The Apollo Program that placed man on the Moon gave rise to a huge number of technological developments, whose benefits we still enjoy today, directly or indirectly. The engineers of the time had to face great limitations, and their creations worked in truly hostile environments. One of those creations was the Apollo Guidance Computer, a pioneer among integrated circuit-based designs. A South African hacker managed to rescue one of these computers… after it had been sold as scrap.
The AS-202 Mission and Its Legacy
The AS-202 mission of the Apollo Program was the second uncrewed suborbital test flight of the Apollo Command/Service Module and the Saturn IB launch vehicle. The flight lasted just over an hour and a half, and its success led to the apparent conclusion that NASA was ready to put men into orbit with its next mission, AS-204. Those who know a bit more about NASA's history will immediately recognize that AS-204 is 'Apollo 1', the mission in which Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives during a launch rehearsal. In other words, AS-202 gave a false sense of security that was paid very dearly, but not everything that came out of that mission was negative. In fact, it marked the first flight of one of the agency's systems, the Apollo Guidance Computer (known by its acronym AGC), a fundamental piece of the program for nearly nine years, until its retirement in July 1975. The computer was built by Raytheon, a company known for its guided missiles and the invention of the commercial microwave oven (a strange combination if ever there was one), and recently, a South African hacker named Francois Rautenbach managed to obtain one.
Rescued From the Scrap Pile
The story behind this AGC is fascinating, and also carries a touch of sadness. Basically, the computer and its impressive CRM memory modules (or 'core rope memory', a not-too-distant cousin of magnetic core memory) were sold as scrap in the city of Houston to a man who, for extraordinary reasons, wishes to remain anonymous. What happened? This man began selling some of the things he received in the lot on eBay… until one day the FBI knocked on his door, asking how he had acquired the material. Fortunately, the man kept the original receipt, and upon confirming that it was a legal transaction, the FBI left him alone. However, he preferred not to share with anyone in the United States what he had, and that's when Rautenbach appears.
A Unique Piece of History
The most striking thing is that this is not one of the several Apollo Guidance Computers: It is 'the' first Apollo Guidance Computer, which remained aboard the USS Hornet (the aircraft carrier tasked with its recovery) until 1976. The computer not only ended up as part of a three-ton pile of scrap, but also NASA does not possess any copy of the software stored in those CRM modules. Rautenbach's goal is to extract the software from them. From what I've been able to find out, Rautenbach did not buy the computer, as he apparently made a deposit as a kind of 'rental' to gain access to the code. What kind of instructions will be inside? We'll soon know.
Source: Atlas Obscura
