Why is Apollo 13 Considered a Successful Failure?
"Houston, we've had a problem..."
Apollo 13 was to land on the moon. An explosion on Apollo 13 forced it to have to circle the moon without landing. Around five and a half minutes after Apollo 13 took off, John Swigert, Fred Haise and James Lovell felt a vibration. Then the center engine shut down. This caused the remaining four engines to burn longer than what they had planned. The S-IVB third stage had to burn longer to put Apollo 13 into space.
Apollo 13 was the seventh man mission in the American Apollo space program and the third mission with the intention to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 from the Kennedy Space Center. During the first two days, the …show more content…
Earth was told there was a problem. Next, the warning lights indicated the loss of fuel cells which were the primary source of electricity. With warning lights blinking, one oxygen tank was gone and another depleting quickly into space. The crew was terrified
Ground controllers in Houston had to face that Apollo 13 could be lost if the problem was not faced immediately. Completely new procedures had to be written and tested in the simulator to ensure they were good before being passed up to the crew. The navigation problem had to be solved. Apollo 13 needed a quick plan to return home safely.
With only 15 minutes of power left in the CM, the crew made their way to the LM. The greatest concern was to determine if there was enough of anything to get home. The LM was built for only a 45-hour lifetime and it needed to be stretch to 90. Oxygen wasn't a problem. The full LM descent tank alone would be …show more content…
It was estimated that the crew would run out of water about five hours before the crew would make it home. The crew conserved water. They cut down to six ounces each per day, 1/5 of normal intake, and used fruit juices; they ate hot dogs and other wet-pack foods when they ate at all. The crew became dehydrated throughout the flight.
Removal of carbon dioxide also was a concern. There were enough lithium hydroxide canisters, which remove carbon dioxide from the spacecraft, but the square canisters from the command module were not compatible with the round openings in the lunar module environmental system. Mission control devised a way to attach the CM canisters to the LM system by using plastic bags, cardboard and to tape all materials carried on board.
Now the real question was, how to get back safely to Earth? The LM navigation system wasn't designed to help in this situation. The crew had to get back on a free-return course. As the crew got closer to the moon, another burn was done. This time there was a long five-minute burn to speed up the return home. This decent happened two hours after rounding the far side of the
"Houston, we've had a problem..."
Apollo 13 was to land on the moon. An explosion on Apollo 13 forced it to have to circle the moon without landing. Around five and a half minutes after Apollo 13 took off, John Swigert, Fred Haise and James Lovell felt a vibration. Then the center engine shut down. This caused the remaining four engines to burn longer than what they had planned. The S-IVB third stage had to burn longer to put Apollo 13 into space.
Apollo 13 was the seventh man mission in the American Apollo space program and the third mission with the intention to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 from the Kennedy Space Center. During the first two days, the …show more content…
Earth was told there was a problem. Next, the warning lights indicated the loss of fuel cells which were the primary source of electricity. With warning lights blinking, one oxygen tank was gone and another depleting quickly into space. The crew was terrified
Ground controllers in Houston had to face that Apollo 13 could be lost if the problem was not faced immediately. Completely new procedures had to be written and tested in the simulator to ensure they were good before being passed up to the crew. The navigation problem had to be solved. Apollo 13 needed a quick plan to return home safely.
With only 15 minutes of power left in the CM, the crew made their way to the LM. The greatest concern was to determine if there was enough of anything to get home. The LM was built for only a 45-hour lifetime and it needed to be stretch to 90. Oxygen wasn't a problem. The full LM descent tank alone would be …show more content…
It was estimated that the crew would run out of water about five hours before the crew would make it home. The crew conserved water. They cut down to six ounces each per day, 1/5 of normal intake, and used fruit juices; they ate hot dogs and other wet-pack foods when they ate at all. The crew became dehydrated throughout the flight.
Removal of carbon dioxide also was a concern. There were enough lithium hydroxide canisters, which remove carbon dioxide from the spacecraft, but the square canisters from the command module were not compatible with the round openings in the lunar module environmental system. Mission control devised a way to attach the CM canisters to the LM system by using plastic bags, cardboard and to tape all materials carried on board.
Now the real question was, how to get back safely to Earth? The LM navigation system wasn't designed to help in this situation. The crew had to get back on a free-return course. As the crew got closer to the moon, another burn was done. This time there was a long five-minute burn to speed up the return home. This decent happened two hours after rounding the far side of the