The End of an Era

[Logan Darklighter]

An email posted today on the Cosmolist (A Yamato/Star Blazers mailing list) from Walter Amos. Reprinted verbatim (except for editing of headers etc.)

--------------------

from: Walter Amos (email address)
subject: Shutting Down Shuttle Trajectory

This is a kinda rare video so I wanted to blast it out to everyone I could think of who might be remotely interested....

First, a bit of background (for those receiving this email who already know this history, skip the next paragraph).

From early 1997 - late 2004 I worked at United Space
Alliance in Houston, in support of the Shuttle program at NASA Johnson
Space Center.  I was part of a team developing a replacement for the
Shuttle Trajectory Server system on the Mission Operation Computer (MOC)
in Mission Control Center (MCC),
basically the central system which correlates all the observations of
Shuttle flights, estimates orbits, and generates the displays which the guys sitting at stations in Mission Control are looking at and on which flight controllers make operational decisions.  This was called the Trajectory Server Upgrade Project,
since its task was to convert the server software which was written in
ancient assembly language and FORTRAN (core parts of which dated back to
the Apollo era), and rewrite it in as-portable-as-possible C to run on
modern UNIX workstations instead of the ancient IBM mainframe system
which cost a great deal to keep running (and which was only kept around
because of the criticality of this system which ran on it).  Its main
function was to do calculations and update data values in tables which
were accessible to existing simple numerical displays at the various MCC
stations, but we also developed additional displays for the operators
of the server itself in tcl/Tk.  The first shuttle mission in which our
server was the primary operational server for the entire flight was STS-111.

With the conclusion of the Shuttle program, the trajectory server system we worked on was shut down for the final time recently.

Yesterday I received an email from my former cubicle-mate, still in the Houston area:

[Navigation
co-worker] shut down the Traj Server for the final time this morning.
I'm told that before doing so he added to the messages the final words
of Hal 9000, and then "Will I dream?" Someone took video of this, and if they get it up to YouTube I'll let you know.

Lots of people pretty depressed today.

Here is said video of the final Trajectory Server shutdown. 

Regrettably
I think the HAL9000 line was missed in the displayed message list, but
probably wouldn't have been very readable anyway given the focus from
the smart phone.  

But
I think this sort of background computer operation at MCC isn't
something those on the outside get to see much of, and the final
sign-off is a worthwhile thought as well.

-Logan
--------------------
Cmdr. Jeffrey Sinclair: "No. We have to stay here. And there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics, and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-Tzu, and Einstein, and Morobuto, and Buddy Holly, and Aristophanes, and - all of this - all of this - was for nothing. Unless we go to the stars."
--------------------