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TITLEINSTITUTION

REPORT NOPUB DATENOTEAVAILABLE FROM

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DOCUMENT RESUME

SE 013 150

Apollo 13, Houston, We've Got a Problem.National Aeronautics and Space Administration,Washington, D.C.NASA-EP-767028p.Superintendent of Documents, Government PrintingOffice, Washington, D.C. 20402 ($0.751970-384-459)

MF-$0.65 HC-$3.29*Aerospace Education; *Aerospace Technology;Instructional Materials; Lunar Research; Photographs;Resource MaterialsNASA; *Space Sciences

ABSTRACTThe dramatic events of Apollo 13 are summarized in

this collection of photographs, descriptions, and portions of dialogbetween the astronauts and Mission Control. What was planned as thethird manned lunar landing resulted in a perilous rescue with thelunar module serving as a lifeboat to supply necessary power after anexplosion disabled the command module over 200,000 miles out fromEarth. (PR)

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James A. Lov:..1i, Jr., Apollo 13 Commander. Fred W. Haise, Jr., Apollo 13 Lunar Module Pilot. John L. Swigert, Jr., Apollo 13 CommandModule Pilot.

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SPACECRAFTHey, we've got a problemhere.

Thus, calmly, Command Module PilotJack Swigert gave the first intimation ofserious trouble for Apollo 13-200,000 milesfrom Earth.

CAP:Ur E COMMUNICATORThis ir Hous-ton; say again, please.

scHousion, we've had a problem, We'vehad a Main B bUS undervolt.

By "undervolt" Swigert meant a drop inpower in one of the Command/ServiceModule's two main electrical circuits, His re-port to the ground 1:,,gan the most grippingepisode in man's venture into space. Onenewspaper ,.eporter called it the mostpublic emergency and the most dramaticrescue in the history of exploration.

scAnd we had a pretty large bang asso-ciated with the caution aud warning here.

Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise was nowon the voice channel from the spacecraft tothe Mission Control Center at the NationalAeronautics and Space Administration'sManned Spacecraft Center in Texa7,. Com-mander Jim Lovell would shortly be heard,then again Swigertthe backup crewmanwho had been thrust onto the first team onlytwo days before launch when doctors feared

that Tom Mattingly of die primary crewmight come down with German measles,

Equally cool, the men in Mission Controlacknowledged the report and began the

4 71

emergency procedures that grew into an effortby hundreds of ground controllers and thou-sands of technicians and scientists in NASAcontractor plants and on university campusesto solve the most complex and urgent prob-lem yet encountered in space flight.

sc gni d Main bus A undervoli, now,too, . . Main B is reading zip (zero) right

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CAPCOMlreV like you to attempt toreconnect inel cell 1 ,o Main A and fuel cell3 to Main B.

SCOkay. Houston . I tried to reset,and fuel cells 1 and 3 are both showing zipon the flows.

CAPCOMIre ropy.sCHonston, are you still reading 13?CAPCOMThair affirmative. We're still

reading yogi. We're still trying to come upu4th some good ideas here for you.

scLet me give you some readings . . .

Our 0, (oxygen) cryo number 2 tank isreading zerodid you get that?

CAP,DM-04 quantity number 2 is zero.After peaking briefly just before the bang,

pressure in one of the two cryogenic (super-cold) oxygen tanks, back in the ServiceModule, had dropped to zero in eight sec-onds. These oxygen ti.nks, with the com-panion cryogenic hydrogen tanks, feed thethrc, fuel cells that generate the spacecraft'selectrical current, provklc breathing oxygen,and produce water.

Astronauts and flight controllers anxiously monitorconsoles during the Apollo 13 mission,

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scAnd 1, le(4., to me, looking out thehatch, that we are venting .comething. We areventing sonnuhhig ont into spa-e. It's a gasof some sort,

Current from the remaining fuel celldropped slowly.

CAPCOM re'd like you to . . . powerdown until you get an awperage of 10 lessainps than what you've got now.

sc---It looks like 0, tan/ I presswe isa hair over 200,

CAPCON1----Wie confirm that,sc-----Does it look like it's st11 going doWn ?cf1 going sloulv to zero, and

we're start;ng to think about the Lm lifeboat,scY es, that's something u,u're thinking

about too,Mint,tes earlier, and only a little more

than an hour after Swigert's first report oftrouble, had come the laconic announcementto a breathless world:

-Here in Mission Control we are now!Joking toward an alternate mission, swing-ing around the Moon and using the LunarModule power systems, because of the situ-ation that has developed here this evening."

The digital clock above the flight controlteam showed 97 hours 1 1 minutes sincelaunch- 1:24 p.m. Fastern Standard Time,Monday, April 13. Apollo 1 3 207.000miles from Earth and moving co-ay at 2.1:,0miles an hour.

