The Apollo 13 mission was the fifth lunar mission and was planned to be the third lunar landing. Because the spacecraft did not actually land on the moon, it is often called a “lunar swing by”(Angelo 40). After a rupture in the service module oxygen tank made landing on the moon impossible, suddenly the main focus of the mission became getting the crew home safely. Apollo 13’s original mission was aborted but is still considered a “successful failure” because of the experience gained in saving the crew.
Apollo 13 launched into space from Kennedy Space Center on launch complex 39A at 12:13 pm on April 11, 1970 (“Apollo 13”). The mission was expected to land in the Fra Mauro area of the moon, but Apollo 13 was forced to circle the moon without landing after an explosion. The object of the mission ended up being reassigned to Apollo 14 which launched in 1971 (Dunbar 1). The spacecraft was comprised of two parts joined by a tunnel. The command module was named Odyssey, and the lunar module was named Aquarius. The crew stayed in Odyssey on their way to the moon (Howell 1).
There were three astronauts on the Apollo 13 mission. John Swigert was the command module pilot and was originally on the Apollo 13 backup crew. Swigert had to take Thomas Mattingly’s place as the command module pilot only seventy-two hours before the mission because Mattingly was diagnosed with German measles (“John Swigert” 1). Another astronaut on Apollo 13 was Fred Haise. Haise was the lunar module pilot for the Apollo 13 mission and had spent a total of 142 hours and fifty-four minutes in space (“Fred Haise” 1). The third astronaut was James Lovell, often known as Jim Lovell. Lovell was the spacecraft commander for the Apollo 13 mission and was the first person...
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"Astronaut Bio: Fred Haise." Astronaut Bio: Fred Haise. NASA, Jan. 1996. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. .
"Astronaut Bio: James A. Lovell." Astronaut Bio: James A. Lovell. NASA, Dec. 1994. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. .
"Astronaut Bio: John L. Swigert." Astronaut Bio: John L. Swigert. NASA, Jan. 1983. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. .
Dunbar, Brian. "Apollo 13." NASA. NASA, 8 July 2009. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. .
Howell, Elizabeth. "Apollo 13: Facts About NASA's Near-Disaster." Space.com. N.p., 23 Aug. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. .
Man on the Moon. CBS News, 2008. DVD.
“On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men to walk on the moon. Just little kids at the time, my brother and I watched history in the making.
The amazing performances by the crew and ground support was what kept the crew alive. The crew and ground Apollo 13 had a huge impact on space exploration. Many people disagree with this because if they had stopped or changed the schedule of Apollo 13 they may not have failed their mission. Even though they failed at their goals the overall result was success. Apollo 13 was an amazing achievement for NASA even though they did not achieve their goals of landing on the Fra Mauro area of the moon. They landed in the pacific ocean on April 17th 1970. The name of their recovery ship was the USS Iwo Jima. The Fra Mauro site was reassigned for Apollo
...ause it was the mission that NASA was able to put the first man up onto the moon. Neil Armstrong was the pilot of the Apollo 11 flight. There was a special shuttle that was attached to the spaceship; it was called the Eagle. The Eagle was designed to transport some crew members down to the moon. Armstrong was responsible for driving and landing the shuttle safely down to the moon. While on his way down to the moon, Armstrong realized that he was starting to run out of fuel. Thankfully, Armstrong did have enough to land on the moon and make it back up to the spaceship. When the Eagle was leaving the spaceship for the first time up in space, it wasn't completely depressurized so there was something like a gas bubble come from the shuttle as it was on its way to the moon. The gas bubble moved the shuttle off course and the Eagle actually landed four miles off course.
The Launch of Apollo 13 took place on the 11 April 1970, it consisted of a crew, James A. Lovell, JR which was a commander, John L. Swigert, Jr., which was a command module pilot and Fred W. Haise, Jr., who was a Lunar module pilot. It appears that all test modules were successfully in preparation for the lau...
“Houston we have a problem,” those words caught the attention of the world on April 13, 1970 during the flight of Apollo 13. The movie Apollo 13, made in 1995, is based on Jim Lovell’s autobiography called Lost Moon, published in 1994. Lovell was the commander of the Apollo 13 mission; Tom Hanks played him in the movie. The crew also included Jack Swigert and Fred Haise. In general, the movie does a good job of portraying the flight of Apollo 13; however there are some significant differences. The producers of the movie consulted with Jim Lovell while making it, and he wanted it to be as accurate as possible. One reason for the deviations is that if the movie showed everything in the book, it would be close to ten hours long and to hard to understand for the average viewer. The book has a lot of technical detail that is left out of the movie, because the movie is intended for a larger audience. The movie includes several scenes that are not in the book, but they aren’t significant to the plot. Graphics make the movie better, because they make it more dramatic and easier to understand. Several of the characters are represented differently from in the book, especially Lovell, who is not as significant as he is portrayed to be in the movie.
Shortly after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed and walked successfully on the Moon for the first time in history, another lunar mission almost ended in disaster without the valor and strong leadership it took to get three men back to Earth. Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks), Jack Swiggert (played by Kevin Bacon), and Fred Haise (played by Bill Paxton) blasted off on the Apollo 13 mission on April 11, 1970, in trying to collect samples from the surface of the Moon and survey it. Swiggert took the place of the more experienced Ken Mattingly (played by Gary Sinese) since Mattingly was the only one not immune to the measles after one of the other astronauts had contracted it. The flight surgeon on the trip ordered him to remain aground to keep both himself and the crew healthy during the flight.
