I would like to introduce the apollo 13 crew, captain james lovell, captain john swigert, and fred haise. I would like to start by saying i am not a superstitious person. Therefore, when we were assigned apollo 13, i thought nothing of it. Some said 13 was a lucky number and were happy i got that number. It started just before the flight, as was documented. As we were approaching the final phase of training, the last couple of days are usually taken very leisurely, keeping a couple of days free to unwind from the long Training Cycle and get rest so that when we launch, we are in good shape. As you know, a turn of events occurred and ken mattingly, our command module pilot, was exposed to the measles, and we had to make the decision to bring jack along. They asked what i wanted to do because we worked as a team for a long time, but i realized the Space Program had matured to that degree whereby we had quite a few people who were well knowledgeable about the spacecraft and well to fly. A
When you were a little kid. You saw a rocket go off and said i want to do that. Is it that simple or that complex . I was interested in rockets in astronomy long before people get spell rocket. I was interested in it way back in high school. I went to try to build some rockets. I wanted to become a rocket engineer, as a matter of fact. Worked at the rocket society. I wanted to become a rocket engineer but essentially they said you have to go to mit or to caltech. I cannot afford either. So i took a secondary goal. I got an rotc appointment to wisconsin. From there i went to the Naval Academy. I got to the flight training. I became a naval air aviator. In 1958, nasa was formed and they were looking for astronauts. I was one of the original 110 people who were selected. Let me go back to the Naval Academy . That is right. This was right after world war ii. I got down to preflight. My mother, when i was at the university of wisconsin, told me to apply to the Naval Academy. 7z3 vi did it,
There i got into flight training. I became a naval aviator, and low and behold in 1958 nasa was formed and they were looking for astronauts. So i was one of the original 110 people selected to go for interviews. Lets go back to your Naval Academy days, you almost didnt go, is that right . That is right. I had two years at wisconsin. I informs a Naval Aviation program after world war ii. Have been the most important project in this century. I became the first alternate that usually doesnt make it, are and i got orders for the physical to be inducted into the academy if you so desired. And then i said should i go to the academy, they said dont do that, you two years of college, you have Naval Aviation, if you go back you have to start all over again, you might not get back in aviation, but there was an old captain there and he said if you want to make the navy your career, get yourself to the academy, that is what hatppened. I term paper, my first term paper, i wrote on the development o
Although there were problems on every mission we flew during the apollo program. If you could look at the entire report, it is a book about that thick. It is in the archives so you could get it through freedom of information. And as an appendix it lists the problems, we call them anomalies, some people call them funnies, that happened on the flights. And they listed them museum air cally by flight auditor and you ignore apollo 7 and 8, they only have one spacecraft, they didnt fly a landing aircraft. Apollo 13 had the second least number of problems of all of the flights. We almost aborted apollo 14 and apollo 16. They had pretty Serious Problems they were able to work around and allowed them to land. So that was the nature of the business. And as i said, the very theme of this movie that carried very well was the story of somebody in problem, with problems, with a challenge, challenges really to face. And showed a group of people, a team in this case of Mission Control and ourselves.
13, weve got one more item for you when youve got a chance wed like you to startup your cryo tanks. Okay. Standby. We have a problem here. This is houston. Say again please. Houston weve had a problem. Weve had a main bust on a volt. Standby 13, were looking at it. April 11, 1970, launch day. The crew of apollo 13, commander and veteran of three previous missions, he had orbited the moon christmas 1968 on apollo 8. Fred hayes, his first time up, lunar module pilot. Jack swaggert, command module pilot. Mattingly had been dropped from the mission because hed been exposed to german measles. He would watch the mission from houstons mission control. Roger. Were on internal power. Hows it look . Ignition. Roger. Hows it look . Looks good here. Booster, how do you look . Look good. Were go flight. Looks good here. Looks good, mike. You dont see a problem do you . Not yet. All engines are a go. The next step of lunar flight was to burn out of earth orbit toward the moon and pull free of the th