A History of NASA Radio Communications

Dennis Sparks, formerly of NASA and currently of the ORNL Fusion EnergyDivision presented a talk on the history of NASA radio communications. Dennis worked in Mission Control at Cape Canaveral, FL from 1961 to 1970 which spanned the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs. He met many of the early astronauts during his time there. His presentation covered spacecraft radio communications before satellites and transistors. He brought radios from the Mercury 7 capsule to show during his talk.

Dennis graduated from Maryville High School and Tennessee Institute of Electronics. He also attended UTK, and Bervard College in Florida. He worked in the NASA mission control center as a communications controller on the "COMM TECH" and "CAPCOM" consoles during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space missions. Sparks also worked as a flight controller for the "ARIA" aircraft during the Apollo program.