Apollo 13 Log Friday, April 17, 1970
A crescent Earth loomed beyond the windows of the lunar module Aquarius -- amazingly close yet still out of reach. Mission Control had told Jim Lovell and his crew that some inexplicable force (it turned out to be normal venting from the landers cooling system) was causing their flight path to shallow. If the astronauts did nothing to correct the error, Odyssey would reach the Earth only to skip off the atmosphere, like stone skittering across the surface of a pond, and continue back out into deep space. All hope of a safe return would be gone, and the men would perish when their oxygen supply ran out.
And so, in the early hours of Friday morning, Lovell and Haise steered Apollo 13 into position for one final correction maneuver. This time, they fired Aquarius maneuvering thrusters for 21 seconds to nudge the spacecraft back onto the proper path.
The firing almost didnt go as planned. Jim Lovell was so tired that in the final preparations for the maneuver he called up the program for firing Aquarius descent engine. Fortunately, sharp-eyed controllers in Houston noticed the error.
Even so, the exhaustion evident in Lovell and his crew had worried NASA doctors and others who knew of their ordeal. The physical, emotional and psychological stresses on the men were enormous. For one thing, the cold had made it almost impossible to sleep.
Then there was the dehydration. Because water was essential for cooling the lunar modules electronic equipment, the astronauts had done everything they could to conserve. Lovell in particular had restricted his water intake, and now he was suffering the consequences.
Fred Haise was even worse shape. What no one knew was that he had contracted a urinary tract infection because of unsanitary conditions in a makeshift urine-collection system. By Friday morning he had chills and fever and was truly exhausted.
A glimpse at disaster
For Jack Swigert, meanwhile, an exciting moment was at hand: Mission Control gave him the go-ahead to begin powering up Odysseys systems. To ease the drain on the command modules batteries, Odyssey temporarily drew some of its power from Aquarius another of Mission Controls ingenious ideas.
At 7:15 a.m., Houston time, it was time to cast off the crippled service module. Swigert flipped a switch, and there was a bang of pyrotechnics as the cylindrical module separated and drifted away. Inside Aquarius, Lovell turned the spacecraft to get a view of the damage. It was the first time the astronauts could glimpse the effects of the explosion that had almost killed them, four days earlier.
Suddenly the service module drifted into view. Lovell had expected to see a small hole; instead, an entire panel had been blown off. Lovell radioed, "Theres one whole side of that spacecraft missing!" The astronauts clicked off photographs until the service module was a small speck in the distance. Those pictures would be invaluable evidence to the engineers who would try to figure out what went wrong on Apollo 13.
No one who heard Lovells description, in space or in Houston, knew if the explosion had damaged the command modules heat shield. At this point, knowing the answer hardly mattered: there was nothing the astronauts, or the mission controllers, could have done about it.
NASA artwork shows how the Apollo 13 astronauts jettisoned their service module, followed by the lunar module Aquarius, before reentering the Earth's atmosphere in the command module Odyssey.
Moment of truth
At 9 a.m., Houston time, with just two and a half hours left before reentry, Mission Control gave Swigert and Haise the go-ahead to fully revive Odyssey. Inside the frigid cabin, water clung to the instrument panel, so much that before the men could proceed they had to wipe it off. They could only hope there was no water behind the panel that might cause an electrical short as they activated Odysseys systems. Miraculously, the command module came back to life with no ill effects.
There was only one thing left to do before reentry. Unlike Odyssey, the lunar module Aquarius had no heat shield and was not designed to withstand the fiery plunge into the Earths atmosphere. Before they could come home, Lovell, Swigert and Haise would have to say goodbye to the craft that had saved their lives.
With Lovell safely inside the command module, the men sealed off the hatchway and then, with a mixture of sadness and gratitude, cast off the lander. In Mission Control Joe Kerwin radioed an appreciation: "Farewell, Aquarius, and we thank you.
By this time Mission Control was jammed with controllers and off-duty personnel awaiting the outcome of this life-and-death drama.
"Everybody says you're looking great," radioed Kerwin. "Welcome home."
"Thank you," came the response, and then there was silence.
Apollo 13 was slamming into the atmosphere, creating an ionized trail that blacked out communications for what seemed an eternity. A full minute after the blackout's scheduled end, there was no signal. Finally, Jack Swigert's voice came through clearly: "Okay, Joe."
The astronauts wait in a life raft for pickup by a recovery helicopter. From right to left: Jack Swigert, Jim Lovell and Fred Haise (with back to camera).
On the big screen at the front of Mission Control, and broadcast on televisions around the world, viewers saw a clear, calm morning in the south Pacific. Still no one could breathe easy. They couldnt be sure the mechanism to deploy the parachutes had survived the frigid conditions of the last four days.
Finally, after long minutes, the TV picture showed Odyssey descending under three beautiful, perfect parachutes. As the command module came gently to rest on the Pacific, cheers and applause filled Mission Control. As much as the astronauts, the heroes of Apollo 13 were these men and women in Houston, throughout NASA and at contractors around the country. Gene Kranz could not hold back tears.
For years afterward, many called Apollo 13 NASA's finest hour.
Less than eight months later, in January 1971, Apollo 14 lifted off with three redesigned oxygen tanks and other improvements, to complete the mission that Lovell's crew had been denied, and begin the scientific exploration of the moon in earnest.
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