Informative Essay On Apollo 13

Apollo 13 was a space mission that some may have viewed as a failure; it was, in fact, the complete opposite. Space entry has improved immensely, with the efforts and struggles gained from previous missions. In addition, one of the astronauts of this mission, Jim Lovell, “believed it was a success. The astronauts and the Space Control Center were tested on their ability to work together and that is how Apollo 13 succeeded” (Anastasio 90). Apollo 13 has bettered the space program by allowing future space entry missions to be more successful.
Up until this point, space entry had been one of America’s greatest accomplishments. As Neil Armstrong once said, it was “one small step for man, one giant step for mankind” (Anastasio 2). Space entry resulted …show more content…
“By now, news of the Apollo explosion had spread around the world. Throughout Europe, Asia and other parts of the globe, people waited for the latest reports” (Anastasio 56). Everyone prayed the astronauts would make it home, because these men were not just a mission, they were men with families who loved and cared for them. “They were people, not machines. And it was time that the world understood that” (Anastasio 66). With the astronauts stuck in space, their only hope was Ken Mattingly. Ken was on earth trying to direct the astronauts home. Ken had been trained for emergency situations like the one the astronauts in space were currently in. Since Ken was not in space, he had to verbally give them instructions through the LEM’s speaker. Later, Ken observed that there were many things that could have gone wrong. Ken took into consideration, since the Service Module, which was the main source of power for all of the equipment in space, sat right over the Odysseys heat shield, if the explosion had occurred close enough to the Command Module’s heat shield the Command Module could burn up in re-entry into the earth’s