It was April 17, 1970 when the crew of the Apollo 13 mission found themselves in a rather complicated situation, as well as dangerous, but thanks to an
Early life. Katherine Johnson was born as Creola Katherine Coleman on August 26, 1918, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, to Joylette Roberta (née Lowe) and Joshua McKinley Coleman. She was the youngest of four children. Her mother was a teacher and her father was a lumberman, farmer, and handyman.
Apollo 13's Forgotten Hero. If you've never heard of Glynn Lunney, it's only because he did an exacting job exactly right. Glynn Lunney, seated at left, consulting with Apollo 13 flight controllers.
Without their digital timers, the crew of Apollo 13 relied on their trusty Omega Speedmaster chronograph to time the exact 14-second burn of fuel that was required to return home safely.
Love Cohen worked on the Abort-Guidance System that was used to safely return the Apollo 13 astronauts to Earth after an oxygen tank exploded aboard the spacecraft.
The command module of Apollo 13 entered Earth's atmosphere and splashed down on target on April 17 at 1:07 PM Eastern Standard Time. The mission has been referred to as a successful failure, in that all the crew members survived a catastrophic accident.
Unable to land, the crew of Apollo 13 changed their course to rapidly slingshot around the Moon and return to Earth. Three days after the accident, the astronauts safely re-entered Earth's atmosphere and splashed down into the Pacific Ocean.
At 18:07 UT, 142 hours and 54 minutes after launching, Apollo 13 arrived home. Safe. The recovery ship USS Iwo Jima rushed the crew to Honolulu where their families awaited. While they recovered from their ordeal, NASA hunted down the accident's cause.
It was April 17, 1970 when the crew of the Apollo 13 mission found themselves in a rather complicated situation, as well as dangerous, but thanks to an Omega Speedmaster they managed to save themselves.
To answer the updated question of "Would replacing a damaged tank have prevented the Apollo 13 incident"? Absolutely yes. Bearing in mind that that tank was damaged in two completely separate, mostly unrelated ways. It had some damaged plumbing, preventing a testing drain for completing correctly.
“For much of mankind the reaches of space had never seemed so infinitely remote as they did when Apollo 13 was crippled nearly a quarter of a million miles from Earth, headed toward the Moon,” read a statement from President Nixon following the safe return of the crew.
The Apollo 13 malfunction was caused by an explosion and rupture of oxygen tank no. 2 in the service module. The explosion ruptured a line or damaged a valve in the no. 1 oxygen tank, causing it to lose oxygen rapidly.
Mattingly had been scheduled to fly on the Apollo 13 mission, but three days prior to launch, he was held back and replaced by Jack Swigert due to exposure to German measles (which Mattingly did not contract).
Take a ride aboard the Vomit Comet.
Young, John L. “Jack” Swigert, and Charles M. Duke finished training, one astronaut's illness exposed the rest to an infectious disease resulting in an unprecedented change of crewmembers two days before launch.
Lovell was selected as a potential astronaut candidate for Project Mercury but was turned down because of a temporary excess of a protein called bilirubin in his blood, which could have been indicative of a liver problem.
Update: A typical Apollo blackout lasted about 4 minutes. Due to a shallower re-entry path, Apollo 13's blackout was calculated to last about 4.5 minutes. Flight director Gene Kranz's logs show that it took about 6 minutes to re-establish contact with Apollo 13.
Along the counter of the OMEGA Apollo 13, there's text that reads, “What could you do in 14 seconds?” The message is a reference to the critical window the crew had to burn the engines on the Apollo 13 mission.
It was the world's first known space tragedy. Veteran space pilots Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom, 40, and Edward H. White, 36, and rookie Roger Chaffee, 31, died in flames while lying on their backs in their moonship in a routine ground test for their Feb.
During the Apollo 13 mission, the LM environmental control system provided a habitable environment for about 83 hours (57:45 to 141:05 GET). Cabin temperature remained low due to low electrical power levels. This caused crew discomfort during much of this period, with cabin temperatures ranging between 49°F and 55 °F.
Discussions between the Apollo 13 crew
According to Jim Lovell, there were no discussions or fights, as portrayed in the movie. The most important thing for the crew at that point was to focus on their greatest goal: to return home.
However, two days into the mission, disaster struck 200,000 miles from Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blew up in the spacecraft. Swigert reported to mission control on Earth, “Houston, we've had a problem here,” and it was discovered that the normal supply of oxygen, electricity, light and water had been disrupted.
From the Apollo 13 Mission Report ( 8 Mb ), "The crew reported sleeping well the first 2 days of the mission. They all slept about 5-1/2 hours during the first sleep period. During the second period, the Commander, Command Module Pilot, and Lunar Module Pilot slept 5, 6, and 9 hours, respectively.
As the Apollo 13 crew re-entered the Earth's atmosphere there was a blackout period where they couldn't communicate with mission control. The blackout period was supposed to last three minutes, but it lasted 90 seconds longer, leaving those at mission control unaware if the crew were going to make it home safely.