1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 This little piece recorder has been a big benefit to us in passing through the time 2 00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:19,280 away on our transit out to the moon, and it's rather odd to see it floating like this in 3 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:26,280 the air. Well, it's playing the themes of 2001. April 13, 1970. The mood could only 4 00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:36,280 be described as relaxed. Apollo 13, man's fifth lunar mission, the third scheduled 5 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:43,520 to land on the moon, continued its tranquil coast. This is the crew of Apollo 13, which 6 00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:50,520 is probably the first time we've ever seen it floating there. Nice evening, and we're 7 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:53,520 probably going to close out our inspection of Aquarius and get back for a pleasant evening 8 00:00:53,520 --> 00:01:00,520 at Odyssey. Good night. 13, we've got one more item for you when you get a chance. We'd 9 00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:07,640 like you to stir up your cryotanks. April 11, 1970. Launch day. The crew of Apollo 13, 10 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:14,640 Jim Lovell, commander and veteran of three previous missions. He had orbited the moon 11 00:01:17,079 --> 00:01:24,079 Christmas 1968 on Apollo 8. Fred Hayes, his first time up, lunar module pilot. Jack... 12 00:01:28,439 --> 00:01:34,799 command module pilot. Three days ago, he was on the backup crew. Now he replaced Ken... 13 00:01:34,799 --> 00:01:39,479 Mattingly had been dropped from the mission because he had been exposed to German... 14 00:01:39,479 --> 00:01:45,479 He would watch the launch from Houston's mission control. Auto sequence, initiated... 15 00:01:45,479 --> 00:01:52,479 Roger. Flight booster. Go. S4V, pre-press complete. Roger. Flight booster. S1C,... 16 00:01:52,479 --> 00:01:56,479 complete. We're on internal power and we'll go. Roger. How's it look, Econ? You got your 17 00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:03,480 flight. Good flight. Okay. MCC, record us the flight speed. Okay, Houston, we've had 18 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:12,599 a problem here. Flight guidance. Go guidance. We've had a hardware restart. I don't know 19 00:02:12,599 --> 00:02:18,800 what it was. Okay. Houston, we've had a problem. We've had a main B bus undervolt.... 20 00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:25,000 an AC bus undervolt there, guidance? Er, Econ? Negative flight. I believe the crew... 21 00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:30,520 we got a main B undervolt. We may have had an instrumentation problem, flight. Roger. 22 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:37,280 And we had a pretty large bang associated with the caution and warning there. The... 23 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:44,280 I had that I had felt a vibration accompanying the bang, not a large vibrati... 24 00:02:45,319 --> 00:02:49,000 Is there any kind of leads we can give them or are we looking at instrumentation, have 25 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:55,000 we got a real problem or what? We're reading zero N2 pressure in fuel cell one and 13 26 00:02:55,000 --> 00:03:00,240 PSI on fuel cell 302 pressure. Okay, Barrett, what do you want to do, open circuit fuel 27 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:07,240 cell one and three? That's for a flight. I shut down the reactance valve and I asked 28 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:11,719 for reconfirmation since when you do that it's sort of irreversible. If you shut one 29 00:03:11,719 --> 00:03:18,719 of these things down they only can be restarted from ground support equipment.... 30 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:26,000 because of AC and it looks to me you're looking at the, after we are venting... 31 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:30,719 are venting something out into the space. Okay, let's everybody think of the kind of 32 00:03:30,719 --> 00:03:35,240 things we'd be venting. Do you see anything that looks abnormal in your system? Negative 33 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:40,639 flight. How about you, Econ? See anything with the instrumentation you've got that... 34 00:03:40,639 --> 00:03:45,639 be venting? That's a firm flight. Let me look at the system flight if the bang is... 35 00:03:45,639 --> 00:03:51,959 Okay, let's start scanning. Here is a bulletin from ABC News. The Apollo 13... 