The Apollo 11 Flight Plan document - its timeline design a thing of great beauty

[gary]

Space aficionados may wish to browse the Apollo 11 Final Flight Plan,
dated July 1 1969, and relish in the beauty of the graphic design of its
timeline :-

https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11fltpln_final_reformat.pdf

Note details such as the graphical representations of the view of Earth at 72:00 and the star sextant alignment field of view at the 79:52 point.

[OICURMT]

Page 158 & 166, respectively.

[deanm]

"The crew will eat and sleep simultaneously throughout the mission.."

Wow - that's quite a feat!
Dean

[gary]

Hi Dean,

:lol:

I think what it is really attempting to say is that all crew members will eat
at the same time as each other and they will all sleep at the same time
as each other.

[deanm]

Gary: I agree - but it's rather poor (ambiguous!) wording.
You wrote it better!
Dean
(Good that you didn't suggest that they'd "...all sleep together"...Yikes!)

[Dennis]

And all done on a typewriter?

It looks like the document incorporates several Marshall Spaceflight Centre Forms, which change in the Footer part way through the document depending on the topic.

Examples are:

MSC Form 29 (May 69)
MSC Form 2189 (OT) (Nov 68)
MSC Form 2114C (Jul 67)


I initially thought that e.g. REV7 (P. 179) conveyed Revision 7 and marked the change with a Change Bar, but further reading suggests it might be Revolution 7?

Not sure why on Page 221, DAY 5 / REV 29 has been inserted between DAY 6 / REV 28 and DAY 6 / REV 29 – likely to be a simple typo and maybe should read DAY 6?:shrug:

Cheers

Dennis

[gary]

Hi Dennis,

It will denote Revolution 7 - in this case, the 7th orbit around the Moon.

The Rev 1 and Rev 2 on the first day will be orbiting the Earth.

Also appearing elsewhere in the same DAY/REV field :-
TLC - Trans Lunar Coast
TEC - Trans Earth Coast


Well spotted. You'd make a steely-eyed missile man.
Looks almost certainly like a typo.

[Dennis]

Hi Gary

Thanks for that.:)

I used to sit in on Reviews of these types of documents and we had checklists to cover items such as:


Reviewed and Approved by the appropriate personnel.
Authorised for Release and Incorporation by the appropriate personnel.
Terms and Definitions defined correctly and used consistently throughout the document. Examples are LMP, lmp, lunar module pilot, Lunar Module Pilot.
No ambiguity.
Cross Referencing is accurate (to e.g. Sections, Paragraphs, Figures, Tables, etc.)
References to external sources/documents are to the approved document/source.
Readability, useability and workflow – e, g. don’t write on the very last line at the bottom of the page: “LMP to Engage the Master Alarm Switch”…and then at the top of the next page…”Within 2 seconds, LMP to Cancel the Master Alarm”.
Ensure units of measurement are consistent throughout the document.
Ensure there are no missing procedural steps or check list items.

Etc, etc.

I was fortunate to have been on projects and worked in teams where the intent was to make the document suitable for release (fit for purpose) rather than tear it to shreds to see how many faults or non-conformances we could find to make life difficult for the engineering teams.:)

Cheers

Dennis

[SkyWatch]

I assume the cover was added after the mission... ;)

[gary]

Wonderful Dennis!

I know you had mentioned before you had worked in aerospace and you definitely still have your eye in! :)