On April 17, 1970, the crew of Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean after the service module was badly crippled by an oxygen tank explosion.
I'm always amazed to read the story of how the astronauts survived grueling conditions for three days and still managed to carry out difficult tasks, and how the mission controllers and engineers all over the country helped to bring the crew home. Somehow, NASA pulled off a miracle. In a way, Apollo 13 is the height of the space program's acheivements--everything went horribly, horribly wrong, and it all turned out all right thanks to the brilliance, competence, and endurance of the astronauts and ground crew. And a great deal of foresight. I was surprised to discover that the LEM as lifeboat came up in a simulation for Apollo 10, was officially considered to be a waste of time, but was developed anyway by a few people who thought it might be useful someday.
I wish the problem with Columbia had been spotted earlier. Obviously, the crew would have had a chance at survival that way, but also because our space program could use another successful failure to remind us that it is still capable of great things. I wonder if NASA is still capable of doing what it did back in April 1970.
Posted by Jay (Member # 5786) on :
Wow… very interesting.
Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :
Bump... because those are really cool articles and because I want to have three threads started by me on the front page so I can pretend I'm someone important.
Posted by Beanny (Member # 7109) on :
Shigoshei, I think you're important... Posted by mothertree (Member # 4999) on :
It reminds me of Shackleton's transantarctic expedition. They failed in their primary mission but it is amazing that all the men under his direct command survived.
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