36 00:03:51,959 --> 00:03:56,479 has had a serious power supply malfunction that could cause the lunar landing mission 37 00:03:56,479 --> 00:04:01,639 to be terminated early. I assume you've called in your backup Ecoms? Flight, say... 38 00:04:01,639 --> 00:04:04,879 You've called in your backup Ecoms now, see if we can get some more brain power in this 39 00:04:04,879 --> 00:04:09,560 space. We've got one here. Roger. At the moment the astronauts are continuing to tr... 40 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:14,479 their trouble. A late report says the spacecraft now is operating on battery pow... 41 00:04:14,479 --> 00:04:20,399 unnecessary equipment is being turned off. Okay, now let's everybody keep cool. We've 42 00:04:20,399 --> 00:04:26,519 got the limbs still attached, the limbs spacecraft's good, so if we need to get ba... 43 00:04:26,519 --> 00:04:31,439 got a limb to do a good portion of it with. Okay, let's make sure that we don't do... 44 00:04:31,439 --> 00:04:37,000 that's going to blow our CSM electrical power with the batteries or that will cause us to 45 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:43,560 lose the main or the fuel cell number two. Okay, we want to keep the O2 and that kind 46 00:04:43,639 --> 00:04:48,680 of stuff working. We'd like to have our CS but we've got the command module system, 47 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:52,459 so we're in good shape if we need to get home. Let's solve the problem but let's no... 48 00:04:52,459 --> 00:04:59,000 it any worse by guessing. My concern was increasing all the time. It went from I... 49 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:06,000 is going to do to the landing to I wonder if we can get back home again. Okay, Com, 50 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:13,000 I'm coming back to you. Flight, go ahead. I think the best thing we can do right now 51 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:18,360 is start a power down. Right about then it was quite apparent to me that it was just 52 00:05:18,360 --> 00:05:22,779 a question of time that the command module was going to be dead. You don't want to get 53 00:05:22,779 --> 00:05:27,439 fuel cell pumps off, do you? We can do that on fuel cell number one, Flight. Okay, well 54 00:05:27,439 --> 00:05:34,439 let's make sure we don't blow the whole mission. The thing that concerns me is... 55 00:05:34,860 --> 00:05:39,000 We had a problem. We don't know the cause of the problem. Flight, I've got a feeling 56 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:45,399 we've lost two fuel cells. I hate to put it that way but I don't know why we've lost 57 00:05:45,399 --> 00:05:50,959 them. It's just an old tag up. Network from Flight. Flight Network. Bring me up another 58 00:05:50,959 --> 00:05:57,959 computer in the RTCC, will you? We got one machine on the RTCC and we got dual CPs... 59 00:05:57,959 --> 00:06:01,319 Okay, I want another machine up in the RTCC and I want a bunch of guys capable of running 60 00:06:01,319 --> 00:06:07,439 D logs down there. Roger that. What all this means is only speculation at this point.... 61 00:06:07,439 --> 00:06:11,040 though there has been some tumbling or rotation of the spacecraft, the astronauts... 62 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:17,800 appear to be in any immediate danger. I'll tell you what, GNC, can you get somebody in 63 00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:23,079 the back room to try to figure out what the equivalent delta V is we're getting so that 64 00:06:23,079 --> 00:06:28,079 we can see if we can backtrack to see if we can figure out what's venting? Roger, we're 65 00:06:28,079 --> 00:06:34,600 giving it a try, Flight. Okay. When I looked up and saw both oxygen pressures, one... 66 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:40,280 was zero and the other one going down, it dawned on me and I'm sure Jack and Fred about 67 00:06:40,280 --> 00:06:46,160 the same time that we were indeed in serious trouble. The only way to survive the... 68 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:53,160 was to transfer to the LEM. Flight Ecom. Go ahead, Ecom. The pressure in O2 tank one is 69 00:06:54,280 --> 00:06:57,879 all the way down to 297. You better think about getting in the LEM or using the LEM 70 00:06:57,879 --> 00:07:04,520 systems. I'd say this is a serious situation that we have ever had in man space, one. 71 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:09,319 We've always called the LEM a good lifeboat under those circumstances. If at any time 72 00:07:09,319 --> 00:07:14,680 in the mission, however, the LEM had separated and we had gotten ourselves into... 73 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:21,680 situation or the command module being around the moon, then what you state is absolutely 74 00:07:22,639 --> 00:07:29,159 true. It would be a fatal situation. Tell them you're from Flight. Go ahead, Flight. 