Post by thread:[OT] Space Encounters, was Re: Old Time Micros, wa

>I was at the RCA labs in New Jersey (By then Harris had bought them) >in 1986/87 working on some software tools. There was a man who had >just passed retirement age but kept on until after the last major Voyager >encounters just in case he was need for some last minute system >emergency. He had personally hand taped out the 1801 processor >masks. My colleagues who have had involvement with the Cassini/Huygens mission were saying that when the projects were getting underway that ESA wanted to know peoples ages to be sure that there were still people who were familiar with the instruments when they landed - 7 year flight, plus the development/production time, totalled something like 10-12 years.