Wahoo! nEW Find! was Re: Mass Memory Unit from Space Shuttle

[Joe R.]

At 12:44 PM 9/4/05 -0700, Steve wrote:
>Joe,
>
>I worked for Odetics for many years in Anaheim ( Odetics Spacebourne
>Division ). We built two different units for the shuttle. One of them was
>the size of a very large black shoe box, and provided memory for the five
>IBM main computers. The larger unit ( about the size of a pregnant LP size
>laser disk player ) contained a  28 track ( re-configurable as analog or
>digital on ANY track ) that was used to record telemetry and info from a ton
>of transducers throughout the shuttle. 

  <snip>

   I had several of the smaller boxs and one larger box that I hadn't
looked at yet. I just finished examining it and I found that it's one of
the larger analog and digital boxs that Steve described. It's labeled
"Recorder, Magnetic Tape-Wideband  Digital/Analog (Shuttle)".  Not only did
I get it but I also had some kind of test panel made by Odetics that I also
picked up. It turns out to be the test panel for this unit :-)  But wait! I
also picked up a big bundle of cables that were laying nearby and it turns
out that it had ALL of the (intact!) cables for it! After I took the
pictures I found a bag of connectors that are labeled as "Shuttle Tape
Recorder Connector Savers". Apparently these are connectors that mate with
the connectors on the tape recorder to prevent any damage to them when the
regular cables are removed. At least one of the smaller units already had
those installed when I found it.

  Pictures at
<http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/Odetics%20Mass%20Memory%20Unit%202/>

   I must be living right!

    Joe