75 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:35,000 I want you to get some guys figuring out minimum power in the LEM to sustain life. 76 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:40,640 The accident had occurred 200,000 miles from Earth. Lovell, Swigert and Hayes rode in 77 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:46,760 the lunar module attached to a lifeless command module. Apollo 13 had started as a... 78 00:07:46,760 --> 00:07:53,760 of scientific exploration. It was now a matter of survival. Since the command modu... 79 00:07:53,759 --> 00:08:00,759 dead except for the oxygen and power hoarded for reentry, the guidance platform of... 80 00:08:01,639 --> 00:08:07,959 designed to land on and take off from the moon would have to be used. The first... 81 00:08:07,959 --> 00:08:14,039 and I consider this after the accident, I guess more or less the survival now. The... 82 00:08:14,039 --> 00:08:20,800 milestone was to get alignment on the LEM platform. Alignments are important, you know, 83 00:08:21,639 --> 00:08:26,000 without knowing exactly which way the attitude of the spacecraft is in space,... 84 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:32,159 way to tell how to burn or how to use the engines of that spacecraft to get the proper 85 00:08:32,159 --> 00:08:37,180 trajectory to come home. The position we are now on the Earth-Moon plane, we have to go 86 00:08:37,180 --> 00:08:44,180 around the moon to get back if we're going to use the DIPS engine. You would have had 87 00:08:44,739 --> 00:08:50,539 enough capability with the SDS engine, but of course we don't dare use that now. So 88 00:08:50,539 --> 00:08:55,659 we have to go to the back side of the moon and come back. To get into the correct orbit 89 00:08:55,659 --> 00:08:59,859 around the moon, the crew had burned out of a trajectory that would automatically bring 90 00:08:59,859 --> 00:09:06,019 them back to Earth. They would have to get back onto a safe course toward Earth. He... 91 00:09:06,019 --> 00:09:13,019 to put his throttle to man also, Flight. Throttle to man? Yes, he's at 29% now,... 92 00:09:13,019 --> 00:09:17,539 maneuver again was completed on time and because it was a manual burn, we had a... 93 00:09:17,539 --> 00:09:22,579 operation. Jack would take care of the time, he'd tell us when to light off the engine, 94 00:09:22,579 --> 00:09:27,579 when to stop it. Fred handled pitch maneuver, I handled the roll maneuver and I pushed 95 00:09:27,579 --> 00:09:34,579 the buttons to start and stop the engines. Okay, Quarriesh, you go for the burn. 40%. 96 00:09:34,580 --> 00:09:41,580 Okay, Quarriesh, you're looking good. Auto shut down. The first problem was solved. 97 00:09:50,900 --> 00:09:56,720 They were back on the path to Earth. But there were many other problems to be solve... 98 00:09:56,720 --> 00:10:02,240 a building at Houston's Manned Spacecraft Center, systems experts coordinated the... 99 00:10:02,240 --> 00:10:09,240 effort to get the crew back. One of the big problems was consumables. There would be 100 00:10:10,180 --> 00:10:16,740 enough to eat and drink. But in space, there are other factors. Oxygen to breathe,... 101 00:10:16,740 --> 00:10:22,740 power to keep the spacecraft alive, water to cool the equipment and keep it operating. 102 00:10:22,740 --> 00:10:26,860 What we'll be doing until we get them back on the water is concentrating on everything 103 00:10:26,860 --> 00:10:31,500 that their lives are dependent upon at the moment rather than worrying about the... 104 00:10:31,500 --> 00:10:36,399 because there's nothing we can do about that now. It appears at the present time that 105 00:10:36,399 --> 00:10:42,360 everything is under control and that we have a safe situation at the moment. Hey, I want 106 00:10:42,360 --> 00:10:49,360 to say you guys are doing real good work. So are you guys, Jack. We are about 70 hours 107 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:56,600 from home and we think we have the situation in control. We've projected the consumables 108 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:04,600 as I've described and we have a plan for carrying out the rest of the mission. But 109 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:11,600 there's going to be no relaxation at all as far as that goes from now until splash. 110 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:18,600 There was a key decision to be made before Apollo 13 went behind the moon. Where to 111 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:23,600 bring them down? Their present course would take them to the Indian Ocean where recovery 112 00:11:23,700 --> 00:11:28,139 would be difficult. A burn to bring them home quicker would take them to the Pacific Ocean 113 00:11:28,139 --> 00:11:32,740 near the recovery forces. Bringing them home even faster would place them in the South 114 00:11:32,740 --> 00:11:39,740 Atlantic, again away from recovery forces. It was decided to take them to the Pacific. 