Forty years of Apollo 13

[Zulu Romeo]

Today, in fact right about now(ish), marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13, at 1313 hours CST, 11th April 1970, on a mission to land at Fra Mauro, the Moon - the second such moon-shot after Apollo 11, aimed at landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.

Of course, we all know what happened a few days later - bang goes an oxygen tank or two on the way to the Moon, power failures, the moon landing subsequently aborted, and a mad rush to get the three astronauts back home in one piece. Good material for a motion picture or two, perhaps.

I wonder, though: was anyone here on the TrekBBS who was around and who witnessed these events from Earth? Last year there was this great web-based recreation of Apollo 11; it's a shame there doesn't seem to be a similar one of this important event.

 

[Zachary Smith]

I was nine years old. I remember it well. The world worried for the astronauts. Tremendous relief when they made it back safely.

And not ONE person that I recall claimed it was all "faked".

 

[Zulu Romeo]

^^ When watching the Ron Howard film (itself an adaptation of "Lost Moon") it was noted that the general public didn't really pay much attention to what was deemed a "routine" Moon mission... that is, up until that fateful accident. Was that the same general feeling you had back then?

 

[Chaos Descending]

It was only the third manned mission to the moon, hardly routine, don't you think?

 

[sojourner]

^The general public is fickle.

 

[Zachary Smith]

^^ When watching the Ron Howard film (itself an adaptation of "Lost Moon") it was noted that the general public didn't really pay much attention to what was deemed a "routine" Moon mission... that is, up until that fateful accident. Was that the same general feeling you had back then?

Well, as I said, I was only 9 but, yeah. I think the general public was kind of ho-hum about it. Viet Nam was the big deal. That and the peace protests and all associated with that. There was a HUGE joy at Apollo 11 but going to the moon was the big deal. Going to the moon AGAIN--NOT such a big deal.

 

[Deckerd]

^^ When watching the Ron Howard film (itself an adaptation of "Lost Moon") it was noted that the general public didn't really pay much attention to what was deemed a "routine" Moon mission... that is, up until that fateful accident. Was that the same general feeling you had back then?

Nothing much happened between orbit and orbit, to be fair. The exciting bits were always full coverage.

 

[diankra]

^^ When watching the Ron Howard film (itself an adaptation of "Lost Moon") it was noted that the general public didn't really pay much attention to what was deemed a "routine" Moon mission... that is, up until that fateful accident. Was that the same general feeling you had back then?

Nothing much happened between orbit and orbit, to be fair. The exciting bits were always full coverage.

The Apollo 13 crew did a TV broadcast just before the 'bang'. It wasn't carried live on any network (understandable for the third landing mission), but none of the networks were even planning to run it at all (ISTR that they hadn't even recorded the link, and had to ask NASA for footage when they needed it for the news coverage).