Light Years Ahead | The 1969 Apollo Guidance Computer

When this popped up on my recommended list, I thought that there was no way I’d sit and watch some guy drone on about the Apollo Guidance Computer for 80 minutes. No way possible. But I did watch the whole thing. And I’ll give my boy his props: Robert Willis is an excellent communicator, doing an outstanding job explaining a well-known but still arcane event.

The joy for me in this talk is watching the expert clearly admiring and respecting the design of his forebears. His enthusiasm is infectious.

THis was an absolutely fantastic lecture. I’ve watched hours of Apollo footage and read dozens of books about the program and yet learned so much from this young man. I hope he writes a book because his research and thoughts need to be memorialized beyond YouTube. Bravo young man!

YouTube algorithm: Here, watch this 80 minute talk about the Apollo Guidance Computer. Me: Pfff, yeah right. Click Me: You know, actually I am an Apollo Guidance Computer expert myself. Thanks for this awesome presenation! Really well done!

No fancy bells and whistles, just a simple deck of slides... But an outstanding and passionate communicator who can actually make you feel smart just by listening to him explaining complex things with simple illustrations. Highly recommended!

As a programmer at NASA Houston from 1967 to 1973 I really enjoyed Roberts presentation. Brought back memories from a bygone age. His comment about programming in those days being like the wild wild west is very true. In the days before computer science degrees, if you had any computer knowledge, you were hired. A math degree with two computer classes qualified me.

Having worked on Apollo at MIT/IL, this is an excellent presentation. Very well done. I should also note that while doing the AGC (Apollo Guidance Computer) programming, we had two types of simulations that we could run to test and validate the navigation software. One simulation was completely digital in nature and we ran those simulations on an IBM 360 computer. The second simulation was a real time hardware simulation done in a mock-up of the command module (CM) and the lunar excursion module (LEM). The astronauts would come and get their first training on the AGC at MIT/IL, then get further training in Houston.

never would i have thought i'd watch through 1,5 hours about the Apollo Computer but here I am. Great content!

Thank you YouTube recommendations algorithm.

This is the best thing that the algorithm has recommended this year. Good job, YouTube

This is the best presentation yet of the AGC. The whole concept of sharing memory for different jobs is explained so well. We take for granted the almost unlimited memory and speed of computers for executing tasks continuously. Yet, the MIT group was satisfied with sharing and allocating the scan times to multiple jobs. I is perplexing to imagine how PID was performed with such limited computing power.

Robert is a passionate presenter and when he speaks about the subject he is able to portray the events in such a simplistic and understandable way to anybody who is watching...very captivating and enjoyed every second!

I was part of the Launch Team at Cape Kennedy for all the Apollo's from #1 (sadly there for the fire on Pad 34) through #11, the first lunar landing. I've met a number of the lunar astronauts including Buzz Aldrin. So I knew bits and pieces of this story, and recall vividly the real-time experience of watching the landing and hearing reference to those alarms on descent of 11, but never knew the whole story until this wonderful presentation here. This was a great combination of technical details and overall mission operation. Really really well done. The speaker mentioned 400,000 people who had worked on Saturn / Apollo. The exact number is probably unknowable but the conclusion that cite leads to is right: it took the energy, invention, and genius of an incredible number of people of all walks of life that solved thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of never-before-solved problems, all in a very very short time period. President Kennedy's speech was May 24, 1961 giving the challenge of the Landing by the end of the decade, and it was achieved twice (Apollo 11 and 12) before the end of 1969. And getting men-to-the-moon, circumnavigating it, was accomplished before the end of 1968 in Apollo 8 (Borman, Lovell, and Anders). All this, and the soon to follow Apollo fights and landings, was accomplished despite the massive setback of the deaths of three key astronauts (Grissom, White, and Chaffee) in January 1967 in the very first Apollo command module, when at that time no lunar module was even near flight ready, and Apollo 1 was atop the smaller / simpler Saturn 1B (earth orbit only rocket), while undergoing 'only' electrical testing weeks before even the first earth-orbit-only flight was to be attempted. Richard Nixon, who was President at the time of Apollo 11, called it "the greatest week in history since the Creation;" that's a little over the top...but Apollo 11 does rank somewhere pretty high in the historical list of achievements.

I'd never imagine I'd sit and watch this for an hour, but I actually did, this guy must be really good.

I have worked in software for over 30 years and have been a spaceflight enthusiast for about 40. As with most available NASA mission audio, I have listened to the A11 FD loop 100 times I bet. I have read a lot about the AGC but this is such a great and clear presentation to help understand what every flight phase, AGC interaction and callout meant.

This really tickled the inner nerd in me. The story, your presentation, the sharp questions and answers. Totally worth the watch!

I met Gene Kranz in the Houston airport about 5 years ago. Built up the courage to ask him about the 1202 alarm - how cool that they made that quick decision. He said the back-up crew saw the error a week before - was fresh in people's minds. Mr. Kranz walked me through the landing. Huge huge thrill. I watched this to learn more about that 1202 sucker. Really great job here.

Unmissable You Tube Gold. Riveting story, timeless historic topic, enthusiastic presenter, easily understood info. enjoy.

You can only imagine the amount of time it took to be able to put this kind of presentation together. Great stuff!!

This is my favorite video over 30 minutes on all of YouTube! I am an Apollo nerd but all the pop literature I have found is focused on the rockets and the people. That’s very cool too, but this stuff is not prevalent enough in pop literature. This talk is exactly right. I love it!