115 00:11:41,399 --> 00:11:48,279 We run these simulators both here and at the Cape and at the contractors continuously 116 00:11:48,419 --> 00:11:55,419 ever since last night. We've tried to simulate virtually everything that we've h... 117 00:11:55,459 --> 00:12:02,459 to do that is non-normal that they've done. We've proven most everything that we've been 118 00:12:04,339 --> 00:12:08,620 able to run on the simulator prior to passing it up to them. There may be some details we 119 00:12:08,620 --> 00:12:12,100 haven't done, but at least we've checked the feasibility of everything we've done and 120 00:12:12,100 --> 00:12:19,100 we'll continue to do that. They passed 137 miles from the moon. For Lovell it was the 121 00:12:19,200 --> 00:12:24,920 second time that he had seen the moon so near. But there was no time for... 122 00:12:24,920 --> 00:12:31,920 There was another critical burn coming. And in Houston, the newsmen poured in to tell 123 00:12:31,919 --> 00:12:38,919 an anxious world the story. Shortly after Apollo 13 had separated from the Saturn third 124 00:12:50,919 --> 00:12:56,799 stage, the stage had been sent on to a trajectory toward the moon. Its impact wou... 125 00:12:56,799 --> 00:12:59,799 by the seismometer left by Apollo 12. 126 00:13:26,799 --> 00:13:33,799 We're good, fly. Control, okay? We're okay, fly. Tell me, we're go, fly. Inco, okay? 127 00:13:37,359 --> 00:13:44,359 We're good, fly. Ground confirms ignition. Well, buddy, 40 percent. West Houston, you're 128 00:13:45,639 --> 00:13:52,639 looking good. Roger. Shut down. Roger, shut down. 129 00:13:56,799 --> 00:14:03,799 I say that was a good burn. Roger, now we want to power down as soon as possible. 130 00:14:03,799 --> 00:14:08,799 To conserve the electric power and cooling water, the crew shut down all but the vital 131 00:14:08,799 --> 00:14:15,799 life-sustaining systems of the LEM. I think the LEM spacecraft's in excellent shape and 132 00:14:15,839 --> 00:14:20,839 I think it's fully capable of getting the crew back. I think, as we have found before 133 00:14:20,839 --> 00:14:25,599 every time we've put the LEM spacecraft to a test, it's always done much more than it 134 00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:32,040 was guaranteed to do and I think this is a good case in point. Conserve the consumables, 135 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:39,040 cooling water, electric power. The LEM water gun was leaking and we shut that off. I guess 136 00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:44,879 it leaked about a quart of water, I would estimate. But it took me about two days to 137 00:14:44,879 --> 00:14:49,159 get my feet dry and of course, I think you were all aware that the temperatures were 138 00:14:49,159 --> 00:14:56,159 going down in both vehicles and it's made for very chilly feet for a couple of days. 139 00:15:50,159 --> 00:15:57,159 Lord, your astronauts will come back safe. If I may be serious for one moment and ask 140 00:16:00,919 --> 00:16:07,919 the entire audience for a moment of prayer for the crewmen of the Apollo 13. We'll hold 141 00:16:07,919 --> 00:16:14,919 silence for a moment please. R.C.S.A. stands at 62 percent and B. at 62 percent. I see 142 00:16:28,919 --> 00:16:35,919 we've thrown a hell of a lot of time down these links. We are at the third base. We 143 00:16:37,919 --> 00:16:44,919 are thinking about getting people back to sleep again because I didn't get any sleep 144 00:16:44,919 --> 00:16:49,919 last night at all. Command module just slowly kept going down in temperature until I think 145 00:16:49,919 --> 00:16:56,599 just prior to reentry, it was down to about 38 degrees and along with that, it was sort 146 00:16:56,599 --> 00:17:03,599 of a chilling coldness. The walls were perspiring, the windows were completely we... 147 00:17:04,279 --> 00:17:07,759 too healthy. I recall that we went in there to get some hot dogs one day and it was like 148 00:17:07,759 --> 00:17:14,759 reaching into the freezer for the food. If you want my opinion on how they handled the 149 00:17:24,319 --> 00:17:28,799 situation when it happened, they handled it exactly like we'd expect them to. They were 150 00:17:28,799 --> 00:17:33,120 about as well on top of it as anybody could be. We knew what we knew, which isn't very 151 00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:37,959 much I'll have to admit, but I think they did everything right within the knowledge 152 00:17:37,959 --> 00:17:43,479 that was available to us in a timely fashion, which is what we expect of them. I think they 153 00:17:43,479 --> 00:17:48,679 did a beautiful job of it. We actually had a third little sleep restraint, which Fred 154 00:17:48,679 --> 00:17:55,399 does then put on and bucked up and kept a little bit warm. The astronauts faced anot... 155 00:17:55,399 --> 00:18:01,559 their own exhaled breath. The lithium hydroxide chemical to take carbon dioxide ... 