Most of my blog readers know that I spent a 45 year career in the computer business. Many do not know that I had five years as an electronic technician before my entry into computers.
After high school I graduated from an electronics technical school. They somehow awarded an AA degree despite it being only 18 months long. In reality, it was a glorified radio and TV repair school, although I did get a good basics in vacuum tube circuit design. I studied on my own and passed the FCC First Class Radiophone license before I graduated.
In 1960, I joined Electro-Mechanical Research (EMR) in Sarasota, Florida. One of the first projects that I worked on was the solid state data transmission system for Explorer 12 — the S-3 Energetic Particles Satellite. EMR was noted for their mechanical commutators and this was their first semiconductor version.
We also did the integration of the complete satellite with a lot of testing at Goddard Space Center in the Washington, D.C. area. Yes, that picture above is the satellite. Things were a lot less strict in those days. I actually carried the flight solar panels around in my 1960 English Ford Anglia some times. After launch from KSC in 1961, I went back to D.C. and helped set up a satellite integration lab for the company.
When I returned to Sarasota, I worked on the Data Transmission System for the Gemini manned spacecraft. That included environmental testing at Bell Aerospace in Buffalo, NY. One of the tests was a salt water immersion test. We joked that because the box would be under the astronaut's seat, it had to pass the test in case they peed on it.
In the late 1970s, I worked for two years in the Space Shuttle Firing Rooms at Kennedy Space Center. Although I left KSC before the first launch, it was a tough job. I was a Senior Software Engineer in a group that mainly poured over memory dumps finding problems, then getting the appropriate subcontractors to fix them. We supported not only of the systems in the firing rooms, but also the computers onboard the Shuttle and Mobile Launcher. I still have my white hard hat with the Shuttle decal on the front from the times that I had to go inside the Mobile Launching Platform.
One of the fun things we were able to do at KSC was to go up on the roof of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). It is that super tall, 35-story building that you see from far away at KSC. The view from up there is amazing. To get there, we took the elevator to the top floor. Walked up some stairs and then across a wire-caged walkway across the high bay to the final stairs. Lots of people panicked on the walkway as it swayed and you had 35 stories of empty space beneath you.
Finally, in the early 1990s, I worked on a spy satellite program at Harris in Melbourne. We had to put "sunglasses" on the satellite. The Russians were using our spy satellites for target practice with their lasers. The bright light would cause the electronics to burp and blinded the satellites for a while. Hence, sunglasses so it could still function while being a target of the laser beams.
Lots of people think that I am a bit spacey. Now you know why.
What fascinating programs you worked on, DC! The sunglasses one is especially interesting to me.
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Thanks, Emily. No matter where I landed for a job, I seemed to migrate to the difficult jobs that no one else wanted to tackle or could tackle. I often laughed and said that I was the master of strange devices. It made life (and the jobs) interesting.
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