(-Arc:cmre figare we'te got about 15

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minutes worth of power le f t in the CommandModule. So we want you to start gelling overin the I.1\1 and getting some power 0 17 that,

Three days from home, the spacecraft hadelectricity for only 15 minutes under normalprxedures.

CAPCOM-117e'd like you to start makingyour way over to the LM now.

scFred awl Jim are in the LM.The tunnel into the Lunar Module :abin

from the Command Module had remainedopen after Lovell and Haise went into the

LM for a planned check on its instrumentsearlier in the evening, just before the incident,

scI got LM power on.CAPCOMI have an activation procedure.

I'd like you to copy it down.Step by step, following instructions from

the ground, Haise and Lovell powered upthe Lunar Module,which the crew had namedAquarius, and Swigert shut down Odyssey,the Command Modul, apparently undam-aged, to save its batteries, oxygen, and cool-ing water in hope thcy could ultimately beused for reentry and landing.

It was lecessary also to maintain the in-tegrity of alignment on the inertial guirl.mceplatform. It is this gyroscopic device which"remembers" the spacecraft's positior andvelocity and thus aids in computing neces-sary course corrections to stay on the desiredtrajectory. Swigert drew on battery powerto keep the alignment in Odyssey alive,

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until the alignment in Aquarius could bebrought into correspondence with that inOdyssey. It had to be done fast, but it wasaccomplished.

Lovell remarked later that the transfer ofalignnmit from Odyssey to Aquarius was thefirst big turning point. Since the optical sys-tems of Aquarius are less sophisticated, andnever intended for use in deep space navi-;ation, it would have required movement ofthe entire spacecraft to get a sighting. Hadthey lost Odyssey's alignment, the only .wayto get another alignment would have beento use the Sun and Moon and Earth. Thegaseous cloud which hid formed around thespacecraft prevented star sightings.

These preliminaries were accomplished,and it was conceded that Apollo 1 3 had failedas a lunar mission. Success now would bemeasured by the outcome of the struggle,world-wide, and deep in space, to get threemen home alive.

Dressing for launch: foreground to rear, Lovell,Swigert and Haise.

Even before launch, Apollo 13 provided asobering reminder that the problems anddangers of exploring space are beyond antici-pation and that engineering genius is notwithout limitations, Sometimes the problemsare minor in the context of Earth-boundactivities but major for space flight. One suchproblem occurred during the launch prepara-tions.

The Apollo 13 prime crew was exposedto rubella, or German measles, while workingwith Charles M. Duke, Jr., of the backupcrew, who developed rubella the weekendbefore the scheduled launch. Examination ofthe prime crew revealed that Thomas K.Mattingly II, Command Module Pilot, hadno immunity to rubella.

A sick astronaut in space could endangerhimself and the mission. As a result, doctors'ruled out Mattingly for the Apollo 13 flight.

Plans call for use of the entire backup crewwhen a member of the prime crew is in-capacitated. However, Duke's illness ruledthat out. Conseguently, a decision was madeto substitute backup Command Module PilotJohn L. Swigert, Jr., for Mattingly. Swigertwas found to be immune to rubella.

The last-mir ute change presented diffi-culties because each trio is trained as a team.In a crisis, each man has learned to rely onhis companions' reactions. To work Swigertin, the crew engaged in a vigorous and in-tensive program simulating all flight maneu-

.

Apollo 13 astronauts move out from transfer van.

Launch of Apollo 13.

,vers and ensuring unquestioned teamwork.

At 2:13 p.m. EST, Saturday, April 11,1970, Apollo 13 and its team (James A.Lovell, Commander; Fred W. Haise, Jr.,Lunar Module Pi!ot; and John L. Swigert,Command Module Pilot) were launchedfrom Kennedy Space Center, Florida, A pre-mature cut-off of one engine of the secondstage of their Saturn V launch vehicle wascompensated for by longer burns of the re-maining engitrs and the engine of the thirdstage. Apollo 13 achieved Earth orbit at2:26 p.m. EST.

Apollo 13 and its still attached Saturn Vthird stage (called the s-IvB) were thoroughlychecked while in orbit. At 3:48 p.m., the

astronauts sent their first telecast from space,a five-minute program which included a de-scription of their view of the cloud-coveredEastern United States. S-IVB was re-ignited at4:48 p.m. EST to give Apollo 13 its finalboost toward the Moon. A check of systemsafter shutdown of the s-Ivn showed that allwere operating satisfactorily.

