Sy Liebergot - Apollo 13 EECOM
Here at SDL, since we are associated with the university we will occasionally get to hear talks from people as they are passing through. Yesterday, we were privileged to hear from Sy Liebergot. He served as a flight controller (EECOM) with Apollo 13 as well as many other missions. I love hearing from these guys. He described the loneliness and pressure he felt when Apollo 13 experienced the quadruple failure. He explained to us how his training as a systems engineer would usually let him work a problem backwards to the point of origin so that it could then be resolved. But, with this one there were so many things going wrong that it was initially almost impossible to really tell what to do. He said that for two weeks after it happened he would have the same recurring nightmare of things going wrong. Then one evening during the dream he was able to perform every step flawlessly and the disaster still happened. At that point he realized that it wasn't his fault - so he never had the nightmare again. He said that his fellow controllers would rib him about the fact that he initially called it as an instrumentation problem. Sy also spoke to us for awhile about the culture at NASA. Sadly, he doesn't think that "NASA" will *ever* send another astronaut to the moon. He said in the old days that people felt equal with their supervisors and would "tell it like it is". He explained that now they are more interested with "climbing the corporate ladder" so they will sometimes withhold information that may be useful. He also said that NASA has such an aversion to risk that it really makes it difficult for them to envision anything beyond low earth orbit. He did spend a bit of time hawking his book, "Apollo EECOM: Journey of a Lifetime", which can be found at Amazon.com. I think it would be a worthwhile purchase especially since it includes a CD with four hours of audio from the initial, "Houston we have had a problem". There is a short right-up about his talk today in the Herald Journal (aka "the 5 minute newspaper") at http://news.hjnews.com/news/article_5128b18e-4088-11e0-88d1-001cc4c03286.htm... Clear skies, Dale.
Thanks for sharing that, Dale. Sounds like a very interesting perspective a story we all probably think we know well. Kim -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Dale Hooper Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 11:46 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Sy Liebergot - Apollo 13 EECOM Here at SDL, since we are associated with the university we will occasionally get to hear talks from people as they are passing through. Yesterday, we were privileged to hear from Sy Liebergot. He served as a flight controller (EECOM) with Apollo 13 as well as many other missions. I love hearing from these guys. He described the loneliness and pressure he felt when Apollo 13 experienced the quadruple failure. He explained to us how his training as a systems engineer would usually let him work a problem backwards to the point of origin so that it could then be resolved. But, with this one there were so many things going wrong that it was initially almost impossible to really tell what to do. He said that for two weeks after it happened he would have the same recurring nightmare of things going wrong. Then one evening during the dream he was able to perform every step flawlessly and the disaster still happened. At that point he realized that it wasn't his fault - so he never had the nightmare again. He said that his fellow controllers would rib him about the fact that he initially called it as an instrumentation problem. Sy also spoke to us for awhile about the culture at NASA. Sadly, he doesn't think that "NASA" will *ever* send another astronaut to the moon. He said in the old days that people felt equal with their supervisors and would "tell it like it is". He explained that now they are more interested with "climbing the corporate ladder" so they will sometimes withhold information that may be useful. He also said that NASA has such an aversion to risk that it really makes it difficult for them to envision anything beyond low earth orbit. He did spend a bit of time hawking his book, "Apollo EECOM: Journey of a Lifetime", which can be found at Amazon.com. I think it would be a worthwhile purchase especially since it includes a CD with four hours of audio from the initial, "Houston we have had a problem". There is a short right-up about his talk today in the Herald Journal (aka "the 5 minute newspaper") at http://news.hjnews.com/news/article_5128b18e-4088-11e0-88d1-001cc4c03286.htm l Clear skies, Dale. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1204 / Virus Database: 1435/3467 - Release Date: 02/25/11
I missed the presentation, but it sounds very fascinating. If you haven't checked out the very well designed and fascinating SpaceLog.org web site, you should do so. The full, time-coded transcript of the Apollo 13 mission is available at http://apollo13.spacelog.org/ It takes several hours to get through it all, but it's a very educational read. Or you can start right with "Houston, we've had a problem." - http://apollo13.spacelog.org/02:07:55:35/ Or just search the parts that reference "EECOM" - http://apollo13.spacelog.org/search/?q=eecom Jared Smith
Thanks for passing this along, Dale. Mr. Liebergot sounds like a great speaker for an astronomy club meeting (hint, hint, Rodger) if he could be lured back to Utah. -- Joe --- On Fri, 2/25/11, Dale Hooper <Dale.Hooper@sdl.usu.edu> wrote:
From: Dale Hooper <Dale.Hooper@sdl.usu.edu> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Sy Liebergot - Apollo 13 EECOM To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Friday, February 25, 2011, 11:45 AM Here at SDL, since we are associated with the university we will occasionally get to hear talks from people as they are passing through. Yesterday, we were privileged to hear from Sy Liebergot. He served as a flight controller (EECOM) with Apollo 13 as well as many other missions. I love hearing from these guys. He described the loneliness and pressure he felt when Apollo 13 experienced the quadruple failure. He explained to us how his training as a systems engineer would usually let him work a problem backwards to the point of origin so that it could then be resolved. But, with this one there were so many things going wrong that it was initially almost impossible to really tell what to do.
He said that for two weeks after it happened he would have the same recurring nightmare of things going wrong. Then one evening during the dream he was able to perform every step flawlessly and the disaster still happened. At that point he realized that it wasn't his fault - so he never had the nightmare again.
He said that his fellow controllers would rib him about the fact that he initially called it as an instrumentation problem. Sy also spoke to us for awhile about the culture at NASA. Sadly, he doesn't think that "NASA" will *ever* send another astronaut to the moon. He said in the old days that people felt equal with their supervisors and would "tell it like it is". He explained that now they are more interested with "climbing the corporate ladder" so they will sometimes withhold information that may be useful. He also said that NASA has such an aversion to risk that it really makes it difficult for them to envision anything beyond low earth orbit.
He did spend a bit of time hawking his book, "Apollo EECOM: Journey of a Lifetime", which can be found at Amazon.com. I think it would be a worthwhile purchase especially since it includes a CD with four hours of audio from the initial, "Houston we have had a problem". There is a short right-up about his talk today in the Herald Journal (aka "the 5 minute newspaper") at http://news.hjnews.com/news/article_5128b18e-4088-11e0-88d1-001cc4c03286.htm...
Clear skies, Dale. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
participants (4)
-
Dale Hooper -
Jared Smith -
Joe Bauman -
Kim Hyatt