Although it is probably best known by younger generations for the Tom Hanks film and the line “Houston, we have a problem,” yesterday marked the 45th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s Apollo 13 mission. The flight, which was commanded by James A. Lovell with John L. “Jack” Swigert as Command Module Pilot and Fred W. Haise as Lunar Module Pilot is remembered by NASA as it’s most “successful failure”.
The flight, which was supposed to land on the Moon but an oxygen tank explosion caused the mission to be aborted. The crew circled the Moon and returned home safely. For that reason, the mission was considered successful, even if it didn’t accomplish its original goal.
“Jack Swigert, Fred Haise, and I never talked about that fate during our perilous flight. I guess we were too busy struggling for survival. Survive we did, but it was close. Our mission was a failure but I like to think it was a successful failure…Looking back, I realize I should have been alerted by several omens that occurred in the final stages of the Apollo 13 preparation,” said James A. Lowell in an article on NASA’s web site.
The moon, which is much farther away than the International Space Station and further than any space shuttle mission went is no easy target. Returning a crew home safely, after something goes wrong in deep space, was cause for considerable celebration in 1970.
It would sort-of be the equivalent today of having something go wrong on a manned mission to Mars and bringing the crew back safely.
So, yesterday marked the 45th anniversary of liftoff but tomorrow marks the anniversary of “Houston we have a problem” which was actually which was actually “Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” which was followed by 4 days of work to bring the crew home safely.
The official commemoration of the anniversary took place at the San Diego Air and Space museum in March so there is no official ceremony to tune into this week, but it is certain to be a topic of discussion among space enthusiasts this week.
For those in the Chicago area, the Adler Planetarium opened the “Mission Moon” exhibit yesterday.
“Follow the legendary career of Captain James A. Lovell, Jr.—an astronaut immortalized on film as the Commander of Apollo 13—from his rocket crazed childhood through his quest for the Moon. At every point in our exhibition Capt. Lovell is there—from his rejection from the Mercury Program in the late 1950’s—to two Gemini missions in the 1960s, to the successful failure of Apollo 13. Alongside Lovell, we will share the stories of Lovell’s family, NASA’s Mission Control, and others from around the world who made the quest to land a man on the Moon possible,” reads the website.
For those interested in the Apollo 13 mission who can’t get to Chicago, a recent interview with Lovell has been posted on the WBAA website. Additionally, YouTube user lunarmodule5 has put together an hour of video which features communications audio, video of the mission, news footage, 3-D simulations and other material related to Apollo 13.
Full transcripts of the entire mission are available on the NASA website.