At 5:20 p.m. EST, Odyssey separated fromthe adapter that connected it with the S-IVB.Simultaneously, the four panels that madeup the sides of the adapter fell away, ex-posing Aquarius, the Apollo 13 Lunar Mod-ule. The Lunar Module is designed princi-pally for landing two men on the Moon,serving as a shelter and base during the shortlunar expedition, and later returning theastronauts to the Command/Service Module,waiting in lunar orbit.

After separating Odyssey from the adapter,the astronauts moved out about 60 feet aheadof S-IVB. Then they turned Odyssey aroundand docked it nose-to-nose with Aquarius.They backed their craft and the attachedAquarius away from the S-IVB. By 6:14 p.m.,they had freed Aquarius and turned theirthree-module spacecraft around to head forthe Moon. Most of the transpositicn anddocking maneuvers were telecast live to Earthin a 72-minute program that began about5:30 p.m.

Also shown on TV was the maneuver thatsent the S-IVB on a separate path to crash onthe Moon as a scientific experiment, designedto add to knowledge about the make-up ofthe Moon. This turned out to be the onlysuccessful lunar experiment of Apollo 13.

The path of Apollo 13 was so true that ascheduled course adjustment was cancelledas unnecessary. No major mission event wasscheduled until 8:54 p.m., Sunday, when ahybrid transfer was initiated. This reroutedthe craft to sweep within 70 miles of theMoon rather than the approximately 115-mile altitude of the earlier course. The changewas designed to put Aquarius in the rightplace at the right time for the desired lunarlanding site. The hybrid transfer also meantthat Apollo 13 could return to Earth only byanother course adjustment. On the earliercourse, called a free return trajectory, Apollocould swing around the Moon and return toEarth without using any additional rocketpower.

The hybrid transfer, conducted for all theworld to see on iv, was so accurate that ascheduled subsequent maneuver was unnec-essary.

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Swigert in Odyssey during color telecast ofApril 12.

Another major event on Sunday threw ausually cool and calm astronaut into a mildpanic. In the rush to substitute for Mattingly,Swigert forgot to file his Federal Income Taxreturn.

"How do I apply for an extension ?" heasked. Amid laughter from Mission Control,he sought to explain: "Things kinda hap-pened real fast down there and I need anextension. I'm really serious. Would you. . ."

Joe Kerwin, the capsule communicator,was unsympathetic: "You're breaking upthe room down here."

Swigert continued: ". .. turn it in?"Later, Flight Director Glynn Lunney said

that American citizens out of the country geta 60-day extension on filing. "I assume thisapplies," he added.

On Monday evening at 9:15 p.m. EST,Lovell and Haise entered the pressurizedAquarius for the first time. Among otherthings, Mission Control wanted them to checkan Aquarius helium tank that had shown aslightly high pressure on the launch pad.Lovell found that the pressure in the tankwas showing the kind of rise expected.

Haise remarked that "One of the nicethings for a novice lik myself is the ease ofmoving around in here."

The two spent about an hour inside ofAquarius, telecastilig their activities to Earth.The show ended, and all was well.

Haise was still in Aquarius. Lovell was inthe tunnel between Aquarius and Odyssey,clutching a camera and gingerly making hisway among the TV wire Swigert was inOdyssey. Suddenly, they were st- rtled by aloud bang.

At first, Lovell aral Swigert thought thatliaise had released a valve, as planned, inAquarius. But Hair, now back in the cm,and scanning the instrument panel, saw thatone of the main elm lical systems of Apollo13 was deteriorating. Just before 10:10 p.m.,Swigert radioed the word that drew mankindtogether in a common co cern: "Hey, we'vegot a problem here."

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When Jim Lovell and Fred Haise, leavingJack Swigert to batten down crippled Odys-sey, moved into Aquarius just before mid-night Monday and began powering her upas Apollo 13's lifeboat, the Moon still lay50,000 miles and 20 hours ahead.

It would be risky to fire the main engineof the Command/Service Module, possiblydamaged by an apparent rupture of a high-pressure oxygen tank. The shortest wayhomein timewould be to coast on aroundthe Moon and then be pulled automaticallyback toward Earth.

But on the hybrid trajectory to which theastronauts had maneuvered Sunday eveningto facilitate lunar landing in the Fra MauroHills, their spacecraft would actually miss theEarth by 250 miles and pass on by, beyondhope of survival.

So a prime concern was to get back on afree-return trajectory that would bring themdown in some oceanalmost any oceanwithout need for further major maneuvers.

This would have to be accomplished byfiring the LM descent enginean emergencyprocedure that, by foresight, had been prac-ticed in space by Apollo 9 and by the presentcrew in simulations at Kennedy Space Center.

