Apollo Discussions > The Reality of Apollo

examples of chatter from moon that reference real time events on earth?

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Matt D:
Hi all,

I was in a discussion recently with a conspiracy theorist friend and I said I bet with a little digging I could find examples of chat between the astronauts and Houston that reference real events that would be very difficult to insert into a fake pre-recorded conversation.  I know this is pointless as far as convincing such people of anything, but it's sometimes fun watching them squirm.  :D

Within about 15 minutes of searching key words on ALSJ I found a quick reference during Apollo 15 where the CAPCOM gives the astronauts a live update on the 1971 College All Star football game:


--- Quote ---109:19:47 Allen: Roger, Dave. We're not going to ask exactly for a mark when you ingress the hammocks (that is, Houston doesn't need to know exactly when they go to bed). And, by the way, I think the space program is the only place where a person can "ingress" a hammock. But we would like a status report on the two of you when you get comfortable. And, a final thing, you might be interested, the score of the All-Star Game (football game) at about halftime is the Baltimore Colts (a professional team), 14, College All Stars 7. And we'll be standing by for your status report. Over.

109:20:27 Scott: Okay. That sounds like a pretty good game!
--- End quote ---

Based on a July 26, 1971 9:34am (EDT) launch and the elapsed time shown, that brings us to the evening of July 30 for the game, which of course checks out.  An archived NYT article on the game that I found states that the half-time score was actually 14-10, not 14-7 but the quote above says "at about halftime." I also found this blog post where the guy says a field goal was scored with just 2 minutes left in the half, which would have made the score 14-10 a the intermission, and provides an explanation for the score stated in the transcript.  https://fs64sports.blogspot.com/2015/07/1971-morrall-tosses-3-td-passes-as.html#:~:text=The%2038th%20annual%20College,eight%20years%20as%20head%20coach.

Seems pretty definitive to me.  I'm wondering if anybody else has other examples of this sort of thing - from sports, news events, or otherwise?  I'd like to have a few examples of this T'ed up if I can, for the next time my delusional buddy wants to go all swivel-eyes on me. 

Peter B:
G'day Matt

I can't remember which mission it was, but on one of them the breakfast news read up to the crew included live golf scores from some major event. I debated with a diehard Hoaxer whether NASA had the power to compel golfers to achieve the scores the Capcoms had (according to him) pre-recorded in their news items. I mean, just imagine being told by some NASA flunky that you were expected to score 68 today on a par 72 course because that's what they'd pre-recorded for the hoax - no pressure!

However, more generally, if you'd like to find a few more examples, go to the Apollo Flight Journal, and then for each mission, look at the first part of the transcript for each numbered day. Those are the parts that contain the news items read up to the crew by Mission Control. There's any number of news items which can be checked against contemporary records which would have been impossible to predict. Obviously sports events are the best (see especially golf, above) but other miscellaneous news events might work too.

ETA: Here's one from Apollo 11:

173:38:32 Garriott: ...The All Star game currently being played. The present score at the end of the fourth inning has the National League leading the American League by 9 to 3.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_Major_League_Baseball_All-Star_Game shows a score of 9-3 to the National League at the bottom of the fourth inning.

But that could be more reliably verified by finding old newspapers.

bknight:
IIRC there was shuttle legislation passed during A16 and that news was passed to Young and Duke.

ETA:  It took a few minutes of searching but from ALSJ

--- Quote ---120:26:21 England: ...The House passed the space budget yesterday, 277 to 60, which includes the vote for the Shuttle.

120:26:30 LM Crew: Beautiful. Wonderful. Beautiful.

--- End quote ---

onebigmonkey:
My obvious first thought was the live TV broadcasts featuring Earth where they described the view!

This has given me an idea though - there are lots of online news and TV archives, and it would be nice to find some of these news quotes and put them with their media counterparts. That's me busy for a while then...

raven:
"
02 05 56 39 CC
In sports, the Houston Oilers are showing plenty of enthusiasm in their early preseason workouts at Kerrville, and Coach Wally Lemm says he is impressed with the fine group of rookies. National League baseball yesterday, Thursday: St. Louis 11, Philadelphia 3; Montreal 5, over Pittsburg 4; Atlanta 12, Cincinnati 2; San Fransciso 14, and Los Angeles 13. American League: we have Baltimore 3, over Cleveland 2; Detroit 4 to Washington's 3; Minnesota 8 to Chicago 5. Boston at New York was rained out. And in Corby, England, an Irishman, John Coyle has won the world's porridge eating championship by consuming 23 bowls of instant oatmeal in a 10-minute time limit from a field of 35 other competitors. Over.

02 05 57 48 CMP
Roger. I assume Houston didn't play yesterday.

02 05 57 51 CC
That's correct.

02 05 57 55 CMP
I'd like to enter Aldrin in the oatmeal eating contest next time. "
" 06 04 26 52 LMP
Look up the Dow Jones Industrials for us.
APOLLO 11 AIR-TO-GROUND VOICE TRANSCRIPTION

(GOSS NET 1) Tape 96/1 Page 526

06 04 38 41 CC
Apollo 11, we've completed the uplink. The computer's yours.

06 04 38 48 CMP
Thank you.

06 04 43 41 CC
Apollo 11, this is Houston. Over.

06 04 43 47 LMP
Go ahead.

06 04 43 49 CC
Roger. With respect to the Dow Jones industrials, since closing on Tuesday afternoon the 15th up to about 1:05 p.m. Houston time this afternoon, why, the effect has been a net drop; that is, minus 6 points on the industrial average. So far today since opening, the Dow Jones industrial average has gone down by 11.05 after rising 1 1/2 shortly after opening. Today's performance on the utilities is a drop of 1.63, and railroads a drop of 1.58. Over.

06 04 44 36 CMP
Every flight has to have some disadvantages, I guess.

06 04 44 40 CC
Roger. There is some speculation that you all are responsible for that 1 1/2 point rise right after opening.

06 04 44 55 CMP
Well, don't blame the 11 point drop on us, anyway. "
From the Apollo 11 Technical Air-to Ground transcript

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