Word: spaces
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Traveling at the speed of light, the signal was picked up 1.3 sec later by the huge radio telescope at Goldstone, Calif., which has a dish-shaped antenna 210 ft. in diameter. Next, the signal was relayed to Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington, D.C., where the message was broken down into its individual parts and routed to Mission Control in Houston. The astronauts' voices then traveled via ordinary telephone lines to radio and TV stations in New York for rebroadcast throughout the U.S. and the world. In one of the longest roundabout routes in the history of radio...
Most of the relaxed, casually dressed men under Kraft's baton have degrees in engineering, mathematics or physics. Though their average age is only 32, many have been with the program since the space program's first flights began with Project Mercury in 1959. They form four teams-labeled green, white, black and maroon-that serve around the clock in overlapping eight-hour shifts...
...first row of consoles in Mission Control is known as "the trench," because it serves as the front line for the whole operation. Its four blinking consoles are managed by specialists in space dynamics; they report on booster systems, retrofire, flight dynamics and guidance-respectively known in the control room's jargon as "Booster," "Retro," "Fido" and "Guide." Working in concert, they are responsible for propellant tanks, for calculating the exact moment of retrorocket firings, computing maneuver times and keeping track of spacecraft computers and guidance systems...
...designation is "Surgeon," never "Doc"), and the spacecraft communicator, or "Capcom." White dots sliding across the surgeon's console screen indicate heart and respiration rate's of the astronauts. Capcom, always an astronaut himself, handles all communication with the crew, giving the men who are deep in space a direct link with one of their own. Only in emergencies does anyone else take the microphone. There were none with Apollo...
Behind them are the flight director and planning and operations officers. "Flight" is the captain of the team, the man who makes the crucial decisions. Head flight for Apollo 11 was Cliff Charlesworth, 37. His green team handled liftoff, translunar insertion and the moon walk, known in space jargon as "Extravehicular Activity," or EVA. Charlesworth admits he liked EVA least of all the mission's activities, "because there just wasn't much I could do." Other flight directors for Apollo 11 were Gene Kranz, 35, who wears a white vest to match his team's color; Milt...