Swigert urged combining the free-returnmaneuver with an extra push to speed thereturn journey, and doing it soon to cut the

drain on the ut's batteries and cooling water:spAcEcaAPTThe advantage of doing this

early is you can do a big burn now in themidcourse and then power the LM down.Otherwise, we got to keep the LM powered upclear till we get around the Moon.

But Flight Director Glynn Lunney held off

a decision while trajectory planners ran halfa dozen alternatives through their computers.

The fastest return would lead to a splash-down in the Pacific about noon Thursday,west of the originally planned recovery areabut within steaming distance of the recoverycarrier USS Iwo Jima. But this would takea long bum and leave the descent engine littlefuel for later course adjustments that mightbe required.

Fuel could be saved and the return cutshort by dropping the Service Module toreduce the dead weight that had to be maneu-vered. But a Lunar Module engine had neverbeen used in space to Maneuver just theLunar and Command Modules. And remov-ing the protection that the Service Modulegave the Command Module heat shield mightexpose the shield to damaging cold on thelong voyage home.

The next quickest proceduie would belanding early Friday morning in the SouthAtlantic, in range of U.S. planesbut not ofships.

Mission Control chose a two-step abort: anearly short bum to reestablish free return,with potential splashdown Friday evening inthe Indian Ocean, then a longer burn soonafter looping around the Moon to speed thereturn by 10 hours and shift the target pointback to the Mid-Pacific, where the prime re-covery forces waited.

The discussion between Spacecraft andHouston continued:

CAPSULE commuNrcAToaTre're at thistime, water critical in the LM. We'd like touse els little as possible.To do this we're go-ing to make a free-retien maneuver of 16feet per second at 61 hours, which is 37 min-utes from now. Then we're going to powerdown the PGNS (Primary Guidance and Nav-igation Section), and then at 79 hours we'llgo ahead and make another abort maneuverto kick what we got.

SPACECRAFTCould you give us a littlemore time?

CAPCOMOkay, Jim. We'd like to get asuggested time from you.

scLet's shoot for an hour if we can.How's that?

CAPCOMOkay, Jim. How about 61 hoursand 30 minutes? That's an hour and fivefrom now.

13

The 111-Fated Space Odyssey of Apollo 13.

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SCOkay, we'll do it. And we want tomake sure we can talk back and forth now tomake sure we gel this burn off right.

Getting it off right would take not onlyaccurate timing but accurate positioning ofthe spacecraft.

CAPCOMAnd now we want to ask you aquestion about alignments, and so forth. 1Vewanted to know if you can see any stars outof the AOT (Alignment Optical Telescope).

SC-1n this attitude that we're pitchingaround I cannot use the AOT to see stars. TheCommand Module is just radiating too muchlight into the tdescope.

CAPCOMHow about using the ServiceModule to cast a shadow on the Commander'swindow. If you do that, can you see stars?

scWe tried to do it. The light shinesoff our quads, which makes it difficult to seestars. We do have the Earth and Noon, ifthat can he of assistance. Another -,roblem:Right now I'm looking out the right windowand it's pretty dark out there, but there areabout a thousand or so foam stars out thereleft over from the debris. It's hard to discernwhat's real and what's not.

Ultimately, Mission Control would comeup with a computer solution for lining up thespacecraft by sighting on the Earth, Sun, andMoon through the telescope.

The mission clock now showed 61:28:43,which was 3:42 a.m. EST Tuesday and it wastime for the critical burn which would take

14

the spacecraft out of the hybrid trajectory andplace it in free return. The engine to beused for this burn was that of the DescentPropulsion System (oPs) of Aquarius. Theconversation went like this:

CAPCOMAquarius, you're go for theburn.

scMaster arm's on. One minute.scForty percent.CAPCOMAquarius, you're looking good.scAll shut down.And a little later:CAPCOMAquarius, check your master

arm off, please.SCOkay, Houston, burn's 'complete. Now

we have to talk about powering down.The first milestone on the journey home

had been pa ised.Even without another burn, the spacecraft

would return to Earth for a landing in theIndian Ocean. Emergency preparations forthe pickup would have to be completed, butthat could be done. And there still remainedir ihe flight plan the second critical burnto obtain a quicker trip and landing in thePacific.

Haise stood watch, while his fellow astro-nauts tried for some fitful sleep in the chillyCommand Modulechilly and dark becauseits power supply was cut off.

On the ground, possible future maneuverswere tried out in flight simulators at Houstonand Kennedy Space Center by their fellow

8

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astronauts: disappointed Ken Mattingly,Apollo 14 Commander Al Shepard, Lm PilotEd Mitchell, CM Pilot Stu Roosa, Apollo 12'sCm Pilot Dick Gordon, Gene Cernan ofApollo 10, Dave Scott of Apollo 9, JohnYoung., Vance Brand, Ron Evans and JoeEngle.

