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  Mercury - Gemini - Apollo
  Apollo LCC firing room console arrangement

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Author Topic:   Apollo LCC firing room console arrangement
damnyankee36
Member

Posts: 68
From: Alamogordo, NM USA
Registered: Aug 2017

posted 07-22-2024 01:13 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for damnyankee36   Click Here to Email damnyankee36     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Ever since as a kid, when I noticed how NASA's Apollo Launch Control Center (LCC) firing room consoles were arranged, I always wondered why they were facing the "back" of the room instead of towards the windows.

I can think of two reasons:

  1. The light coming through the windows could backlight the console displays.

  2. The controllers didn't need to be distracted before the Saturns cleared the tower.
Any thoughts on this?

apolloengr
New Member

Posts: 7
From: Boulder, CO, USA
Registered: Jul 2016

posted 07-22-2024 07:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for apolloengr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The Firing Room was on several tiers, so even if our consoles on the lowest tier had faced the windows, we were too low to see anything but sky and high clouds.

Ted Peterson
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Posts: 4
From:
Registered: Jun 2024

posted 07-23-2024 09:24 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ted Peterson     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Did they lock the doors at launch, the way I’ve read it was handled in Houston?

How about possible electrical power service interruption, that will never do, so have always assumed they had generator backups. I remember the news broadcasts, in addition to the Saturn V they would pan down row after row after row of people at their consoles. Impressive!

mgspacecadet
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Posts: 30
From:
Registered: Apr 2012

posted 07-25-2024 11:38 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for mgspacecadet   Click Here to Email mgspacecadet     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
As far as locking the doors to the LCC control Firing Room at KSC, the closest I can remember to something like that, during Shuttle, was right after the Challenger accident, January 28, 1986. Guards were stationed at the Firing Room entrance doors and literally everything was searched, if you were trying to leave the Firing Room with it.

My call sign that day was CMEC (GOX Vent Arm Engineer). Those of us in the Firing Room for T-O filled out witness statements. Our console logs books and other data were impounded for months. Firing Room 3 was used for Challenger. And it was the first launch from LC39B since ASTP.

All times are CT (US)

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