HP-65 and NASA/JPL Missions

[Gene Dorr]

Max,

Yes, you are absolutely correct, and I myself oversimplified the situation. The solutions generated by the RTCC (Real-Time Computer Complex at Houston) were in fact the main source of solutions for rendezvous.

Two nits: (1) there was no rendezvous during the Mercury program; (2) there were always backups, even if that backup was a paper chart.

I certainly never intended to portray the HP-65 as a critical component; I just wanted to refute a commonly repeated misconception that it was carried and never used. Its role was certainly nothing more than a cameo, but it was at least that.