Maneuvers that still remained to be ex-ecuted were simulated in complete detail.The big burn to get the quicker return andsplashdcwn in the Pacific was simulated:placing the simulated spacecraft in the correctattitude, firing f he Aquarius DPs engine, andchecking the results by computer. Similarly,the astronauts wenc through the simulatedmaneuvers of dropping the Lunar Module,dropping the Service Module and putting theCommand Module into the correct attitudefor reentry into the atmosphere for safelanding.

Engineers in Downey, Calif., where Odys-sey was huilt, ran emergency problemsthrough computers. A team of 30 at Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology, where theApollo guidance system was designed,worked through the night. Ten phone lineswere kept open between Mission Control anda room staffed with 7 0 LTA experts at themanufacturer's plant in Bethpage, LongIsland.

President Nixon cancelled appointmentsand kept in touch. He was briefed by formerastronauts Mike Collins of Apollo 11 and

Bill Anders of Apollo 8. He phoned Lovell'sand Haise's wives in Houston and Swig.!rt'sparents in Denver. He drove out to the God-dard Space Flight Center, in Maryland, pri-mary switching center for NASA'S worldwidetracking and communications network.

As the men in Apollo 13 experienced whatno men had undergone before, millions r.ol -

lowed the dedoping drama by radio andtelevision in public squares, private homes,schools, offices and factories. Pope Paul, at anaudience in St. Peter's Basilica for 10,000Romans and tourists, said "We cannot forgetat this moment the lot of the astfonauts ofApollo 13. 'We hope that af least their livescan be saved." Prolonged applause followed.Prayers were said at Jerusalem's WailingWall and on the floor of Chicago's Board ofTrade.

On Tuesday, April 14, the U.S. Senateadopted a resolution which urged all busi-nesses and communications media to pause at9 p.m., their local time, to "permit personsto join in prayer for the safety of theastronauts."

Offers of assistance with ships to aid in therecovery came from many nations. The Asso-ciated Press quoted the Russian news agencyTass as saying that four Soviet ships weresteaming toward the splashdown area, one ofthem the Chumikan, a missile trackerequipped with a helicopter. Tass said theChumikan and fishing trawler No. 8452 were

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ordered to join the cargo carriersAcademician Rykachev and Novopolotskconverging on the Pacific target area.

Premier Aleksei N. Kosygin sent a messagesaying: "I want to inform you (U.S. Gov-ernment) the Soviet Government has givenorders to all citizens and members of thearmed forces to use all necessary means torender assistance in the rescue of the Ameri-can (Apollo 13) astronauts."

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At 7:21 p.m. Tuesday, the spacecraftswung behind the Moon, lost contact withEarth, and passed 164 miles above the lunarsurface. Haise and Swigert, who had neverbeen so close and might never get closer,snapped photos like a couple of tourists. At7:49 the spacecraft emerged on the other sideanc'_ was again picked up by tracking stations.

This conversation took place:sCHouston, Aquarius.CAT 70MAquariu5, Houston.scThe view out there is fantastic ,

You can see where we're zooming off.Apollo 13 was headed homeward.Moments later the 15-ton spent third stage

of the Saturn v launch vehicle crashed intothe Moon, as planned.

It occurred at 8:09 p.m. EST, April 14.The S-IVB struck the Moon with a forceequivalent to 111/2 tons of TNT. It hit85 miles west northwest of the site wherethe Apollo 12 astronauts had set up theirseismometer. Scientists on Earth said,"the Moon rang like a bell."

Back in November 1969, the Apollo 12astrcnauts had sent their Lunar Module crash-ing into the Moon following their returnto the command craft after the lunar landingmission. That Lunar Module struck with aforce of one ton of TNT. The shock waves

built up to a peak in eight minutes and con-tinued for nearly an hour.

The seismic signals produced by the impactof S-IVB were 20 to 30 times greater and fourtimes longer than those resulting from theLM crash. Peak intensity occurred in 7minutes.

The information from these two artificialmoonquakes led to reconsideration oftheories proposed about the lunar interior.Among puzzling features are the rapid build-up to the peak and the prolonged reverbera-tions. Nothing comparable happens whenobjects strike Earth.

One theory is that the signal is scatteredand repropagated in very deep rubble. An-other holds that the velocities of seismic wavesfrom these impacts are comparable to meas-urements of velocities in crystalline rock. Sothe crystalline material which the astronautsfound so abundant on the Moon's surfacemay extend very deep into the Moon.

