Author Topic: The good Ole Days  (Read 76375 times)

Offline eeergo

Re: The good Ole Days
« Reply #160 on: 09/22/2008 02:13 am »
Yes please :)

Just discovered the thread, I don't know why I didn't read it at the time, but the stories are awesome! Thanks for sharing.
-DaviD-

Offline KEdward5

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Re: The good Ole Days
« Reply #161 on: 09/22/2008 02:39 am »
Great thread, obviously an old one as I hadn't seen it before! More stories and cool photos please :)

Offline Jim

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Offline Jim

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Re: The good Ole Days
« Reply #163 on: 09/22/2008 03:28 pm »
Another story,

I was working as the AFTC (explained in an earlier post) at a spacecraft processing facility during 1st shift.  Two ops were scheduled for the day.  One was a black light inspection of the spacecraft, which was benign as you can get and the other was a crane lift of a spacecraft canister from a transporter onto an air pallet.  I chose to monitor the lift, since was more hazardous and it was outside the clean room.  Everything was moving along smoothly until I got a cryptic call over the walkie talkie (this was in the late 80's to early 90's) from the inspection task leader.  "Smoke" was mentioned in the call and I should hurry to meet the task leader in the high bay.  This wasn't as simple as it sounds.  I had to go around to the front of the facility to the main entrance and exchange my badge for another badge that operated the facility electronic security system (ESS).  The new badge had to be used to go through the first door.  Once inside, I went in to the garment change room (through an ESS door) and put on a bunny suit.  Another ESS door led to the air shower and which led into the high bay.  I met the task leader and he led me to the checkout cell (after passing thru 2 more ESS doors) with the spacecraft, while explaining what had happened.  They turned off the lights in the cell and had started the inspection at the top of the spacecraft, which was a few levels up from the main floor.  They were having trouble performing the inspection because there was excess light coming from rotating beacons (much like what police cars and fire trucks in the past used) on two racks which were located on ground level.  The beacons signified that the spacecraft was powered and battery charging was occurring.  Because of security precautions, racks had an opaque film draped over the front of them to hide the controls and electronics.  To allow the inspection to go forward, the film was then flipped over top of the racks to cover the beacons and mask the light.  The inspection then continued at the higher levels.  Later during the inspection, one of the engineers thought that the one of the hand held black light was overheating and starting to smell and he switched it out for another one.   Others in the inspection party started to smell things too.  They started investigating and upon reaching the ground level, they discovered smoke coming out from underneath the film draped over top the racks.  Once the film was removed, it was discovered that the smoke was coming from the beacons.  The racks were quickly powered down and the beacons removed and taken out of the clean room.  One of the beacon’s amber cover/lens was melted and collapsed onto itself.  It reminded people of the faceplate of the hapless astronaut in “Aliens”, when the “Facegrabber” melted its way into the helmet.  The other beacon looked normal and the cover/lens retained its exterior shape but at closer inspection, there was a stalactite of melted plastic on the inside.    The film covering the beacons retained the heat of the lights inside causing it to overheat.   With the cause of the problem determine, we needed to investigate the potential impacts of the incident.  A few of us headed for the facility control room to look at data from particle counters in the ECS system.  As suspected, there was a huge increase of particles but amazingly the read out also showed that it was only a spike in the levels (e.g. as quickly as the levels increased, they also decreased quickly vs a gradual taper off.  This was good news for the spacecraft because it meant that the smoke (contaminants) were in the area for only a short time.   Additionally, wipes were taken off various spots in the facility near the racks and of the spacecraft itself.  The wipes showed no contamination.  The theory is that the smoke was of such fine and small particles and that the air changeover rate was very large, there was no time for contaminants to settle on the facilities or spacecraft.   Once again, another bullet was dodged on one of my shifts

Offline DMeader

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Re: The good Ole Days
« Reply #164 on: 09/22/2008 07:40 pm »
This thread is amazing... I wonder what other older gems are buried back in the past I haven't discovered.

Whatever happened to Steve?

