Apollo 13 Essays -- American History

Apollo 13 Apollo 13 launched on April 11, 1970 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crewmembers aboard the ship were James A. Lovell Jr., John L. Swigert Jr., and Fred W. Haise, Jr. Before the launch, there had been a few problems. Thomas K. Mattingly was supposed to fly on the Apollo 13 but he was exposed to the measles. He didn’t have the antibodies to fight the disease, causing him to not be able to go into space. Swigert took his place. Right before the launch, one of the technicians saw that the helium tank had a higher pressure than expected. Nothing was done to fix this. During liftoff, the second-stage engine shut down, causing the other engines to run longer than planned. Apollo 13 was off to a rocky start. During the flight, the second oxygen tank exploded. The oxygen tank contained liquid required for fuel and oxygen. Liquid oxygen has to be handled very carefully. The astronauts need to constantly stir the oxygen to prevent it from separating. The wires in the device needed to stir the oxygen were damaged, causing a big fire when electricity was passed through them. The explosion caused the number one oxygen to be critically damaged. This was bad because it left the ship with little power. Clueless about the real reason for the explosion, the crew thought a meteoroid had hit them. There was a large amount of damage caused by the explosions. Lovell looked out of the window, thirteen minutes after the explosion. He noticed that the ship was venting some gas out into space. Oxygen gas was leaking out of the spacecraft. Reacting on impulse, the astronauts closed the hatched between the Command Module and Lunar Module. Slowly, the crew and ground controllers began to realize that Apollo 1 3 was losing oxygen. Ap... ... to be separated from the ship. The Command Module had to be powered up again after being shut down for a long time. Mission Control had to write new documents for this new action. Normally, documents are written in three months before being performed. Mission Control, obviously, did not have that amount of time, causing them to have to write new documents in three days. Next, the crew got in the command module and let the lunar module go. The hard part was over. The ship landed safely in the South Pacific Ocean. The crew was rescued and brought onto the USS Iwo Jima. All three astronauts were returned to Earth unharmed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13 http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_13/overview/ http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo-13/apollo-13.html http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/imagery/apollo/AS13/a13sum.htm