Houston reported the lunar impact of thes-rvs to the spacecraft:

CAPCOMBy the way, Aquarius. we seethe results now from 12's seismometer. Lookslike your booster just hit the Moon, and it'srocking a little bit.

scIVell, at least something worked onthis flight. . . I'm sure glad we didn't havean LM impact, too.

Time was at hand for the burn, two hoursafter closest apprat to the Moon. The de-

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Aquarius pointY the way to distant Earth. hevisible rocket nozzle is part of the AquariusReaction Control System.

Flight contro!lers view prototype of the -do-it-yourself- liihium hydroxide unit that Apollo 13astronauts constructed follov. ing directions fromthe ground. The apparatus enabled Aquarius toutilize lithium hydroxide canisters from thecrippled Odyssey.

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scent engine would fire five seconds at 10percent throttle, 21 seconds at 40 percent,and nearly four minutes at full blast.

This burn would add 585 miles per hourto the velocity of the spacecraft, bringing itto Earth 10 hours sooner, and would make thetarget for splashdown a spot in the PacificOcean south of American Samoa. The carrierIwo Jima already was enroute to that pin-pointed spot.

CAPC0MThree minutescounting down. . . Mark. ..

seWe're burning 40 percent. . .

cAPcomLooking good at two minutes.seTwo minutes, Roger. .CAPCOMAquarius, you're go at three

minutes. ..seShutdown.cmacomI say that was a good burn.scNow we want to power down as soon

as possible.CAPCOMIre have a procedure ready...Aquarius had been designed as a two-man

spacecraft and, in the original flight plan,would have been used less than 60 hours.Could her consumablesoxygen, water, bat-teriesbe stretched to keep three men alivenearly 90 hours, from the loss of csm powerthe evening before, to just before reentry twoand a half days ahead ?

After some early false alarms, the outlookby Wednesday morning was reassuring.Plenty of drinking water could be brought

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over from the Command Module. Oxygenstores showed a margin of 95 hours. Withpower kept up only on the life-support,telemetry, and communications equipment,except during critical maneuvers, coolingwater would last 23 hours beyond reentry,batteries 60 hoursample to recharge theCommand Module's batteries before separation.

One item could be a problem: the car-tridges of lithium hydroxide that removecarbon dioxide from the spacecraft atmo-sphere. The Lm's cartridges would last only50 hours, and the cm's wouldn't fit the L.m.

Bob Smylie and Jim Correale, of the CrewSystems 11;:vision at Houston, devised a make-shift adapter, and Astronaut Tony Englandtested '-he design by putting one togetherfrom oral instructions alone. As MissionControl voiced these up to Aquarius, Swigertand Lovell built- adapters using cardboardcue cards from unneeded lunar surface proce-dures, plastic storage bags, and adhesivetape to attach cartririges from the cm to urthoses that sucked cabin air through them.

CAPCOMT he next step is to cut a diag-onal hole. ..

scOkay, our do-it-yourself lithium hy-droxide unit is complete.

Earth stations continued to track the space-craft. Within four hours after the big burn,just this side of the Moon, their data wasshowing that, becLise the automatic guidancesystem had drifted out of alignment, the re-

sults hadn't been as precise as first thought.By the time Apollo 13 entered Earth's

sphere of gravitational influence at 8 : 38Wednesday morning, still 216,277 milesfrom home. the data showed it would miss by99 miles and sail on in orbit forever. A big-ger midcourse correction than ever made be-fore by a returning Apollo lunar mission wasscheduled for near midnight. Again safetyof the crew depended on Aquarius' descentenginc.

The pacecraft was positioned by sightingon the Earth and Sun, a procedure neverused previously, but one which had been de-veloped in studies and checked by computers,and which was rechecked while Apollo 13was enroute from the Moon to the Earth. Theengine was fired manually. Lovell and Haise,in their normal LM piloting positions, han-dled the attitude controls. Swigert, sitting onthe ascent engine (over, watched the timerto signal when to start and stop the burn,and Lovell pushed the buttons. MissionControl watched the results.

CAPCOMIgnition . . Thrust looks good. . . It shut down .. . Nice work.

seLet's hope it was.Ground trackers could soon report that it

was, putting Apollo 13 comfortably withinthe reentry corridor.

Heat from repeated firing of the descentengine had caused an increased rate of pres-sure buildup in the uses supercold helium

The do-it-yourself unit in Aquarius to utilizelithium hydroxide canisters from the crippledOdyssey.

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Jury-rigged urine disposal system. Swigert at right.

Haise sleeps in Aquarius. He restrained his handsso that his arms would not flop about in weightlessspace environment.

