I am continuously awestruck at how heroic our astronauts are.
ibejoestern 2 years ago 13
"Jettison the spacecraft and blow up the Saturn V?" Im no NASA buff but I know for sure the Saturn V didn't have a self-destruct...do they mean blowing up the rocket by letting the dead hulk fall back to Earth?
silversoftCEO 2 years ago
It did have flight termination charges running along all tanks in case range safety needed to terminate the flight. It wouldn't completely destroy the vehicle as much as rip the tanks open to disperse propellant. Required, standard practice for launchers from the Cape due to public safety concerns.
ugowar 2 years ago 24
Oh wow. I didn't know that. It would make sense though. Can't just drop a 6,000,000 pound piece of metal into Florida.
silversoftCEO 2 years ago
The thing is, also, NASA launched directly beside the Atlantic Ocean. So that used stages and other spacecraft equipment could fall into it.
youvebeenthunderstru 2 years ago
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silversoftCEO 2 years ago
@ugowar No they had it ready to be blown to pieces smaller than pepples. FALLING ROCKETS ARENT GOOD FOR CAPE EMPLOYEES AND SPECTATORS
mikemcdonald100 1 year ago
@silversoftCEO All manned NASA spacecraft up to and including the shuttle have what are euphemistically called "range safety packages". They are basically explosive charges designed to destroy the craft in a controlled way to protect people on the ground from falling wreckage. The clip does exaggerate, but an abort would ultimately lead to the Saturn V's tanks being blown open to vent their fuel. The force of this would send the rocket tumbling and aerodynamic forces would do the rest.
PassiveSmoking 1 year ago
@silversoftCEO ...Just about EVERY american rocket ever launched, manned included, has explosives on board (which can only be ignited by ground control.) Space Shuttles, Saturns...you name it. If something goes wrong and a rocket turns its nose towards land (populated area!!), they won't hesitate for long to blow her up. In case of a manned mission they will first try to save the crew, but if this fails, they will be blown up, too. All astronauts are well aware of this.
telescopereplicator 1 year ago
@silversoftCEO ...Look at the black and white area of the first stage, between the flags and the words United States. You can see two large rings going all around. Those are linear shaped charges. If something goes wrong with the first stage, they can separate it from the rest. Shortly after the crew is brought to safety with the Escape Tower, the rest of the rocket will be blown up. If necessary, the entire thing can be blown up at once. Makes you respect the astronauts a lot more, right?? ;-)
telescopereplicator 1 year ago
SCE = signal conditioning equipment. It was the processing circuits for the sensors, the main power to them had been tripped and they could switch over to an auxiliary supply.
bsam20uk 2 years ago 2
You think they'd keep one or two of the Engineers who designed the control system around in mission control. It sounds as if they design and build the thing, then hand it off to the astronauts and mission control, and it's up to the later groups to figure out how it works by randomly switching things on and off in the simulator...
andrewtaneglen 2 years ago
But the only time you would ever need such people ever coming into mission control is if you need a lot of people working on it... on Apollo 13 many dozens of astronauts and flight controllers came to mission control to help with the problem after the explosion - they do know how the spacecraft works, what would having the engineers who built it around do any good?
youvebeenthunderstru 2 years ago
Rumor has it that the launch was not scrubbed because President Nixon was at the Cape for the launch.
There were so many functions and switches that were applicable, that the SCE to Aux manuver was veritably obscure, amazing as that sounds. They schedule launched Apollo 9, 10, 11, &12 all in year 1969. Staggering!
apollowoman 2 years ago
Why was the launch not scrubbed in the first place?
umahuma4 2 years ago
All this "...it was dumb luck..." and "...why was he the only one who knew..." crap is exactly the reason why this country couldn't do this again. Too many naysayers, too many people who see nothing except the problems.
KSMike1 2 years ago 25
by saying the country couldn't do it again, your just as much of a naysayer.
NJRocks281 1 year ago
@KSMike1 there were naysayers back then too its no different from today. The exact same situation happened on the apollo 11 lunar descent with the 1201 1202 alarms and had mission control in a panic til one person realized he'd seen that obscure warning once before and calmed everyone down. Theres no reason to think we cant do this and more again.
nythreefer 1 year ago
Hm. What I get from this is that it was pure luck that anyone in either the craft or mission control even knew about that switch. Isn't that somewhat strange? What use is a switch which nobody is required to know? What about the people who invented that switch and placed it into the CM's switch panel? Did they just randomly put any switches they liked in there without having to tell anyone what they were for? :-P
hyperthreaded 2 years ago
apparently.
umahuma4 2 years ago
John Aaron was played by Loren Dean in Apollo 13.
