4of5_Moon Machines-The Navigation Computer

To think, that a 486 computer, in 1993ish, had thousands of times the processing power of the onboard computers they used.

There are a couple of surprising factual errors in the narration at about 8 minutes into this episode ... first he misstates the date (July 21st, 1969, should be July 20th) then says they were three days into the mission (which launched on July 16, which would make it four days to the 20th and five to the 21st) -- shame on the fact checkers, but still a wonderful documentary series with some fantastic rare footage and fascinating interviews! Thank you Zuke696 for posting these programs!

Amazing computers in those days - but it worked in that task. It just makes my first PC (66mhz) back in 1995 look like a super-computer ;)

For anyone interested in the Apollo Guidance Computer, Dr. David Mindell's new book "Digital Apollo" is a must read. The book is packed with information about the development of the guidance and navigation computer. When I received the book as a gift I felt apprehensive about it because I feared it might be overly technical. I could not have been more wrong. The book is both highly readable and highly entertaining. The book makes an excellent companion to this television series.