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tank, used to pressurize the fuel tanks but nolonger needed. Just after noon the tank'sburst disca relief valveruptured, as itwas designed to do, and the helium ventedinto space. The gas had been expected tospew out equally in opposite directions, hav-ing no propulsive effect on the spacecraft.

cA 13 COMSee anything?scYeah, I was just about ready to call

you. Underneath Quad 4 I noticed a lot ofsparklies going out.

CAPCOMCan you hear or feel anything?sc/ sure did . . . I think it changed our

PTC (Passive Thermal Control of the space-craft by slowly rotating it tt. distribute theSun's heat) . . . I was in right yaw and nowI'm in left yaw, at a much faster rate . . .Isthat what they call a nonpropulsive vent?

CAPCOMRight. I'd hate to see a propul-sive one.

Thermal control was soon restored by useof bursts from the control thrusters until theslow rate of rotation was readjusted. Switcheswere thrown to begin recharging the Com-mand Module's reentry batteries from theLm's. And the astronauts of Apollo 13 wereallowed the first period of relatively relaxedactivity since the accident.

But their physical hardshiFs grew by thehour.

Temperatures in the darkened cm droppedto 38 degrees. Lovell and Haise pulled ontheir lunar boots, Swigert an extra suit of

24(

Lovell sleeps in Aquarius.

Lovell's "grand oasis in the vastness of space"beckons to the homebound travelers.

long underwear. The cabin walls were per-spiring, the windows wet and partly frostedover. All food was cold, for there was no hotwater in the Lm to mix with the dehydratedmeals. The men dozed, always leaving oneon watch, but real sleep was rare. Deke Slay-ton, chief astronaut as Director of FlightCrew Operations, told them they could takestay-awake pills during the final hours.

At Mission Control, Gene Kranz's entireteam of flight controllers was taken off itsregular shifts to work out and rehearse space-craft separation and entry routines. Astro-nauts in the simulators proved out everymaneuver and crew procedure. Thursdayevening Capsule Communicators began hoursof reading up check lists to Swigert, thenHaise.

CAPCOMNext verify . . .

sc/ may not sound too clear, becauseI'm holding a flashlight between my teeth.

Shortly before 4 o'clock Friday morning,Eastern Standard Time, Lovell and Haise, un-able to sleep longer, began powerIng upAquarius three hours earlier than planned.The cabin warmed a bit. As they realignedthe guidance system, Swigertwatching thetime till he could begin reviving dead, coldOdysseywryly urged them on:

scThat Earth is whistling in like afreight train.

A final course correction with the Lm'ssmall reaction-control jets at 7:53 put the

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The crippled Service Module drifts away from theCommand Module after jettison.

Service Module just after jettison shows itsseriously damaged side to astronauts.

Separation of the never-flown-before CommandModule/Lunar Module configuration from thecrippled Service Module.

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spacecraft exactly in the center of the corri-dor in which it should enter the atmosphere.

CAPCOMYou can jettison the ServiceModule when you are ready.No big rush, hutany time.

As Aquarius, leading the train of linkedmodides, pushed gently backward, Swigertfired small explosive devices to sever the smfrom the cm. Aquarius then pulled forwardto complete the separation. The useless Serv-ice Module drifted away from the other two,still joined in a configuration never flownbefore or practiced in the simulators beforethe flight.

The three crewmen watched from separatewindows and took photographs that mighthelp tell what had happened at the momentwhen near-disaster struck 82 hours and nearlyhalf a million miles ago.

scOkay. I've got her.CAPCOMBeautiful, beautiful.scAnd there's one whole side of that

spacecraft inissin. . . Right by the high-gain antenna the whole panel is blown out,almost from the base to the engine. . . It'sreally a mess.

CAPCOMTake pictures, but don't makeany unnecessary maneuvers.

sc Man, that's unbelievablelooks like alot of debris is just hanging out of the sidenear the S-band antenna.

As Haise began shutting down the LM,this exchange took place between Mission

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Control and Lovell, the world's most experi-enced man in space and veteran of fourflights:

scIVell, I can't say that this week hasn'tbeen filled with excitement.

CAPCOMWell, James, if you can't takeany better care of tbe spacecraft than that,we might not give you another one.

Time approached to abandon the Apollo13 lifeboat. Lovell and Haise joined Swigertin the Commnd Module, now fully poweredby its own batteries.

sclVe're ready to proceed with hatchcloseup.

CAPCOMDid Jim gel the film out ofAquarius?

SCYou mean the film we took this morn-ing? Yes. we transferred that.

Since the cm's jets can control only itsattitude, not push or pull, separation wouldbe accomplished by firing pyrotechnics to cutLM loose and simply letting pressure in theclosed tunnel between the modules push themapart.

scCan I proceed on and kind of punchoff early?

