Apollo 13
Second only to Apollo 11 in fame, Apollo 13 was, when it was launched, seen as almost routine: Apollo 11 had put men on the Moon and Apollo 12 had proven it could be done twice. Few people outside of space enthusiasts and NASA were thinking much of Apollo 13 when it was launched on April 11, 1970. Onboard were the three crew: command pilot Jim Lovell (veteran of three previous spaceflights), lunar module (LM) pilot Jack Swigert, and command module (CM) pilot Fred Haise. Their destination was the Fra Mauro highlands on the Moon.
Other than a early engine shutoff on the second stage (which could have been more catastrophic than originally believed), the launch and everything required for Apollo 13 to go to the Moon went smoothly. On April 14, however, not long after a television broadcast--that was watched by no one outside NASA, as none of the networks were interested in carrying it--Mission Control requested Swigert turn on the stirring fans in the service module's oxygen tanks. What no one knew was that the insulation on the wires in Apollo 13's second SM oxygen tank were damaged: when Swigert switched on the fans, the wires shorted. This instantly ignited the oxygen tank, which exploded. While luckily the explosion was vented into space (which also snuffed the fire), it destroyed one oxygen tank and severely damaged the other. Apollo 13 was now in trouble.
No one knew what had happened; Lovell reported "Houston, we've had a problem," and at first it was thought that either the spacecraft had been hit by a meteor or it was an instrument problem. When Lovell spotted oxygen being vented to space, however, both crew and Mission Control knew that the situation was now desperate. There was no thought of landing on the Moon: now it was a fight just to survive. There had been some vague ideas about using the LM as a "lifeboat" for the crew, but it had never really been tried. Now NASA had no choice. To conserve as much power as possible, the CM was shut down and all three men moved into the LM.
Problem after problem began to crop up, each requiring something entirely new to be invented on the spot. Getting the crew back to Earth involved them moving to an new orbit and using the Moon's gravity to slingshot them home--but the LM's engine had to be used, as the SM's might've been damaged. (It was done successfully, and Apollo 13's crew set a record for the furthest human beings have ever gone from Earth--over 248,000 miles away.) Once that was done, the rising levels of carbon dioxide meant that a scrubbing system had to be devised using whatever could be found on the spacecraft. The crew's water had to be rationed, leading to Haise developing a urinary tract infection. Finally, the temperature in the minimally-operating LEM dropped to 38 degrees Fahrenheit: the crew, without any sort of cold-weather clothing, simply had to endure it.
But endure it they did, and all the innovations and improvisations by crew and Mission Control worked: Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean on April 17. The near disaster spurred worldwide interest and concern for the astronauts, and for a short time, renewed interest in the Apollo program--though only four of the planned seven additional missions after Apollo 13 were flown, the others cancelled due to budget cuts. Neither Lovell, Swigert or Haise flew in space again; Swigert passed away in 1982.
Interest in Apollo 13, much like the Apollo program itself, waned after the program wound down. Lovell wrote a book in the early 1990s titled "Lost Moon", which spurred interest in a movie, "Apollo 13," which came out in 1995. This made the "successful failure" of the mission, in some ways, more well known than the success of the rest of the Apollo program.
After the mission, the only surviving part of Apollo 13--the Command Module, "Odyssey"--was disassembled and each part examined during the investigation into the accident. The capsule itself was reassembled and placed on display at the Kennedy Space Center; the interior was reassembled later and put in one of the "boilerplate" trainers and displayed at the Museum of Natural History at Louisville, Kentucky. In 1983, Odyssey was sent to the Museum of Air and Space in Paris, France, where it would remain until 1995. After the popularity of "Apollo 13" the film, Odyssey was brought home and moved to the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, where it was reunited with the interior, taken from the boilerplate. A 12-year restoration project resulted, and finally the complete Apollo 13 went on display at the Cosmosphere in 2007.
My 2020 trip was delayed and rescheduled due to coronavirus, but eventually a friend and I decided to go through the Midwest (where the museums were open). I looked into the Cosmosphere, and when I learned it had the real Apollo 13 (to say nothing of Gemini 10 and Liberty Bell 7!), my friend--who is a huge space enthusiast--was onboard for making a planned 3-day trip into a 6-day one. It was worth the extra days, mileage and sore butt to see the real thing. The restoration was beautifully done, and to be able to look inside and see where the real Lovell, Swigert and Haise sat on their mission--words cannot describe it.
