Peaches Pit Stop Aerospace Page

Back to Aerospace

The time frame was from 1959 through 1973. A very interesting time for me. I was very young, going to college, and fresh out of the Navy. I first started out as a electro-mechanical detail draftsman, doing mostly block diagrams, promoted to designer, design checker, supervisor and finally SECTION HEAD, DESIGN GRAPHICS DEFINITION SECTION.

After a few years under my belt I was able to really start doing creative things. We just started with transistors and designing printed circuit boards to fit into airborne packages. This was a challenge to us because everything was fairly new. "Sputnik" had spurned a lot of work to catch up. So everything we did had to be small.

After awhile we were able to make some really uniformed packages, developing multi-layer boards, tighter layouts, and new methods of fabricating them. In conjunction with the boards was the design of the package they went in. To make the package suitable for space. The pleasure I had was that I was able to see the beginning design, the layouts, the fabrication, and assembly of everything that our plant worked on. What a joy and tremendous learning system. We also developed the ground equipment for all of the airborne packages, and of course got into the first computers. How things have changed.

I worked on PT testers (Sandia National Labs), Vela Hotel (Sandia), GE Heat Flow Experiment - Apollo lunar surface experiment package (ALSEP). This went up on Apollo 17.

APOLLO XVII

Apollo 17 Launched:7 December 1972 UT 05:33:00 (12:33:00 a.m. EST)

Landed on Moon: 11 December 1972 UT 19:54:57 (02:54:57 p.m. EST)

Landing Site: Taurus-Littrow (20.19 N, 30.77 E)

Returned to Earth: 19 December 1972 UT 19:24:59 (02:24:59 p.m. EST)

Mission Patch

The Astronauts

Eugene A. Cernan, Commander (Stepped on Moon)
Ronald B. Evans Command Module Pilot
Harrison H. Schmitt, Lunar Module Pilot (Stepped on Moon)
Geologist and eventual Senator from New Mexico

Apollo 17 on the Pad
Apollo-17 (33) Pad 39 (11) Saturn-V AS-512 () High Bay 3 MLP 3 Firing Room 1

Night Launch of Apollo 17

Top - Apollo 17 Capsule in Earth Orbit
Bottom Left - EVA - Capsule Docked to Lunar Lander
Bottom Right - Lunar Lander Undocked

Heat Flow Experiment
The Last Manned Lunar Landing Apollo

The above picture (Heat Flow Experiment) was taken on the moon. If you have been around long enough, you'll remember that the astronauts tripped on the ribbon cable and broke it (close to the top right of the picture looking like a snake). This was while they were dancing around on the moon surface. They were able to fix it. As far as I know it is still functioning after 30 years. The Heat Flow Experiment probe inserted into regolith (moon ground), bottom/center. Main equipment module is at the top/center.

Data Transmission System for NASA APOLLO (monitoring the fueling of the rockets), ESSA, numerous pulse code modulators and intrusion devices for military and civilian use. I also worked on industry products with a major project being part of the "Salt River Project" in Phoenix, AZ.

So, do I miss it? Yes. The research and development phase of my work was great and exciting. We always designed new electronics that was on the ground floor for the things to come. Moving into dual-in-line packages putting more and more into the same space. We did a lot of D-A/A-D converters with one type being the first stereos in commercial planes. Also, the development of the ability to read text, pictures, grafts, etc., and put them into digital format and bring back into analog format. Sound familiar -- today its FAX machines and scanners.

Do I miss the bureaucracy? - - Not in this life time!