The Apollo system had become so routine that people didn’t actually pay attention to it when it launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, at 2: 13 p. m. Media policy was limited, and so were the masses in presence. Less than a year later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon.
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With a start attendance of around 200, 000 people, NASA was once more reminded of the waning interest in space exploration, according to Space .com. The audience there was” a group that vanished in comparison to the 7 million people who had watched Apollo 11 take off almost a year earlier.”
Two days later, everything drastically changed. The staff of Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert did a television broadcast fifty-five time into the goal because they thought it was to daily and useless. All hell broke loose when astronaut Jack Lousma, who was the capsule communicator ( CAPCOM) for this stage of the mission, requested Swigert to stir the cryogenic oxygen tanks shortly after the broadcast.
From the Apollo 13 Flight Journal of NASA:
When you get a prospect, Lousma: 13, we have one more material for you. You should mix up your freezer tanks, please. I also have a trunnion and shaft [Pause. ]
Swigert: Okay.
Lousma:… if you need it to look at the Comet Bennett.
Swigert: Okay. Bye bye.
[long comm break, then the crew listened to what Lovell later called a “dull but definite bang. ]
Swigert: Okay, Houston…
Lovell :… Houston…
Swigert: [Pause. ] We’ve had a problem here.
FLIGHT, GUIDANCE by [Bill ] Fenner ( GUIDO]Guidance].
[Gene ] Kranz [FLIGHT]Flight Director]: Go GUIDANCE.
Lousma: This is Houston. State something, delight.
Lovell :]Garble. ] Houston, we’ve had a trouble, I guess.
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Mission Control was unsure whether the aircraft was experiencing complex issues or if a false alarm was sounding, but soon the crew on board and on the ground went into scramble mode. Lovell and Haise were originally sent to the moon’s surface, but they were now sent house. Additionally, there were no promises.
It was a race against the time. The three astronauts moved into the lunar module ( LM), which became their lifeboat because the command and service module ( CSM) had one fuel cell needed for reentry. NASA professionals debated whether to have the astronauts travel to the sun, use its weight to sling around it, and then go home in the way they came in a meeting room at the Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston. The ultimate choice was made after the last option.
If you’ve seen the video” Apollo 13,” which is my all-time favorite film and celebrates its 30th anniversary this time, you’re aware of the constant occurrences that occurred during the predestined goal, the fierce determination of mission control and the pilots, and the pervasive sense of worry that permeated the explorers ‘ return home. They all survived, Spoiler alert.
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One of the oxygen tanks that CAPCOM had Swigert stir was the cause of the explosion. From the Flight Journal of Apollo 13:
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A company that was providing thermostatic switches to the tank’s subcontractor did not receive an important instruction when the tank was being built. Although the spacecraft operated on 28V DC, the launch pad’s ground systems were changed to operate on 65V DC. During Apollo’s development, this change to 65V occurred, and it was widely known that all systems could handle this higher voltage. The manufacturer of the thermostatic switches, however, had overlooked this change. Therefore, the devices had instead welded themselves shut down due to the higher operating voltage when their switches were called upon to operate and interrupt the power to the heaters to protect the tank. As a result, the heaters in the tank continued to operate, rising its internal temperature by about 500°C ( 1, 000°F ). The tank’s electrical insulation became cracked and brittle as a result of the intense head.
Five years ago, the astronauts and mission control discussed the mission’s significance for the occasion. According to Lovell, the mission “was plagued by bad omens and bad luck from the beginning.” Numerous rumors about the mission’s designation Apollo 13 and the fact that it fell on April 13 poured in.
Haise claimed that despite the risk of the mission, the main concern he had was that he wouldn’t be able to walk on the moon.
He told People,” I was just sick to my stomach with disappointment.”
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Kranz praised the quick work Mission Control did in finding solutions, saying “everyone seemed to be moving in the right directions without being directed.” He continued,” Everyone had a sense of what needed to be done.”
Everyone expected Ron Howard and the scriptwriters to take some dramatic license when the movie first appeared in 1995, but it still surprised the astronauts.
They “added some emotional drama to the movie. Haise said to People in 1995,” I guess we weren’t interesting enough. The profanity in the movie was one of the things that caught him off guard.
” I examined every transcript in the air-to-ground. We never used a curse word throughout the entire flight, he said. ” No one of us was so pure that we wouldn’t have been cursed.” Simply put, we didn’t.
Maybe you’ll want to watch” Apollo 13″ this weekend. Even though I have some out-of-town relatives traveling here, I’m hoping to. Another fascinating way to remember this once-in-a-lifetime mission is the video of the launch.
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