Apollo 13: The Story of a Successful Failure in Space Exploration
?Houston, we?ve had a problem.? This iconic phrase was uttered by Jim Lovell after an explosion occurred during his Apollo 13 mission and it appeared that all pre-launch fears that the mission was cursed were coming true. Lovell, Apollo 13?s commander, was not the original commander for the mission. Rather, Lovell was slated to fly Apollo 14 when the original commander of Apollo 13, Alan Shepard, became ill. Not wanting to break up a crew, NASA changed the flight assignments and moved Lovell and his crew to the Apollo 13 mission.
In order to allow the crew time to train for the mission, the launch was moved from March 12 to April 11 and talk about the mission being cursed …show more content…
Commander Lovell concluded the broadcast with the message, ?This is the crew of Apollo 13. Wish everybody there a nice evening and a, we?re just about to close out our inspection of Aquarius and get back to a pleasant evening in Odyssey. Goodnight.? What the crew of Apollo 13 did not know was that television networks had decided that traveling to the moon was such a routine happening so the networks did not air the broadcast. Apollo 13 started off as the mission no one in the world was …show more content…
Oxygen tank No. 2 had blown up, disabling the normal supply of oxygen, electricity, light and water. Alarms began going off in the SM as the voltage levels of the main power supplies began to rapidly drop. Also, moments after the explosion, when Lovell looked out of the ship?s window he observed the spacecraft venting a gas which ended up being the SM?s oxygen. The oxygen tank depleted to zero over the next 130 minutes, using all of the SM?s oxygen supply. Because the fuel cells generated the CSM?s electrical power by combining hydrogen and oxygen into water, when the oxygen ran out the remaining fuel cell shut down. This was reason for concern because the spaceship?s backup battery could only last for about 10 hours. At this point Apollo 13 was 87 hours from Earth. With a lunar landing no longer a possible, NASA?s mission became a rescue mission and one which would become known as ?NASA?s Finest
?Houston, we?ve had a problem.? This iconic phrase was uttered by Jim Lovell after an explosion occurred during his Apollo 13 mission and it appeared that all pre-launch fears that the mission was cursed were coming true. Lovell, Apollo 13?s commander, was not the original commander for the mission. Rather, Lovell was slated to fly Apollo 14 when the original commander of Apollo 13, Alan Shepard, became ill. Not wanting to break up a crew, NASA changed the flight assignments and moved Lovell and his crew to the Apollo 13 mission.
In order to allow the crew time to train for the mission, the launch was moved from March 12 to April 11 and talk about the mission being cursed …show more content…
Commander Lovell concluded the broadcast with the message, ?This is the crew of Apollo 13. Wish everybody there a nice evening and a, we?re just about to close out our inspection of Aquarius and get back to a pleasant evening in Odyssey. Goodnight.? What the crew of Apollo 13 did not know was that television networks had decided that traveling to the moon was such a routine happening so the networks did not air the broadcast. Apollo 13 started off as the mission no one in the world was …show more content…
Oxygen tank No. 2 had blown up, disabling the normal supply of oxygen, electricity, light and water. Alarms began going off in the SM as the voltage levels of the main power supplies began to rapidly drop. Also, moments after the explosion, when Lovell looked out of the ship?s window he observed the spacecraft venting a gas which ended up being the SM?s oxygen. The oxygen tank depleted to zero over the next 130 minutes, using all of the SM?s oxygen supply. Because the fuel cells generated the CSM?s electrical power by combining hydrogen and oxygen into water, when the oxygen ran out the remaining fuel cell shut down. This was reason for concern because the spaceship?s backup battery could only last for about 10 hours. At this point Apollo 13 was 87 hours from Earth. With a lunar landing no longer a possible, NASA?s mission became a rescue mission and one which would become known as ?NASA?s Finest