- [Jimmie] I feel it's one of the most, if not the most
important computers ever built.
To me, it was the heart of the mission.
We wouldn't have went to the moon
without the Apollo Guidance Computer.
This may be the only time an Apollo Guidance Computer
is powered up, because this has not been an easy task.
It's not just like we plug it in and go.
It's going to be a real monumental,
it's a monumental task, I would say.
- Okay.
Three, two, one, zero.
We are impatiently awaiting the arrival
of the Apollo Guidance Computer, which was the computer
that guided, basically, man to the moon.
And we have a rare opportunity to be able to restore it.
- [Reporter] This is Marc Verdiell.
He's Chief Technology Officer of a computer company
called Samtec and lives in Silicon Valley.
But his real passion is restoring old vintage computers.
He has a popular YouTube channel where he makes
videos like this.
- [Marc] Woo-hoo!
It's doing something weird!
- [Reporter] That's what led him to his most challenging
restoration project yet, and the unlikely man behind it,
Jimmie Wayne Loocke.
Loocke was hunting for electronic parts
in an industrial area outside of Houston in 1976
when he happened upon a warehouse
that was looking to sell some bulk electronics
for scrap metal.
- As soon as I walked into the place,
I started looking around and I started seeing things
that I recognized as being from the space program.
- [Reporter] Loocke had actually worked
briefly at NASA in Houston as a low level technician,
and so he was familiar with some of the equipment.
- [Marc] Basically, he bought two tons of Apollo scrap,
not having a really good idea of what was in it.
And eventually, he found out
that in the pile of scrap he had,
there was this Apollo Guidance Computer,
which is the gem of his collection.
- [Reporter] For decades,
he let the Apollo Guidance Computer discarded by NASA
gather dust in storage until, one day,
he decided to dig the machine out
and to figure out what it was for.
He was stunned by what he discovered.
The electronic box he assumed was junk
had actually been used to test the Apollo lunar landers
for the missions that first landed men on the moon.
- [Narrator] This guidance and navigation system
will be mounted in an Apollo spacecraft
to aid our three astronauts on their voyage
to the moon and return.
- [Reporter] Loocke soon found out
that the Apollo Guidance Computer, or AGC,
was at the time the most advanced compact computer
ever built.
It was the first computer to use integrated circuits,
the backbone of modern electronics.
It was the world's first general purpose, portable computer,
the first to fly, and the first on which human lives
directly depended.
Only a few were built, and computer geeks have come to prize
these innovative moon machines.
But still, he didn't know what to do with his AGC
until he went to a space convention and met Mike Stewart,
a space flight software engineer
fascinated with the vintage machine,
who then connected him with Verdiell
and his small crew of vintage computer restorers.
And soon, the plan was hatched.
This unlikely group would attempt to restore
and power up an Apollo Guidance Computer
for the first time since the moon landing 50 years ago.
- [Neil] One giant leap for mankind.
- [Marc] Ooh.
Sorry guys, I have camera in hand.
- [Reporter] The team first flew out to Houston,
checked into a hotel, and turned their room
into a makeshift laboratory,
where they spent a week assessing the computer,
documenting the process on Verdiell's YouTube channel.
- [Marc] Well, should we bow?
This is the holy computer.
- [Reporter] But they needed more time and more equipment,
so they asked Loocke to fly to Silicon Valley with his AGC.
Several months later, Loocke arrived
at Verdiell's home laboratory with the computer in tow.
- That's still freaking heavy.
- [Reporter] And the crew went straight to work.
- It's still there!
- [Reporter] The task ahead was daunting.
They had to work twelve hours a day
for almost fourteen straight days.
- I have news for you.
The pins are corroded and damaged,
and I'm trying to figure out
the extent of the damage.
- How are they looking, Marc?
- [Marc] Not good.
- [Reporter] They dissected the machine,
ran every diagnostic test they could,
cleaned memory cores, repaired broken wires,
racing to power on the computer
and attempt a test flight.
- We all would like to kind of have it repaired
and then build a rocket and go to the moon,
but we can't quite do that.
The next step is to
fly part of the mission and
repeat what the astronauts were doing
with the computer.
- [Reporter] After nearly two weeks of nonstop work,
they'd reached the moment of truth.
The crew gathered in Verdiell's basement with some friends
to try and power on the AGC
and attempt a test flight mission.
- Three, two, one, zero.
2.27. Oh, it's running.
- Yeah, we got a display.
- [Marc] On its own memory?
- Yeah, on its own memory.
(cheering and applauding)
- [Marc] We have almost landed.
For us, it's the equivalent of the moon landing.
- [Mike] This is the first time in 45 years
anybody has turned this computer on,
any computer of this model, any Apollo Guidance Computer on
and operated it.
And the burn has started,
so it's now trying to fire the engine.
This second register here is now displaying our
altitude rate.
This is pretty much identical to what
they would have seen on the real mission.
- [Reporter] For his part, Loocke hopes this project
will help a younger generation learn how this computer
helped astronauts fly to the moon,
and, in the process, helped pave the way
for the advanced computers we all depend on today.
- We need to preserve
the legacy of this computer.
In other words, future generations
need to understand where all this came from
200 years from now.
I want them to be able to see
the Apollo Guidance Computer.
(bright music)