1970

 

 

 

Memorex 660

The Memorex 660 was intended to be an easy design upgrade from the Memorex 630. The arrival of Al Shugart, as vice President of Engineering more or less coincided with the departure of the Memorex 630 team. Shugart recruited a new team who were surprised to find they had to spend the next year finishing the engineering of the Memorex 660. Shugart’s team ultimately grew to about 80 persons—less than 40 ex-IBMer's, and far fewer than the 300+ frequently attributed to Shugart's recruitment skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apollo 13

Apollo 13 was launched on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module failed two days into the mission. The crew instead looped around the Moon, and returned safely to Earth on April 17. NASA determined that a short circuit in oxygen tank 2 ignited the Teflon wire insulation which caused an explosion that severely damaged the command module.