Apollo 13 - Paper 5
INTRODUCTION
Apollo 13, the 1995 motion picture directed by Ron Howard, is the true story of Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert, a team of astronauts reassigned to a space flight with diminished preparation time. This routine mission to the moon suddenly becomes a survival mission to safely return home to Earth. The film details the circumstances affecting two separate but cohesive teams. The purpose of this case analysis is to identify the critical events, explain the underlying causes of why these events happened, and draw logical conclusions about the teams¡¯ performances as related to effective teamwork and leadership.
MOVIE ANALYSIS (WHAT)
The first critical event of the film gives the Apollo 13 astronauts their mission. Alan Shepherd, the original Apollo 13 commander, and his crew are scrubbed from the mission. Lovell, Haise and Mattingly, originally slated to fly the Apollo 14 mission, are suddenly moved up to the Apollo 13 mission giving them only six months to train. This event affects both the team¡¯s progress and process due to the time constraints warranted by the rushed training schedule. Two days before the launch of Apollo 13, a member of the back-up crew contracts the measles, which leads to the second critical event of the movie. Mattingly is scrubbed from the mission because he is the only member of the primary crew who has never had the measles. This decision affects the process of the crew because there are now only two days to train with back-up pilot, Jack Swigert. It is inferred that Lovell and Haise do not have a strong cohesive relationship with Swigert simply because they have not had the proper amount of time to train with him. The third critical event occurs as the astronauts are performing routine maintenance onboard the spacecraft. Swigert is commanded by Mission Control to ¡°stir the oxygen tanks,¡± which causes an explosion resulting in a loss of oxygen supply to the astronauts. This incident changes the progress of the
Apollo 13, the 1995 motion picture directed by Ron Howard, is the true story of Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert, a team of astronauts reassigned to a space flight with diminished preparation time. This routine mission to the moon suddenly becomes a survival mission to safely return home to Earth. The film details the circumstances affecting two separate but cohesive teams. The purpose of this case analysis is to identify the critical events, explain the underlying causes of why these events happened, and draw logical conclusions about the teams¡¯ performances as related to effective teamwork and leadership.
MOVIE ANALYSIS (WHAT)
The first critical event of the film gives the Apollo 13 astronauts their mission. Alan Shepherd, the original Apollo 13 commander, and his crew are scrubbed from the mission. Lovell, Haise and Mattingly, originally slated to fly the Apollo 14 mission, are suddenly moved up to the Apollo 13 mission giving them only six months to train. This event affects both the team¡¯s progress and process due to the time constraints warranted by the rushed training schedule. Two days before the launch of Apollo 13, a member of the back-up crew contracts the measles, which leads to the second critical event of the movie. Mattingly is scrubbed from the mission because he is the only member of the primary crew who has never had the measles. This decision affects the process of the crew because there are now only two days to train with back-up pilot, Jack Swigert. It is inferred that Lovell and Haise do not have a strong cohesive relationship with Swigert simply because they have not had the proper amount of time to train with him. The third critical event occurs as the astronauts are performing routine maintenance onboard the spacecraft. Swigert is commanded by Mission Control to ¡°stir the oxygen tanks,¡± which causes an explosion resulting in a loss of oxygen supply to the astronauts. This incident changes the progress of the