In commemoration of the 55th anniversary of Apollo 11 and alongside the JSCARC’s activation of W5RRR to promote NASA-On-The Air (nasaontheair.wordpress.org), Ken K5RG graciously offered to give the 2024 JSC Ham Radio Summer Student Interns a presentation about his involvement and observations associated with the Apollo 11 mission. The title of his presentation: “A Connecticut Yankee in Apollo’s Court… or How to Incorporate Luck Into System Designs”
To view Ken’s presentation, click HERE
Through the adept efforts of the Student Ham Radio Committee lead, Faheem Quazi, Ken was provided an symbolically relevant venue, the Building 30/Mission Control Center located auditorium. The presentation had little advance promotion because of last minute scheduling, but it was offered to all interested Student Interns which ended up attracting a approximately 20 JSC student intern attendees.
Ken gave a very enjoyable and entertaining conversation with the audience, while offering thrilling insights into the less known significantly stacked “odds” against a risky mission. For those of you who know Ken, his unpretentious delivery and command of humor, made his speech engaging throughout with many smiles and wide open eyes from the audience.
Ken and the Draper Laboratory team adds to the many other twists of heroics that ultimately made history with the Apollo 11 mission. For this story vignette, rigorous software saves the day by keeping the onboard computers functional despite unexpected happenings.