Sambaluk, PhD, Micholas Michael. "John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon." Air & Space Power Journal 27.5 (2013): 156-58. Print.
Apollo 13 was a mission that some may grow to learn was a failure; It was in fact the complete opposite. Space entry was improved immensely, with the efforts and struggles gained from previous missions. In addition, one of the victims of this mission, Jim Lovell, “believed it was a success. Everyone was tested on their ability to work together and that is how Apollo 13 succeeded” (Anastasio 90). Future space entry missions would not have been as successful as they are without previous missions bettering the space program.
This is why John Glenn was famous.Always remember him as the man who orbit earth 3 times in one day. Never forget he was one of the brave one’s to do something for our country and this is why John Glenn is my idol.
Little did anyone know or expect this would be the most rewarding mission since 1961. Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins left from the Kennedy Space Center on the east coast of Florida on July 16,1969. Michael Collins was the command module pilot, Neil Armstrong was the mission commander, and Buzz Aldrin was the lunar module pilot. The Apollo 11 crew traveled 240,000 miles in just 72 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July 19,1696. Collins detached for the lunar module The mission was already ahead of schedule with Americans waiting to see what was going to happen next for their country. At 10:39 p.m., Armstrong, being televised, opened the hatch of the lunar module, and three minutes later Armstrong made history by putting his left foot of the moon’s powdery surface. When Armstrong stepped down from the last step from the spacecraft, all of America jumped for excitement and joy. Aldrin soon joined Armstrong 19 minutes later, and together they took photographs, then planted the United States flag. President Nixon was so very blessed and honored that he was able to witness America make history on July 24, 1969 along with all of the other Americans. Returning back to Earth
“The astronaut is the most visible member of a very large team; and all of us, right down to the guy sweeping the floor, are honored to be a part of it” (Apollo 13). Uttered by the character of astronaut Jim Lovell, these words ring true throughout Apollo 13 where the strong relationship between the crew and mission control highlights teamwork as a necessity.
“On July 16, 1969 the world watched in anticipation as three men were hurtled skyward in a rocket bound for the moon.” (news.nationalgeographic.com). This was the Apollo 11 spacecraft, the first successful manned mission to the moon. This mission was the product of the space race (race to see who would go into outer space first, against the Soviet Union). This goal was set by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961 and he promised that we would be the first to step on the moon by the end of the decade. The Apollo 11 mission is often cited as the greatest achievement in human history. (news.nationalgeographic.com)
On April 13, 1970, NASA's Mission Control heard the five words that no control center ever wants to hear: "We've got a problem here." Jack Swigert, an astronaut aboard the Apollo 13 aircraft, reported the problem of broken down oxygen tanks to the Houston Control Center, less than two days after its takeoff on April 11th. Those at the Control Center in Houston were unsure what had happened to the spacecraft, but knew that some sort of explosion had occurred. This so-called explosion sent Apollo 13 spinning away from the Earth at 2,000 miles per hour, 75 percent of the way to the moon. In order to get the astronauts back to the Earth's atmosphere would be to utilize the moon's gravitational pull and send them back towards home, like a slingshot. However, this procedure would require three days, and this demanded more oxygen and electricity than the crew had available to them. Eugene "Gene" Kranz, head of this flight mission, although looking on in horror, began thinking of solutions to the problem immediately after the Controls were aware of the problem on board. Knowing that the options of refueling the spacecraft with oxygen or retrieve the astronauts himself, he needed to think of a strategy for a safe return. In this sense, if his solution fails, it could result in the biggest catastrophe in NASA history.
A Wednesday morning on July 16, 1969, a fervent crew of three astronauts including Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. was launched by a Saturn V rocket into a controversy. Apollo 11 departed from Cape Kennedy into Earth’s orbit after Columbia, the service module, attached itself with the lunar module, Eagle, and continued the group’s journey towards the Moon. By July 20, Apollo 11 approached the craterous satellite after hovering in its orbit for twenty-four hours. Armstrong and Aldrin allegedly ambled over the lunar surface upon the Lunar Module’s arrival on the Tranquility Base, Armstrong reporting: “The Eagle has landed”. Upon his descent from the Eagle’s ladder, Armstrong delivered his famous words: “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” (“The First Lunar Landing”). After arriving back to Earth at a high speed of 25,000 miles per hour, Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins parachuted to safety into the Pacific Ocean on July 24. During a post-flight press conference in the Manned Spacecraft Center’s auditorium in Houston, Texas, Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin recall the aspects of their adventure, beginning from the undocking process to the placing of the flag and ultimately the voyage back home, at the same time presenting photographs (“The First Lunar Landing”). Upon Buzz Aldrin’s return, he became a victim to severe depression and alcoholism, losing touch with his heroism and plummeting into a stage he referred to as the “downward spiral” (Aldrin & Abraham 271). As for the other men in the Apollo crew, they returned to their regular lives, amid soaking up the fame and glory by the American public. Americans across the nation tuned in to the news channels on their television sets and watche...