Apollo 13
Maria Awad
Mr. Estes
American History II, D-block
16 March 2016
On April 11, 1970, the spacecraft, Apollo 13 was launched to go to the moon. Its journey lasted about five days, 22 hours, 54 minutes and 41 seconds and traveled 622,268 miles. It landed April 17, 1970 in the Pacific Ocean (Chaikin, Kohl, and Bean 56). The spacecraft’s crew consisted of: James A. Lovell Jr. as the Commander, Fred W. Haise Jr. as the Lunar Module Pilot, and John L. Swigert Jr. as the Command Module Pilot (Dick 108). James A. Lovell Jr. was on Apollo 8 as well as Apollo 13. Fred W. Haise Jr. traveled Fra Mauro on the lunar surface and placed a set of objects to study the moon with James A. Lovell Jr. Another crew member, Jack Swigert, replaced …show more content…
The error occurred five years before the Apollo 13 incident while the spacecraft was in Florida. While the technicians were assembling the Apollo 13 spaceship, one of them dropped the second oxygen tank which caused the pipes that directed movement within the tank to become uneven. Technicians had to set the temperature to eighty degrees Fahrenheit so the liquid oxygen that didn’t fully drain could boil off. Instead of reaching eighty degrees the thermostat went all the way up to one thousand degrees Fahrenheit. This caused the oxygen liquid to boil in hours instead of days which burned off the insulation of the wires. A stirrer was triggered on the way to the moon and created an explosion in the oxygen tank which caused hot gas to go through the service module blowing out one wall. The explosion also destroyed their spacecraft's electrical and life support systems and the Apollo 13 astronauts were forced to shut down the command module (Great Events from …show more content…
Without them, the crew would have never returned the Apollo 13 spacecraft back to earth safely. Thomas K. Mattingly was also there guiding his former crewmates safely back to earth. Some groups even had to use old plans from earlier missions that were never used and other teams also had to invent brand new techniques. Mission Control figured out a way to save the Apollo 13 crew members without using the computer which took up a lot of power and electricity (Chaikin, Kohl, and Bean 65). All of the Mission Control teams spent most of their nights at their offices trying to find a way for the Apollo 13 spacecraft to land as safely as possible and finally Mission Control came up with the idea that the spacecraft should loop around the moon using its gravitational field as a slingshot back to earth. They also saved the Apollo 13 crew by figuring out a way to power up the command module so the astronauts could go in it for re-entry of the earth’s atmosphere after it was shut down for a while. Of course, Mission Control’s idea worked and the Apollo 13 crew arrived back to earth safely. More than 150 engineers and spacecraft experts were working to find out why the oxygen tanks exploded. One whole side of the spacecraft was missing. Before the Apollo 13 crew went inside command module to reenter the earth’s atmosphere, they took a picture of the wall, as shown in the visual that was missing and later discovered that it was the access
Maria Awad
Mr. Estes
American History II, D-block
16 March 2016
On April 11, 1970, the spacecraft, Apollo 13 was launched to go to the moon. Its journey lasted about five days, 22 hours, 54 minutes and 41 seconds and traveled 622,268 miles. It landed April 17, 1970 in the Pacific Ocean (Chaikin, Kohl, and Bean 56). The spacecraft’s crew consisted of: James A. Lovell Jr. as the Commander, Fred W. Haise Jr. as the Lunar Module Pilot, and John L. Swigert Jr. as the Command Module Pilot (Dick 108). James A. Lovell Jr. was on Apollo 8 as well as Apollo 13. Fred W. Haise Jr. traveled Fra Mauro on the lunar surface and placed a set of objects to study the moon with James A. Lovell Jr. Another crew member, Jack Swigert, replaced …show more content…
The error occurred five years before the Apollo 13 incident while the spacecraft was in Florida. While the technicians were assembling the Apollo 13 spaceship, one of them dropped the second oxygen tank which caused the pipes that directed movement within the tank to become uneven. Technicians had to set the temperature to eighty degrees Fahrenheit so the liquid oxygen that didn’t fully drain could boil off. Instead of reaching eighty degrees the thermostat went all the way up to one thousand degrees Fahrenheit. This caused the oxygen liquid to boil in hours instead of days which burned off the insulation of the wires. A stirrer was triggered on the way to the moon and created an explosion in the oxygen tank which caused hot gas to go through the service module blowing out one wall. The explosion also destroyed their spacecraft's electrical and life support systems and the Apollo 13 astronauts were forced to shut down the command module (Great Events from …show more content…
Without them, the crew would have never returned the Apollo 13 spacecraft back to earth safely. Thomas K. Mattingly was also there guiding his former crewmates safely back to earth. Some groups even had to use old plans from earlier missions that were never used and other teams also had to invent brand new techniques. Mission Control figured out a way to save the Apollo 13 crew members without using the computer which took up a lot of power and electricity (Chaikin, Kohl, and Bean 65). All of the Mission Control teams spent most of their nights at their offices trying to find a way for the Apollo 13 spacecraft to land as safely as possible and finally Mission Control came up with the idea that the spacecraft should loop around the moon using its gravitational field as a slingshot back to earth. They also saved the Apollo 13 crew by figuring out a way to power up the command module so the astronauts could go in it for re-entry of the earth’s atmosphere after it was shut down for a while. Of course, Mission Control’s idea worked and the Apollo 13 crew arrived back to earth safely. More than 150 engineers and spacecraft experts were working to find out why the oxygen tanks exploded. One whole side of the spacecraft was missing. Before the Apollo 13 crew went inside command module to reenter the earth’s atmosphere, they took a picture of the wall, as shown in the visual that was missing and later discovered that it was the access