Company31

COMPANY31 · EXPERIMENT 011 · HUMAN + MACHINE

A small computer.
A giant leap.

APOLLO 11 / EAGLE / 20 JULY 1969

AS IMAGINED, AS BUILT.

Two astronauts. Nineteen keys.
Twelve minutes to the Moon.

Step inside Eagle’s guidance computer and follow the commands that helped bring Apollo 11 home.

FIG. 1 · THE FLIGHT COMPUTEREAGLE / BLOCK II
UPLINK ACTY
TEMP
NO ATT
GIMBAL LOCK
STBY
PROG
KEY REL
RESTART
OPR ERR
TRACKER
ALT
VEL
COMP
ACTY
PROG
VERB
NOUN
DISPLAY & KEYBOARDGUIDANCE · NAVIGATION · CONTROL
P63 · Awaiting ignition authorization

READING THE DISPLAY ILLUSTRATIVE VALUES

FIG. 2 · THE DESCENT12 MINUTES, 35 SECONDS · CONDENSED EVENT REPLAY
P63 / BRAKINGP64 / APPROACHP66 / LANDING

FIG. 3 · A MESSAGE IN THE MARGIN

Even serious code
has secrets.

A Company31 riddle. Solve it on the DSKY.

Three tens and seven change my task.
Confirm the change before you ask.
The first crewed landing’s flight is next;
confirm once more for hidden text.

A small hint

The Flight manual explains which key introduces an action. ENTR confirms it. The second number is a mission, not a year.

FIG. 4 · A NOTE FROM THE LAB

Technology with
people in the loop.

The computer could fly a trajectory. The crew could judge a landing site. Houston could decide whether an alarm was a reason to stop. The landing depended on all three.

This is an interactive DSKY reconstruction and guided mission simulation, not an instruction-level AGC emulator. Key sequences are reconstructed from documented procedures; register values and timing between replay events are illustrative.

FLIGHT MANUAL / REV. 01

You have the keyboard.

A verb tells the computer what to do. A noun identifies the data. The three signed, five-digit registers show the result. Decimal points are implied.

Three ways to explore

Mission replay animates reconstructed entries and the main descent events. It condenses the pauses between events.

Your turn pauses for you to enter the highlighted sequence. Use Next for events that happened automatically or through other controls.

Free exploration lets you try the supported commands below. It uses a fixed illustrative flight state.

Keyboard shortcuts

V Verb · N Noun · Enter ENTR
P PRO · C CLR
K KEY REL · R RSET
Number keys, + and − also work.

CLR clears your current entry. KEY REL returns the display to the running program. RSET clears the simulated warning lamps.

Try a command

This exhibit supports a teaching subset of the AGC interface. It does not execute Luminary assembly, simulate the whole spacecraft, or provide a complete flight checklist. Unsupported entries illuminate OPR ERR.

THE HISTORICAL RECORD

Built from the record.

What has been reconstructed?

The event clock follows the Apollo 11 Mission Report, Table 5-I, except where explicitly identified as a transcript call or an untimed teaching step. Voice-call timestamps can differ from recorded system events.

Each keyboard sequence demonstrates the documented operation. This is not a recovered key-by-key log. Numerical displays are illustrative, including the alarm display used for explanation. The P63 → P64 change is automatic; P66 is entered with attitude hold and the rate-of-descent switch.

Noun meanings and implied decimal places follow Luminary 099’s own tables. In particular, N68’s third register is radar altitude minus computed altitude.

The metal housing and display are drawn with CSS and SVG. Lamp legends follow the Apollo 11–14 LM arrangement; there is no later-mission NO DAP or PRIO DISP label.

The original AGC source is public domain. Transcription credit belongs to the Virtual AGC contributors and the Apollo-11 repository contributors. This independent exhibit is not affiliated with NASA.

UNLISTED PROGRAM / CREW MORALE

The humans in the code.

They wrote software to land on the Moon. They also left jokes, literary references, and some very human commentary.

A researched collection of humorous and playful passages, plus a searchable archive of source comments. “Every joke” is subjective; the full archive lets you look beyond our selection. Modern transcription notes are identified separately.

The unlocking sequence belongs to this exhibit. It was never an Apollo command.