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Antares launch "hot mic" moments...
Hello All,
Watching *this* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5ApQ8k_Gt0 video of yesterday's Antares-Cygnus cargo launch to the International Space Station, the public was treated--as always with Antares launches--to "The 'Nominal' Drinking Game," but this time there was something extra: During powered ascent, while the "Nominal guy" was reading off the events as they occurred and mentioning upcoming ones, someone's telephone line somehow got patched into his audio circuit, adding some confusion to the proceedings (with adults and children being heard talking and laughing). After this had gone on for a bit, a third voice cut in and said, "Hot mic on countdown one! Hot mic!" Then: The extraneous audio immediately vanished, but moments later--just before separation of the Cygnus payload from the Antares vehicle's burned-out second stage motor--a telephone started ringing, after which an automated call-connection failure message from Verizon Wireless played! The last time I heard anything even vaguely resembling these audio faux pas was when Pete Conrad (standing up in the open hatch of Skylab 2's Command Module, struggling--without success--to get a long-handled cutting tool into position to snip through the straps holding Skylab's remaining but stuck large workshop solar panel) cursed--like the sailor he was--and was advised by Mission Control that his was also a hot mic... :-)
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511 All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com. NAR #54895 SR Last edited by blackshire : 02-16-2020 at 09:19 AM. |
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Back when I was in the Air Force, I worked for the DoD Space Test Program and we had a Pegasus mission called TSX-5. TSX-5 launched from Vandenberg, and the 30th Space Wing Public Affairs office did what they so often do - they called in members of the press to observe the launch. Now, truth be told, a Pegasus launch is very dull to "watch" because the L-1011 takes off and flies away. The fun part isn't even visible, as it happens far out to sea.
On this particular day, the fools at Public Affairs didn't realize they put the media in a room with a hot mic! And, of course, they walked away and left the media alone. In this case, "media" was, I believe just two people. One of the two people was a woman who talked about, well, EVERYTHING. Her softball league, her boyfriend, you name it. After all, she was BORED! Despite countless calls of "hot mic!" on the net, this lady never really shut up. She was clearly paying no attention whatsoever to the launch itself. I sincerely hope somebody in Public Affairs got "chewed a new one" over this incident. And I wish I had that audio to share! It was funny and frustrating, all at the same time! |
#3
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I watched that video as well and heard the hot mic moment too.
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Dave, NAR # 21853 SR. |
#4
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__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511 All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com. NAR #54895 SR |
#5
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__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511 All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com. NAR #54895 SR |
#6
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I watched the launch live and chose the "Wallops clean feed" tab on the Spaceflight Now page....and was "treated" to this as well. I would expect some other way for the offending parties to monitor the countdown one loop will be provided next time Antares flies.....I hope. The Verizon "caller not available" thing just amazed me (and not in a good way).
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Bernard Cawley NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member SAM 0061 AMA 42160 KG7AIE |
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Something sort of like that happened during a Pegasus launch out of Wallops (perhaps their first one; I can't recall). The combined Wallops and Orbital Sciences teams' personnel hadn't worked out definite call signs for each other (the Wallops sounding rocket folks, long used to working together seamlessly, just used their first names). In the confusion resulting from that, which was exacerbated by intermittent telemetry and communications drop-outs (which are perfectly normal with an air-launch platform as it turns in flight, but the combined teams hadn't practiced together for that either, and the Wallops folks were caught off guard by the drop-outs), the Pegasus vehicle was launched after an abort had been called. Luckily, the RSO didn't have an "itchy destruct button finger" (he, along with many others, was very surprised to see [on his monitor] the vehicle fall away from the B-52 and ignite its first stage motor), and the mission succeeded.
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511 All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com. NAR #54895 SR |
#8
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I thought of exactly that, especially as one of those "hot mic" incidents was right on top of the interchanges about safing the FTS system!
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Bernard Cawley NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member SAM 0061 AMA 42160 KG7AIE |
#9
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__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511 All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com. NAR #54895 SR |
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