【誰にともなしに、独り言レス―その2966】
フライト・ディレクターのジェリー・グリフィンによるジョン・アーロンが提案した"SCE to Aux"（he said,“Have him go SCE to aux.”）の解説と、ご自身からが「何のこっちゃ？」（I yelled over the top of the console, “What?”）で、伝える capcom のジェリー・カーも「何のこっちゃ？」（he yelled back at me,“What?”）、ところが意外や意外 アル・ビーンだけは「何のこっちゃ？」じゃなかった（he didn’t say “What?”）という大いに笑える話を―
その2819～2820―
Griffin: And you know it seemed like it took forever for John Aaron to get that call back up to say, “Have him reset the fuel cells.” Oh the first thing was “SCE [signal condition equipment] to aux [auxiliary].” There was a little switch. SCE was signal conditioning equipment. And there was a little switch in there that you had two positions—normal and alternate—and it was in the normal position. And he had seen a similar thing happen during a pad test on Apollo where he had lost all the telemetry,all the data. And they had gone—the Cape did it. He was just watching. The Cape went to the aux position and it restored it,because it put a new line of signal conditioning equipment into the loop. And so he said,“Have him go SCE to aux.”
And when we—and this was a funny timebecause—and a lot of this happened on the air path. We weren’t talking on radios. He said, “SCE to aux,” and I yelled over the top of the console, “What?” I’d never heard of the switch. We’d never touched it. Never used it, out of all those hundreds of switches. He said, “SCE to aux.” So I turned and I said,“SCE,” to the Capcom, “have him turn the SCE to aux.” I said that on the radio. And he yelled back at me, “What?” The same thing I had said. “SCE to aux.” That was Jerry Carr, I think. And so he yelled—he radioed that up, “SCE to aux,” and Alan Bean knew where that switch was. He—thank goodness, because—
Q : Bean didn’t say “What?”
Griffin: No, he didn’t say“What?” He had remembered it, and he—as soon as he did it, it restored our data. And then we could see—he—John could see that the fuel cells had been kicked off line and the reentry batteries were the only thing holding up any voltages at all.
その2821～2823―
同じくジェリー・カーによる笑える話を―
Working with Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon and Al Bean was just a joy. There was always light-heartedness, there was always a lot of fun along with the hard work that was going on while we were working there.
I was the capsule communicator for launch, and the pre-launch, all the phase went just beautifully and we got to the weather and the weather people started sweating thunderstorms. I can't remember, Idon't think we held for anything. I'd have to go back and review the data. But there were thunderstorms in the area and people were worried about them. But the decision was made to go ahead and go, because they were far enough away that they didn't think that there would be any problem with it. So we launched.
And the [flight] dynamics officer and the flight—FIDO,I guess he was, anyway, we were all working the system, and all of a sudden the guys came up on the radio and they said, "We've lost everything. We've got the master alarm light on. The inertial guidance system has rolled over on its back. What's going on?"
And about that time one of the guys on the console told the flight director to have me tell them to put the SCE switch to Aux [auxiliary]. So I said, "Apollo 12, this is Houston. SCE to Aux. Put your SCE to Aux."
And there was this silence, and they said,"What was that again?"
And I said, "SCE, signal conditioning electronics, to Aux."
"Where is it?"
One of the funniest things was the download tapes. You know every few minutes the guys on the ground download the tapes,the conversations that are going on in the spacecraft. Well, they downloaded the tapes of the crew during the incident.
It was so funny, because Alan Bean was saying—no, Pete said, "What the hell is going on?" And one of the other guys says, "I don't know." And Alan Bean says, "We've got power on the bus. We've got power on the bus," which means our electrical system is okay. And Pete's saying, "What the hell's going on? I got this wrong and I got that wrong," and he started calling off all the things. I could just imagine the confusion and the mayhem that was going on in the command module.
Then I heard my voice come in and say,"SCE to Aux." And I heard them questioning back and forth, "What in the world is he talking about?" Because it's a very remotely located switch and it was something that I don't think anybody ever fiddled with in training. So it was not up front in their minds and they couldn't find it. But once we got it done, got things taken care of, the mission went on beautifully.
その2824―
そしてカーはピート・コンラッドが―
But that tape is one of the funniest tapes I've ever heard in my life, because Pete, besides saying, "What the hell'sgoing on?" he started giggling after a while, as only Pete can laugh. So there's a guy, even under stress, had a sense of humor.
ゴードン：What are you laughing at? （何を笑ってる）
コンラッド：I don't think I'll ever forget when all that good stuff was lighting up and then CAPCOM called up SCE to auxiliary. I didn't know what the hell that meant, and you were awfully quiet, I might add. （落雷した時のことを思い出すとおかしくて " SCE を予備に"と言われたが見当もつかなかった お前も黙っていたろ）
All I hear is Al's voice, two octaves higher than it ought to be saying, "I know what it is. " （その時 ビーンが 2 オクターブ高い声で "分かるよ" ）
と（口真似て）大笑いする、とことん笑えるキャラのピート・コンラッドなのであった。