Apollo 13
Second only to Apollo 11 in fame, Apollo 13 was, when it was launched, seen as almost routine: Apollo 11 had put men on the Moon and Apollo 12 had proven it could be done twice. Few people outside of space enthusiasts and NASA were thinking much of Apollo 13 when it was launched on April 11, 1970. Onboard were the three crew: command pilot Jim Lovell (veteran of three previous spaceflights), lunar module (LM) pilot Jack Swigert, and command module (CM) pilot Fred Haise. Their destination was the Fra Mauro highlands on the Moon.
Other than a early engine shutoff on the second stage (which could have been more catastrophic than originally believed), the launch and everything required for Apollo 13 to go to the Moon went smoothly. On April 14, however, not long after a television broadcast--that was watched by no one outside NASA, as none of the networks were interested in carrying it--Mission Control requested Swigert turn on the stirring fans in the service module's oxygen tanks. What no one knew was that the insulation on the wires in Apollo 13's second SM oxygen tank were damaged: when Swigert switched on the fans, the wires shorted. This instantly ignited the oxygen tank, which exploded. While luckily the explosion was vented into space (which also snuffed the fire), it destroyed one oxygen tank and severely damaged the other. Apollo 13 was now in trouble.
No one knew what had happened; Lovell reported "Houston, we've had a problem," and at first it was thought that either the spacecraft had been hit by a meteor or it was an instrument problem. When Lovell spotted oxygen being vented to space, however, both crew and Mission Control knew that the situation was now desperate. There was no thought of landing on the Moon: now it was a fight just to survive. There had been some vague ideas about using the LM as a "lifeboat" for the crew, but it had never really been tried. Now NASA had no choice. To conserve as much power as possible, the CM was shut down and all three men moved into the LM.
Problem after problem began to crop up, each requiring something entirely new to be invented on the spot. Getting the crew back to Earth involved them moving to an new orbit and using the Moon's gravity to slingshot them home--but the LM's engine had to be used, as the SM's might've been damaged. (It was done successfully, and Apollo 13's crew set a record for the furthest human beings have ever gone from Earth--over 248,000 miles away.) Once that was done, the rising levels of carbon dioxide meant that a scrubbing system had to be devised using whatever could be found on the spacecraft. The crew's water had to be rationed, leading to Haise developing a urinary tract infection. Finally, the temperature in the minimally-operating LEM dropped to 38 degrees Fahrenheit: the crew, without any sort of cold-weather clothing, simply had to endure it.
But endure it they did, and all the innovations and improvisations by crew and Mission Control worked: Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean on April 17. The near disaster spurred worldwide interest and concern for the astronauts, and for a short time, renewed interest in the Apollo program--though only four of the planned seven additional missions after Apollo 13 were flown, the others cancelled due to budget cuts. Neither Lovell, Swigert or Haise flew in space again; Swigert passed away in 1982.
Interest in Apollo 13, much like the Apollo program itself, waned after the program wound down. Lovell wrote a book in the early 1990s titled "Lost Moon", which spurred interest in a movie, "Apollo 13," which came out in 1995. This made the "successful failure" of the mission, in some ways, more well known than the success of the rest of the Apollo program.
After the mission, the only surviving part of Apollo 13--the Command Module, "Odyssey"--was disassembled and each part examined during the investigation into the accident. The capsule itself was reassembled and placed on display at the Kennedy Space Center; the interior was reassembled later and put in one of the "boilerplate" trainers and displayed at the Museum of Natural History at Louisville, Kentucky. In 1983, Odyssey was sent to the Museum of Air and Space in Paris, France, where it would remain until 1995. After the popularity of "Apollo 13" the film, Odyssey was brought home and moved to the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, where it was reunited with the interior, taken from the boilerplate. A 12-year restoration project resulted, and finally the complete Apollo 13 went on display at the Cosmosphere in 2007.
My 2020 trip was delayed and rescheduled due to coronavirus, but eventually a friend and I decided to go through the Midwest (where the museums were open). I looked into the Cosmosphere, and when I learned it had the real Apollo 13 (to say nothing of Gemini 10 and Liberty Bell 7!), my friend--who is a huge space enthusiast--was onboard for making a planned 3-day trip into a 6-day one. It was worth the extra days, mileage and sore butt to see the real thing. The restoration was beautifully done, and to be able to look inside and see where the real Lovell, Swigert and Haise sat on their mission--words cannot describe it.