John Aaron & Al Bean both knew "SCE to Aux" & they saved the mission.
Pete Conrad giggling was the icing on the cake!
apollowoman 2 years ago 2
the actor that played john in apollo 13 did a good job he portrayed the real john very well
ilovejuliforever 2 years ago
You mean the one who played John Young? Ben Marley?
Andybucker 2 years ago
I'm actually more impressed by the fact that the spacecraft was hit by lightning and it didn't manage to go catastrophically wrong. Even if the SCE to AUX command wasn't performed the batteries could still last for 2 hours and they could abort. Would have been a shame, yes, but at least no one would have gotten killed. That to me shows the incredibly long hours of the people who worked on the spacecraft. Hit by lightning? No problem, we have a, if not the, solution.
youvebeenthunderstru 2 years ago 14
I think it was a stroke of luck the spacecraft alone was messed up by the lightning and not Saturn's IU, too. Had that been affected, it would have been an abort. The low tech electronics back in the day probably contributed to it not being affected (at least not severely).
In 1987, NASA's Atlas-Centaur 67 mission was also struck by lightning an the rocket guidance was corrupted, the rocket took a hard turn and destroyed itself. That's what *could* have happened to Saturn V & off goes LES.
ugowar 2 years ago
Well, it wasn't so much luck. When NASA design engineers decided early on in the program to have TWO guidance systems--one dedicated to the CSM and one dedicated to the Saturn V rocket--they anticipated such a thing as Apollo 12 happening. With CSM guidance temporarily out, Sat V guidance could still maintain the proper course heading. They were flying right with the rockets, just a little blind in the capsule. No, it wasn't a matter of low tech electronics, but great engineering imagination.
violethill 2 years ago 6
Well, it *was* luck in the sense that the lightning strike *could have* knocked out all guidance, or all electronics for that matter, never mind their redundancy level.
ugowar 2 years ago
The mechanism of the strike was actually pretty well understood. The main lightning currents flowed down the outside skin past the disconnected umbilical for the service module. The stroke-induced pulse traveled into the fuel cell protection circuit where it mimicked an overcurrent spike, tripped the SCR and disconnected all three fuel cells. The CM batteries took the load, but the sudden drop in voltage crashed the computer and platform and lit up the caution and warning panel.
ApolloWasReal 1 year ago
what i don't understand is that he was the ONLY person that seemed to know what to do. all the other well-trained people didn't. glad he was there. and someone said earlier that 'they could abort'. well, easier said than done. none of those emergency actions could ever be fully practiced. look at a doc of the soviet flight where they had to use the escape tower since there was a fire on the launchpad. they hit g's that were impossible. i once met alan shepard..total awe!
coreyagraph 2 years ago
@violethill They really didn't have the computing power to pack it all into one box, There were some issues with clean control signaling along 300+ feet of booster, also weight considerations. So it was economical at the time to have a dedicated Instrument Unit to guide the V, and the AGC and LGC to guide their respective vehicles.
Nighthawke70 11 months ago
That was back when IBM knew how to build stuff.
Sylderon 2 years ago
@ugowar Agree, sometimes the old analog clunk-tronics could be just what you want controlling your destiny. Modern chips are faster and power-efficient but are so static-sensitive it would probably be zapped to a crisp, like the example you gave. This was also a factor in non-rocket aircraft, some fighter jets with vacuum tube avionics were better able to survive a nuclear EMP or various other harsh conditions. Sometimes they preferred ultra-advanced vacuum tubes to transistors or chips.
malamagr 5 months ago
they were lucky Al Bean was there to know where that switch was.
He wasn't even in the moon landing program before Conrad got him put on this flight.
sja11 2 years ago
"That was a hell of a simulation, I think you should put this through some more all weather testing"
One of the astronauts said that
Roncace 2 years ago
The funny thing is: At 3:09 you can hear im ask: "What the hell is that?" and someone in the background just calls: "Do something!" :D
cainam979 2 years ago 5
"SCE to Auxilliary. What the Hell's that?" Vintage Pete Conrad!
