Color Processing at NASA space shuttle labs: the video

[Christiaan Phleger]

Yep, that's 250,000 feet of 16, 35 and 70 film a week if I heard right!

Oh was that process AND print. Wow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGtcW0Lt4QE&feature=player_embedded

 

[Christiaan Phleger]

At 7:00 in shows the lab and equipment.

 

[MattKing]

I wonder how it compares with PE's experience there.

 

[batwister]

PE was an astronaut?

 

[wy2l]

All that technology, gone. All those technicians and engineers with decades of experience, gone. USA manned space effort, all gone. I guess we can turn technology on and off like a spigot.

What I find really amazing is I did not see any young faces... no 18-23 year olds... lotsa old guys with decades of experience.

 

[MattKing]

PE was an astronaut?

Close, but not quite

EDIT: If you were a subscriber, I could refer you to PE's APUG gallery photos, which include photos he took at work at Cape Canaveral in the 1960s (and later?).

They alone are worth the price of (APUG) admission.

 

[AgX]

PE was an astronaut?

I guess he would not have left a Hasselblad on the moon.


More impressive than the lab I found the number of 500 cameras.

 

[Christiaan Phleger]

As well with the number of cameras is the dedicated staff to CLA the cameras. Oh and don't forget collimating the lenses. For 500 cameras..

 

[Photo Engineer]

I was head of still photography at CCMTA for 18 months. I left long before the shuttle. Yes, I was there for the first astronauts and the first Saturn launch. I met 6 of the first 7 astronauts and etc... There are many posts here on that subject, so I will leave it at that.

PE

 

[AgX]

Why would one polish and re-coat a lens as stated in that video?
I mean, at such a place any lens under threat of frontal damage would be covered; the same for atmospherical damage.

 

[Mr Bill]

Why would one polish and re-coat a lens as stated in that video?
I mean, at such a place any lens under threat of frontal damage would be covered; the same for atmospherical damage.

It's probably mainly a PR video, where the narration isn't necessarily accurate. It would seem to make more sense to just replace the front element, if necessary.

 

[Bill Burk]

Why would one polish and re-coat a lens as stated in that video?
I mean, at such a place any lens under threat of frontal damage would be covered; the same for atmospherical damage.

Stumbled upon this thread again...

I think it's quite sensible. When you have people who can do the work... Just a standard CLA for this team.

It must be reasonably "inexpensive" to polish and recoat a lens. I took a vintage lens to a place in Pasadena, close enough to be the place JPL would have used for the purpose. They charged me less than I paid for the lens to do the work. In the end, I probably have a better lens than if I had picked out one in mint condition.