My “Apollo 13” Squawk Box

narrativecurios

New Member
I’ve long coveted the NASA squawk box prop from Apollo 13. Just got back into making after a long absence, and like most people here, I was inspired by watching Adam Savage and Tested. When I stumbled upon the found part from the film I was inspired to replicate it. Then I decided to add some additional history to the piece, found the perfect case and decked that out, then I had to make and weather some additional ephemera and add an actual SP-1 space terms glossary that I found on eBay… This project combined my love of graphic design, picking, and making. Pretty proud of it for my first prop making endeavor. Building my confidence.

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I've wanted one of these for a long time as well. Can you share details about the box itself? Brand, model number, etc?
It is a Radio Shack/Realistic SP-150 communications speaker that was part of the DX-160 radio kit. There are some floating around on eBay and most of them still work. I hook it up to my laptop to hear the SpaceX mission control loop during launches lol.

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I wonder why the film's art department went with this design as opposed to the Western Electric speakerphone pieces that NASA utilized in real life. Maybe they were short on time? Maybe they thought it had a better thematic connection to the aesthetic of mission control?

With the monolithic profile, maybe the filmmakers were throwing in a subtle nod to 2001...

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I had to make that image for my own amusement :lol:
 
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I'm a little late on this discussion, but when watching A13, the scene with Marilyn Lovell listening to the sqauwk box, I said "I have one of those!"

I had that specific radio receiver, in high-school and collage, and while it is a totally cheeseball radio, it was surprisingly sensitive and just a lot of fun. Don't know why I kept this and not the radio. And I've been fascinated as to why people zero in on this seemingly minor detail.


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