NebraskasWallpaper 2 years ago 5
If any of you are familiar with the Apollo 13 story, or have seen the movie, John Aaron (Who solved the problem with this launch) was the man who worked with Ken Mattingly on the ground in the simulators and provided the Command Module with the random checklist for powering things up before re-entry. It worked perfectly and all the astronauts survived. Thanks to this man, the Saturn V still has a 100% safety rating. Buy him a beer. Fantastic video!
flyboy172r 2 years ago 3
Actually, neither Apollo 12 or Apollo 13 problems were Saturn V issues.
On Apollo 12 the Apollo spacecraft went berserk after the lightning hit, but Saturn V's Instrument Unit was happily chugging along, flying the nominal trajectory. Had the IU got reset as well, it would have been a VERY bad day and not even John Aaron would have been able to save the mission.
Apollo 13 was also unrelated to the Saturn V, apart from the early 2nd stage center engine cutoff, but that didn't kill the mission.
ugowar 2 years ago
You're right, got mixed up on a technicality there :)
flyboy172r 2 years ago
Few things kick more ass than the Apollo program. NASA really had their shit together in the 60s.
lithiumdeuteride 2 years ago 6
Agreed. Nice username, btw!
ugowar 2 years ago
I agree also. Extremely inspiring aspect of history.
whatever678 2 years ago
Actually, not until after Apollo 1 did they get their shit packed into one sock.
Polybun 2 years ago
So the 13 successful Saturn1/1B flights are not considered?
artwleb 2 years ago
Just goes to show you what government can do.
SunspotCycle 2 years ago
Classic!!
dwmzmm 3 years ago
That sounds like a happy bunch on there way to the moon. S.C.E. to A.U.X! That must have been nerve racking when all the systems went down for the brief time of the launch.
IntermittentSprocket 3 years ago 2
Yes...those guys had balls of steel. They are an example of courage
Andybucker 3 years ago 2
There was also the incident on Apollo 10 when the LM started rocking as it decended to the moon and Gene Cernan started cursing like the sailor he is! Fortunately Cernan and Tom Stafford quickly figured out how to compensate for the lunar gravity and the mission continued.
proken58 3 years ago
Apollo 10 didn't land on the moon. The first was Apollo 11.
CusK77 2 years ago
Apollo 10 didn't land but they did go into a descent orbit which took them to within ten miles of the lunar surface.
The mission was a full up flight test in lunar orbit. The gyrations occurred when they separated the ascent and descent stages. Luckily they were able to correct the problem and bring the LM sfly back to the CSM
tuttt99 2 years ago 3
John aaron is, indeed, a steely-eyed missile man!
girlruthie 3 years ago
I'm guessing Pete Conrad had a pretty good sense of humor. I'd be scared half to death after something like that and Pete Conrad's just laughing! lol
QuarterPounder4 3 years ago 4
I believe John Aaron was voted the most compete tent controller of the Apollo program by the other controllers. I wish we had more like him today.
celticlofts 3 years ago
...and then they had the balls to go for TLI, knowing their spacecraft had been hit by lightning!
snip7777 3 years ago
Close call that!!!
stuartthegrant 3 years ago 2
Oh....during a Sat V launch, you dont want to hear "What the hell was that?" from the CM :)
Zoomer30 3 years ago 3
Conrad had to buy everyone in Mission Control a beer for saying "hell" on the air XD They dont mess around with that thar blue language at NASA.
Zoomer30 3 years ago
That can't possibly be true, or Conrad would be in debt for life. (then there was the episode during Apollo XIII when Lovell cursed up a blue streak, not realizing he was on VOX...whoops!)
shutterbun 3 years ago
All that switch did was reset the sensors. Everything was more or less fine (well, considering they had been hit by lightning) but the sensors where having a fit. Reset them and then they are like "oh ok Im fine now"
The thing John A had seen a year before was on a Sat II (not a SatV) when a circuit breaker flipped out and that globed up mess of data showed up. They have a good thing about all this in the Lovell book Lost Moon.
Zoomer30 3 years ago
Actually, as far as I know, the switch had nothing to do with the sensors themselves, but the telemetry circuitry. SCE stands for Signal Conditioning Equipment which takes data from all sensors and packs them into telemetry packets transmitted to the ground.