CAPCOMJack, when you are comfortablyready to punch off, you can go ahead and doit.

At 11:23 Swigert punched the button.sCLm jettison.CAPCOMFarewell, Aquarius, and we

thank you.

Separation sequence of Aquarius and Odysseyprior to reentry.

"Farewell, Aquarius, and we thank you.-

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Officials join flight controllers in monitoringApollo 13 flight. From left: Thomas H. McMullen,Assistant Mission Director; Dale D. Myers, Asso-ciate Administrator, Office of Manned Space Flight;Chester M. Lee, Mission Director; and Dr. RoccoPetrone, Apollo Program Director.

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scShe sure was a great ship.The flimsy Aquarius, unshielded for re-

turn to Earth, would burn up in the atmos-phere.

Six hundred miles southeast of Samoa thecarrier USS Iwo Jima awaited Odyssey. Res-cue planes patrolled a bath-tub shaped ex-panse of bluePacific390miles wide and stretch-ing 460 miles uprange and 115 downrange ofthe target point. The spacecraft's speed rosedramatically as it angled Earthward above theIndian Ocean and across southern Australia:22,085 feet per second . . . 25,693 . . .

31,141 . . . 34,333 .. 35,837more than24,000 miles an hourjust before the plungeinto the atmosphere at 400,000 feet.

CAPCOMWe've just had one last timearound the room and everybody says you'relooking great.

scThank you.For three long minutes no word was heard

from the spacecraft as friction with the airraised the heat shield to a fiery glow thatblacked out radio communication.

Then:CAPCOMOdyssey , Standing by.scOkay , . .

CAPCOMOkay, we read yoU, Jack.scWe got two drogues.Odyssey's two small parachutes pulled out

its three 85-foot orange-and-white mainchutes. Through color TV cameras aboard theIwo Jima and in a photo helicopter, the world

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Odyssey drifts down through cloudy skies.

watched the charred spacecraft drift downthrough broken clouds to a splashdown inmoderate seas four miles from the ship at1:08 p.m., 142 hours 54 minutes 41 secondsafter launch.

Swimmers jumped from a helicopter, at-tached a flotation collar and rubber rafts, andopened the hatch. From the rafts the astro-nauts, in turn, were hoisted in a basket,shaped like half a bird cage, to the recoveryhelicopter.

RECOVERYI have Astronaut Haiseaboard, and his condition is excellent. . .

Splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Apollo 13 astronauts wait in life raft for pick upby helicopter.

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Mission Control after astronauts are safe on therecovery ship. Lovell, on screen, welcomed by thecrew of primary recovery vessel, the I TSS Iwo Jima.

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President Nixon awards Presidential Medal ofFreedom to flight directors who helped bringApollo 13 safely home. Left to right: Flight Direc-tors Glynn S. Lunney, Eugene F. Kranz, GeraldGriffin and Milton L. Windier; Director of FlightOperations Sigurd A. Sjoberg. Seated at left areMrs. Nixon and Dr. Thomas 0. Paine, NASAAdministrator.

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I have Astronaut Swigert on board. Hereports he feels fine. . .1 have Captain Lovellaboard. He reports he feels fine.

Forty-five minutes from splashdownthefastest recovery everthey were safe on IwoJima's red-carpeted deck. Microphones hadbeen set up. The admiral and the captainspoke. The ship's chaplain prayed. A bandplayed. But Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, andFred Haise were too tired for public speeches.

From the flight deck of the Iwo Jima toAmerican Samoa, to Hawaii and on to Hous-ton, the crew of Apollo 13 travelled on awave of applause. President Nixon presentedthe Medal of Freedom to the three astro-nauts and to Sigurd A. Sjoberg, Director ofFlight Operations, and to Flight DirectorsGlynn S. Lunney, Eugene F. Kranz, GeraldGriffin, and Milton L. Wind ler.

The President of the United States sum-marized the reaction of many when he said,"The three astronauts did not reach theMoon, but they reached the hearts of millionsof people in America and in the world."

Fiction had turned to fact in the flight ofOdyssey and Aquarius. The tension, theagony, and the relief were understated byJim Lovell: "We do not realize what we haveon Earth until we leave it."

But all expressed confidence in America'sprogram of space exploration and piannedto ". . . learn from our mistakes and get onwith the job."

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The astronauts and President Nixon, after cere-monies in which they were awarded the PresidentialMedal of Freedom. Lcft to right: Haise, Lovell,the President and Sv:igert.

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EP-76Produced by the Mho of Public AffairsNational Aeronautics and Space AdministrationWashinston, D.C. 20346

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents,U.S. Government Printing Office.Washington, D.C. 20402Price 75 cents

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