Online Chris Bergin

Re: The good Ole Days
« Reply #165 on: 10/12/2008 07:36 am »
This thread is amazing... I wonder what other older gems are buried back in the past I haven't discovered.

Whatever happened to Steve?

Not on the net much. Will try and get in touch with him.
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Offline Jim

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Re: The good Ole Days
« Reply #166 on: 06/21/2011 07:35 pm »
bumping an old thread for the newbies

Offline Robotbeat

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Re: The good Ole Days
« Reply #167 on: 06/21/2011 11:05 pm »
Good thread.
Chris  Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

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Offline Silmfeanor

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Re: The good Ole Days
« Reply #168 on: 06/22/2011 12:23 am »
Good thread.

I second that. I like reading stories such as these very much.

Offline Prober

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Re: The good Ole Days
« Reply #169 on: 06/22/2011 02:41 am »
bumping an old thread for the newbies

You changed Jim I noticed this in other threads, more in this one.  In mid 2005-07 maybe you enjoyed your job more?
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Offline Jim

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Re: The good Ole Days
« Reply #170 on: 06/22/2011 02:52 am »
bumping an old thread for the newbies

You changed Jim I noticed this in other threads, more in this one.  In mid 2005-07 maybe you enjoyed your job more?

No, there were less nuspace amazing people and Cxp wasn't wasting billions back then.
« Last Edit: 06/22/2011 02:54 am by Jim »

Offline Crews

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Re: The good Ole Days
« Reply #171 on: 03/25/2013 12:55 am »
Anyway two of the ones that really stuck with me:

During Apollo, they had cameras mounted in one of the upper stages (can't remember if it was stage 2, or 3, or both), but these cameras were mounted in the top of the LO2 tank and were aimed down.  These cameras were used to observe the levels and dynamics of the LO2 propellant as it slowly filled the tank, and later, as the LO2 was pressurized.  According to John, watching the LO2 fill operation was rather uneventful -- the boil-off from the LO2 tended to obscure the view.  HOWEVER, when the tank was pressurized, he said, the boil-off stopped (almost instantly), and what was visible was a bright, crystal blue liquid with a surface as smooth as glass -- he said it looked almost like a swimming pool, and you could see all the way down to the hardware at the bottom of the tank.  Very cool visual -- somewhere there is film of that and I'd love to see it someday.

That would be the SA-5 and the video from the NASA site seems to be missing, but can be found here:

Quote
Another story -- and I'd love to get a firsthand account of this -- was during a tanking operation during Apollo (can't remember if it was a launch attempt or a tanking test), a KSC patrol car rather foolishly drove through a cloud of gaseous oxygen (I don't recall the details of how & why the patrol car and the cloud of GOX ended up in the same place at the same time).  Those of you who know about GOX, flammable materials, and heat sources know what happened next.  The shocked officer reportedly got out of the car -- but just barely.  The car caught fire almost instantly and burned to the ground in seconds.  There was nothing left but a thin layer of cinders on the ground.

I read that story elsewhere (space collectors site) as an Apollo 8 story. 

It was the actual countdown in that version, and within hours of launch.  The security were doing their final check that the area was clear of all persons.  A firetruck arrived and the same thing happened to it.

I was trying to run down that very story when Google suggested this page.

Offline Crews

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Re: The good Ole Days
« Reply #172 on: 03/25/2013 03:15 pm »

Another story -- and I'd love to get a firsthand account of this -- was during a tanking operation during Apollo (can't remember if it was a launch attempt or a tanking test), a KSC patrol car rather foolishly drove through a cloud of gaseous oxygen (I don't recall the details of how & why the patrol car and the cloud of GOX ended up in the same place at the same time).  Those of you who know about GOX, flammable materials, and heat sources know what happened next.  The shocked officer reportedly got out of the car -- but just barely.  The car caught fire almost instantly and burned to the ground in seconds.  There was nothing left but a thin layer of cinders on the ground.

I found this. Says it was Apollo 13, dress rehearsal, and even includes pictures.  http://usna63.topcities.com/home/SpaceMemories.htm

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