Apollo Software

[Daniel Seagraves]

> On Jan 22, 2018, at 10:35 AM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
>> From: Paul Koning
> 
>> I[t] just dawned on me that the subject is Apollo the company bought by
>> HP, not Apollo the spacecraft. Oh well...
> 
> Actually, that stuff has all been saved, and run under simulators

Not all, not by a long shot. Not even half.

The Apollo spacecraft had 4 computers aboard. One was in the Command Module, two were in the Lunar Module, and one was in the Saturn. Of those, we only have software for the CM and LM computers. The Saturn software, which is what actually flew from Earth to the moon, was lost. So you can claim we have “75%” at best, but that’s still not even close to true. There was a large complex of computers on the ground that calculated maneuvers and generated uplink data needed for the operation of the CM and LM computers, as well as the computers for the controllers, and none of that software survived. A lot of effort has gone into filling in those missing pieces, and it’s by no means complete.