Dennis Ray Wingo Status November 15, 2013
It’s dead Jim.
Another control track head that we tried is essentially dead. Without a control track there is no way to synchronize the capstan to the head to the reel motors, thus no tape running even with good head tips. The Capstan head is a separate head from the main head and no one makes them anymore. We are looking for alternate sources of control track heads while mixing and matching our other control track heads to see if we can get one that will allow us to continue running tape.
No tapes were captured on Friday.
Official website of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP)