Apollo Thirteen-
Chrissie

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 The most famous of the NASA manned lunar missions is surely the first, Apollo 11, but second-best known is the one that nearly ended in tragedy: Apollo 13.

Apollo 11 had established that we had the capability to land on the Moon and safely return. The next mission, Apollo 12, established that precision landing was possible, meaning that Apollo 13 was the first to be planned with a specific set of Scientific guidelines: particularly collecting geologic samples (aka: moon rocks) for study. This was an important mission to extend NASA’s, and Humanity’s, ability to continue such moon missions and learn about our lone natural satellite. However, this mission did not get the same fanfare as had its predecessors; less than a year after Apollo 11’s success, the American public had lost interest. Moon landings had become routine.

The astronauts on Apollo 13 were James Lovell, John Swigert, and Fred Haise. All three had extensive training, with Lovell having the most time in space from his time on the Gemini 7, Gemini 12, and Apollo 8 missions. And, though it would be the first trip into space for Swigert and Haise, both had been pilots in the Air Force and Marines (respectively) and were as well-prepared as anyone could be. Also, the three men had been the backup crew for Apollo 11. Like any NASA crew before or since, they underwent extensive training for both normal operations and emergency situations. They also got a mission-specific education in geology from Lee Silver (of CalTech) and Harrison Schmidt (later of Apollo 17 and the only trained geologist to land on the Moon).

The mission lifted off at the assigned time, 2:13 pm on 11 April 1970, with minimal difficulty. All seemed normal until 56 hours into the mission, when the astronauts heard a loud bang and briefly lost contact with Earth. When the regained the connection, the now famous report, “Houston, we have had a problem” was given by Swigert. The computers were showing that their oxygen tanks were venting, a fact verified by Lovell, who could see the gas from a window. The loss of oxygen presented them with two problems: the oxygen was not only for the men to breathe but was also used in the fuel. Their mission to the Moon disappeared with that oxygen leak, now their sole purpose was to get back to Earth alive.

Everything the NASA staff had been working on was shifted toward getting the men home. The first thing was to conserve as much oxygen and energy as possible, so the men started up the Lunar Module, which had oxygen supplies and batteries separate from the rest of the ship, and power down as much as possible in the Command and Service Modules.  The Lunar Module did not have the necessary protection for reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere; while they would spend most of the rest of their time in space in it, they had to return to the Command Module at the end. They had two options for travel: either use the engines in the Service Module to turn around and directly come back to Earth, or use the trajectory the vessel was already on, in which they would loop around the Moon before returning to Earth, which would require considerably less power. The latter was chosen, primarily because they could not ascertain whether the Service Module’s engines had been damaged, trying to use them could cause more problems.

They settled into the Lunar Module as best as they could. It had been designed for two men to spend a day or so on the Moon, and so was rather cramped with three. They also had to ration their water and keep the temperature just above freezing in order to conserve as much power as possible. They had enough oxygen, but soon found that the carbon dioxide filters were overwhelmed and the filter canisters on the Command Module didn’t have the right type of connector to use in the Lunar Module. They and the NASA teams on Earth figured out a makeshift converter using the supplies they had on board, including plastic bags, hoses from their suits, pieces of paper torn out of a manual, and everyone’s favorite means of repair: duct tape.

Some course corrections were required along the way and while these were able to be done without too much difficulty, every bit of fuel they used could mean they wouldn’t have what might be needed later. After about eighty hours in the Lunar Module, they began the restart needed in the Command Module to safely get through the atmosphere of Earth. Once they were back in that, they jettisoned the Service Module. This allowed them to see the amount of damage and thereby validate the earlier decision to take the longer route home. Just before reentry, they jettisoned their lifeboat, the Lunar Module and made the last course corrections needed to splash down in the Pacific Ocean, where the USS Iwo Jima was waiting to pick them up. 

Despite their experience, the three men were in relatively good health and the fact that they’d managed to get back to Earth alive meant they were in good spirits. They, and everyone else, knew that slightly different circumstances would have left them stranded in space with no hope of rescue or survival. They were flown to Hawaii, where President Richard Nixon was waiting to award them the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an honor also bestowed on the mission operations team who had worked tirelessly to bring them home.

Investigation into the accident found that it was a mechanical failure; damaged insulation in one of the oxygen tanks caused a fire, which then caused the explosion and compromised the other tanks around it. The damage had likely been caused by tests preformed prior to the launch, after which the tank was heated to empty it of oxygen and, unknown to the operators, it overheated. The normal operation of the tank caused the fire and explosion.

The mission has been aptly described as a “successful failure.” Lessons learned from the experience were applied to the later lunar missions, as well as the design and running of the Shuttle Program.