The primary circuit went berserk and Aaron lost his telemetry because of that. The switch to the auxiliary circuit merely enabled him to actually see what went wrong with the rest of the spacecraft and continue troubleshooting from there.
ugowar 3 years ago
Also, some actual spacecraft systems were knocked offline as well, such as fuel cells and the inertial guidance platform on the CM went out of alignment. Had that happened to the Saturn V Instrument Unit instead, it would have been a bad day.
ugowar 3 years ago
Correct. From my understanding, setting SCE to AUX was more about "being able to read telemetry data on the ground" as opposed to "saving the spaceship from catastrophe" or anything like that. At any rate, it prevented an abort, so it's all good!
shutterbun 3 years ago
@shutterbun You're right. The Signal Conditioning Electronics was a collection of amplifiers and control logic that took the raw signals from each sensor (temperature, voltage, current, etc) and scaled it to a standard voltage range, usually 0-5V. These conditioned (or normalized) signals then flowed through an electronic selector switch into an analog-to-digital converter and to the telemetry downlink. That switch momentarily cut the SCE power supply, letting it reset.
ApolloWasReal 1 year ago
@ApolloWasReal thank you..........now i know
coreyagraph 1 year ago
They were so damn close to an abort its not even funny.
Zoomer30 3 years ago
Someone buy that guy a beer
FORZION 3 years ago 2
That's why Aaron was tagged as a "Steely-eyed Missile Man"...
lancer525 3 years ago 2
i cant believe that no one exept john and alan knew what the SVC/AUX switch was and how to use it. if its in the capsule, everyone should be trained on how to use it and what it does
musclecar383 3 years ago
It's understandable only John Aaron knew about the switch because that was part of the subsystem he was responsible for - *electrical* and environmental systems. You can't expect the entire mission control to know everything, why would the guidance guys or the booster systems officer need to know this?
The Apollo capsule was so complex no one person could have learned everything about it, that's part of the reason they had all the different control positions in the mission control.
ugowar 3 years ago
Dude, it was SCE, not SVC, and that wasn't what it normally used for. ugowar is right, the complexity is more than anyone can master. you can't even get the name of the one switch you've heard of right. There were 1000s in there. This is why you had these amazing teams of nerds, pilots, engineers, guys with huge balls etc...
aleitz 3 years ago
and to much time on there hands
umahuma4 3 years ago
Musclecar,
Just curious but have you ever flown a complex A/C? I mean something a little more complicated than a muscle car?
Parubhi 3 years ago
LOL "What the hell is that?!"
HeliosPhoenix 3 years ago 5
John Aaron is a systems engineering superstar - and an unsung hero.
Ah - good 'old American ingenuity! =)
hsiva78 3 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
An obscure switch...LOL...ya...
What?
What?
Never heard of that. Amazing...Alan Bean didn't know where the Van Allen Belts were but knows about an obscure svc switch, that wasn't designed for the situation, but worked. Another Apollo miracle...If you believe in miracles that is. They laughed all the way to the bank, and still do!
un4g1v3n1 3 years ago
Take your conspiracy crap elsewhere.
ugowar 3 years ago
un4g, you have to have faith-much like the faith that your late mother had that she'd be rescued from my basement...she never escaped but I still keep her corpse on ice so I have actual proof that she drowned in my frothy urine, why right before she bit the dust (in this case "drank herself to death")she looked at me and said "please don't let my kid become a conspiracy kook".
.....you've really let her down un4g, I guess now all I can do is dig her up and take her on a date in a shopping cart
MightySaturn5 3 years ago
Apollo astronauts were test pilots before anything else, it was their job to know that cockpit inside and out. Bean was just proving himself worthy of the job. If you think the kind of radiation found in the Van Allen belts would have posed a lethal problem for the insulated command module then the only ones who should be laughing are those that read your posts. Even Dr. van Allen himself stated that the radiation belts he predicted wouldn't be a problem for spacecraft just passing through.
messierhunter 3 years ago 2
I think we get even more radiation from
dental/medical x-rays alone during our
lifetimes.....
dwmzmm 3 years ago 3
Pete Conrad laughing all the way into orbit, Whoopee!!
hoopysab 3 years ago 14
@hoopysab Pete was a crazy goofball. Of the good kind.
curea229 1 year ago
John Aaron Rocks, I'm in love with his brain!
smcbee2 3 years ago 4
That was good! Thank goodness they were able to fix the lightning problem!
Roncace 3 years ago
Failure Is Not An Option is a great tale of the Engineers and Technologists of the Apollo program....the unsung heroes of the Space Program. A different perspective told by Scott Glenn....SEE IT! LOL
MiataSteve 3 years ago
john aaron is fucking genius
cjflauta 3 years ago 2
Incredible story - what an unsung hero.
PC3900 3 years ago
john aaron is my boy!
highlander360 3 years ago 2
actor scott glenn narrating...........amazing
coreyagraph 3 years ago