Apollo 13 Essay
The actual launch of the Apollo 13 was on April 11, 1970. Two days into the mission it looked like the smoothest flight that the Apollo program had ever seen. "The spacecraft is in real good shape as far as we are concerned. We're bored to tears down here." said Joe Kerwin of mission control (3). At 55 hours the crew held a TV broadcast for 49 minutes where they showed off their living conditions and how they worked in weightless situations. Nine minutes after the broadcast mission control instructed that Odyssey to give their oxygen tanks a stir and moments later oxygen tank No.2 in the service module exploded, due to an exposed fan wire. The eruption then damaged oxygen tank No.1, causing them to start to lose oxygen rapidly. The cover of
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The lunar modules navigation system was put on the lunar landing course, as a result, the crew had to round the moon and transfer the command module’s navigation to the lunar module, but the alignment was off. Debris from the explosion was blocking the view and made it impossible to sight stars as navigational points. Mission control developed a procedure to use the sun as an alignment star. Ken Mattingly, in mission control, ran many simulation to figure out how to power up the command module quickly for reentry. The power of the command module was cut off and it had been in a long, cold sleep. Ken Mattingly and Mission control were able to come up with a procedure, to fire up the command module, in three short days compared to the three months it would usually take (11). The Apollo crew was able to use the command module for reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere and landed their spacecraft in the Pacific Ocean, near Samoa (3).
The Apollo crew may have not been able to complete their original mission, but when they were faced with a serious problem the crew proved that they could handle it. The near disaster reminded everyone of the peril of space travel. They were successful in the sense that NASA was able to work through this effectively and save the lives of the three men that were brave enough to go on the mission
The lunar modules navigation system was put on the lunar landing course, as a result, the crew had to round the moon and transfer the command module’s navigation to the lunar module, but the alignment was off. Debris from the explosion was blocking the view and made it impossible to sight stars as navigational points. Mission control developed a procedure to use the sun as an alignment star. Ken Mattingly, in mission control, ran many simulation to figure out how to power up the command module quickly for reentry. The power of the command module was cut off and it had been in a long, cold sleep. Ken Mattingly and Mission control were able to come up with a procedure, to fire up the command module, in three short days compared to the three months it would usually take (11). The Apollo crew was able to use the command module for reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere and landed their spacecraft in the Pacific Ocean, near Samoa (3).
The Apollo crew may have not been able to complete their original mission, but when they were faced with a serious problem the crew proved that they could handle it. The near disaster reminded everyone of the peril of space travel. They were successful in the sense that NASA was able to work through this effectively and save the lives of the three men that were brave enough to go on the mission