156 00:18:01,599 --> 00:18:07,200 air was not sufficient in the lunar module. They would have to adapt the canisters from 157 00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:13,599 the command module to fit the hoses in the lem. On the ground, an adapter was fashioned 158 00:18:13,599 --> 00:18:19,679 from materials the crew had available in the lem, cardboard from a checklist, plastic bags 159 00:18:19,679 --> 00:18:26,319 and tape. After checkout in an environmental chamber, the directions for construction were 160 00:18:26,399 --> 00:18:32,839 sent up to Aquarius. At this point in time, I think the partial pressure of carbon dioxide 161 00:18:32,839 --> 00:18:38,720 was reading about 15 millimeters. And we constructed two of these things and put th... 162 00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:45,720 and I think within an hour, the partial pressure of CO2 was down to two tenths. So... 163 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:52,720 that survival now became one of initiative and ingenuity and it was one which the ground 164 00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:58,839 continually helped us for. We had all kinds of people on the ground trying to think of 165 00:18:58,839 --> 00:19:05,839 ways of extending our lifetime. There would be still another burn. A mid-course... 166 00:19:05,839 --> 00:19:11,360 to get Apollo 13 into the narrow corridor through the atmosphere for a safe return to 167 00:19:11,360 --> 00:19:18,360 Earth. Where'd burn attitude fly to? College. Ignition. Thrust looks good. We're going 168 00:19:22,720 --> 00:19:29,720 to shut down. Hang in there, it won't be long. There were moments when I didn't know 169 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:36,360 how much consumables we had, whether we could make it back or not. But in a situation like 170 00:19:36,360 --> 00:19:41,240 that, there's only one thing you can do. You just keep going and you just keep thinking 171 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:48,240 up where you can get more consumables. And so that's exactly what we did. On April 17, 172 00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:56,240 they prepared for reentry. After a small course correction burn, they jettisoned th... 173 00:19:59,120 --> 00:20:06,120 service module. Copy that. And there's one hole on the side of that big square business. 174 00:20:09,279 --> 00:20:15,279 Is that right? The whole panel has blown out, almost from the base to the entrance. It's 175 00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:22,680 really a mess. Man, that's unbelievable. Next, they got back into Odyssey to jettis... 176 00:20:23,759 --> 00:20:30,759 prior to entry into the atmosphere. I'm jettisoned. Okay, copy that. Farewell,... 177 00:20:34,319 --> 00:20:41,319 you. Okay, LOS in a minute or a minute and a half, an entry attitude we'd like on me, 178 00:20:41,319 --> 00:20:48,319 Charlie. And welcome home. Thank you. 179 00:21:11,319 --> 00:21:18,319 Odyssey Houston, standing by, over. Okay, go over. Odyssey Houston, we show you on 180 00:21:18,319 --> 00:21:25,319 the mains. It really looks great. Power 13, power 13, this is recovery, over. They're 181 00:21:31,839 --> 00:21:38,839 going through a fire pad. Ah, under a power 13, this is recovery. Okay, LOS, we're going 182 00:21:48,319 --> 00:21:55,319 to go over the power 13. Power 13, this is recovery, and you're huge. Look good. Power 183 00:21:55,319 --> 00:22:02,319 13, this is recovery. We observe your RCS burn, over. The recovery of power 13 is... 184 00:22:02,319 --> 00:22:09,299 Apollo 13, this is recovery, over. Photo one strike, and it's destroying the three 185 00:22:09,299 --> 00:22:16,299 ! Power 13, this is recovery, over. The recovery of power 13, power 13, this is... 186 00:22:16,299 --> 00:22:23,299 over. The recovery of power 13, power 13, this is recovery, over. The recovery of power 187 00:22:29,299 --> 00:22:36,299 13, power 13, this is recovery, over. The recovery of power 13, power 13, this is... 188 00:22:39,299 --> 00:22:47,299 over. The recovery of power 13, power 13, power 13, this is recovery, over. The... 189 00:23:10,299 --> 00:23:17,299 of power 13, power 13, this is recovery, over. 190 00:23:30,299 --> 00:23:37,299 Gen C, go. Surgeon, go. Procedures, go. AFD, go. Network, go. Computer suit, go. 191 00:23:39,299 --> 00:23:46,299 Roger. Network, give me an amber. RTC, you're on AFD conference. RTC's on AFD conference. 192 00:23:46,299 --> 00:23:49,299 Okay, all flight controllers, let's play it cool. 193 00:24:09,299 --> 00:24:16,299 Okay, all flight controllers, let's play it cool.