The exact time I don't know, but I can say that the delay from receiving data at the ground station until it was processed and displayed on the CRT's was LESS than the speed-of-light delay when they were in lunar orbit or on the moon. As I recall the total processing-to-display (transport lag) delay was over a second and less than two seconds, but I could be off a bit (low).

The whole business of handling data was different for vehicles in earth orbit vs. those in deep space. Once a vehicle was out of earth orbit only three tracking stations were required to have continuous coverage (unless they were behind the moon) - they were in California, Spain, and Australia (more or less a third of the way around the earth from each other). These were the same tracking and telemetry ground stations that did the job for the planetary probes managed by JPL. Those ground stations had good links to Goddard near DC and then to Houston. It wasn't until much later than NASA had the TDRSS (tracking data relay satellite system) that allowed/allows continuous coverage in earth orbit.

As a result, while in earth orbit, the vehicles and crew were continually going into coverage (AOS - or acquisition of signal) and out of coverage (LOS or loss of signal). And depending on what track they were on (with the earth rotating under them, the ground track continually changed of course), sometimes they would be "LOS" for long periods.

Moreover, in the early days, NASA didn't have high speed lines connecting some of the remote ground stations or tracking ships. So they actually had flight controllers and CAPCOM's stationed at various points around the earth who would act as mini-MCC's to provide a more "real time" response to the orbiting crew and vehicle. (Again, this was for earth orbit only)

I remember clearly during AS-501 (unmanned first test of the full Saturn V) that we got "snapshots" of data periodically when the vehicle wasn't over prime tracking sites. They actually sent the data by the equivalent of today's "fax" type communication as a single snapshot and it was then processed and displayed on our CRT's - "freeze frame".

However, all this is really much closer to Sy's world and I should "stand down" in acting like an expert - I was an onboard computer geek and a "guest" in mission control in that context. While, in those days, it was really eerie for a then-young engineer like me to watch what was going on "inside" computers far away from earth - it was an amazing feat of then technology and operations in Mission Control that enabled it.

I will let the grin acerbic replies of Mr. Lyons pass except to remark that I do find the History and Science channel to be of more value than most television - even given the over-simplifications and theatrics that are allowed in many times. So indeed I was surprised and disappointed with this particular "show" - me in it or not. The decline of science, math and engineering graduates in this country scares me - so I'm "all for" trying to engage the interest of young folks in those fields. That is one of several metrics for me of "value" in television docmentaries and programming (along with entertainment, accuracy, etc, of course).

Jack Garman
Houston, TX - May 12, 2006