The system was not expected to be fired more than once on a lunar mission. It was designed for descent from lunar orbit to landing. To use it for both Apollo 13’s mid-course correction burn (to return to the free-return trajectory) and a subsequent firing to accelerate the journey home amounted to a second firing.”
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What Went Wrong on Apollo 13? - HISTORY What Went Wrong on Apollo 13? It was supposed to be the third-ever moon landing. It turned into a rescue mission.
This is Apollo Control. Rather noisy communications at the present time on the air-to-ground circuit to Apollo 13.
It was designed for descent from lunar orbit to landing. To use it for both Apollo 13’s mid-course correction burn (to return to the free-return trajectory) and a subsequent firing to accelerate the journey home amounted to a second firing.”
No one knew it, but when Apollo 13 lifted off, it carried the makings of a small bomb inside its service module.
Without the second burn the ship's trajectory likely would have successfully returned the crew to Earth approximately 153 hours after launch. This provided less than an hour of consumables to spare, a margin too close for comfort.
The three astronauts in the stricken Apollo 13 looped round the moon early today and successfully fired their only usable rocket engine to set a planned course back to earth. The critical burn, which began at 3 41a.
On April 13, approximately 205,000 miles (330,000 km) from Earth, an explosion ruptured an oxygen tank in the service module. The resulting shortage of power and oxygen forced the abandonment of the Moon mission. Apollo 13's crew changed course to swing once around the Moon and then return to Earth.
Apollo 13 was NASA's third moon-landing mission, but the astronauts never made it to the lunar surface. During the mission's dramatic series of events, an oxygen tank explosion almost 56 hours into the flight forced the crew to abandon all thoughts of reaching the moon.
The Apollo 13 malfunction was caused by an explosion and rupture of oxygen tank no. 2 in the service module. The explosion ruptured a line or damaged a valve in the no. 1 oxygen tank, causing it to lose oxygen rapidly.
According to the mission log maintained by Gene Kranz, the Apollo 13 re-entry blackout lasted around 6 minutes, beginning at 142:39 and ending at 142:45, and was 1 minute 27 seconds longer than had been predicted. Communications blackouts for re-entry are not solely confined to entry into Earth's atmosphere.
about 34 degrees Fahrenheit“The spacecraft cabin temperature on a normal mission is controlled by using heat produced by electrical systems, with the excess heat dissipating by radiation into space. With the electrical systems turned off, the temperature approached about 34 degrees Fahrenheit prior to entering the atmosphere.
An explosion 56 hours into the mission happened before the command module and lunar module had separated, so the crew were able to use the intact lunar module as a lifeboat with its own power sources, rockets and oxygen supply.
During the Apollo 13 mission, the LM environmental control system provided a habitable environment for about 83 hours (57:45 to 141:05 GET). Cabin temperature remained low due to low electrical power levels. This caused crew discomfort during much of this period, with cabin temperatures ranging between 49°F and 55 °F.
Other astronauts from the program who are still alive include: Walter Cunningham, 89 (Apollo 7) William Anders, 87 (Apollo 8) Fred Haise Jr., 87 (Apollo 13)
Apollo 2 and 3: There were no craft named Apollo 2 or 3. Apparently after the Apollo-1 craft was destroyed during a pre-flight test at Cape Canaveral, the first few mission (through Apollo-6) were unmanned missions to test various aspects of the Apollo program - Launch vehicle, CSM, LM, and their inter-play.
December 27, 1982Jack Swigert / Date of death
If it failed or blew, or if the burn wasn’t executed perfectly, the crew could impact the Moon.
In his book, “Failure is Not an Option,” Kranz said it was purely a gut feeling that made him choose to take the long way – to go around the Moon and use the descent engine on the lunar lander rather than the CSM. “Later, Gene Kranz shared he felt a foreboding about using that engine,” said Woodfill. “Nevertheless, even the use of the lander’s ...
This is Apollo Control at 67 hours, 38 minutes. President Nixon talked with NASA Administrator Dr. Thomas O. Paine at 7:45 am CST today. Dr. Paine, who arrived in Houston by NASA aircraft at 6:40 am CST from Washington, was in Mission Control and gave the President an update on the Apollo 13 Mission.
The tunnel between the two is open so they share a common atmosphere. Apollo 13 now 193,700 nautical miles [358,700 km] out from Earth; velocity, 3,005 feet per second [916 m/s].
Apollo 13 now is 203,957 nautical miles [377,728 km] from Earth; velocity is 2,894 feet per second [882 m/s]. Jim Lovell, the spacecraft commander, and Jack Swigert the Command Module Pilot have just started a 6-hour rest period. Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise is awake at the present time.
Scientist astronaut Joe Kerwin, MD, has taken over the CapCom position from Jack Lousma. This is the first change of the CapCom during the crisis part of the mission. It's almost six in the morning in Houston, Texas, where Mission Control staff have worked through the night. 064:37:48 Lovell:Roger, Jack.
The Service Module is severely damaged and the Command Module has been powered down to preserve its scarce consumables for re-entry. Only the Lunar Module Aquariusis fully fit but it has the task of housing three men for four days of coasting towards Earth instead of two men for less than two days on the Moon.
There, technicians who were handling the tank accidentally dropped it about two inches. After testing the tank, they concluded the incident hadn't caused any detectable damage. The dropped tank was eventually cleared for flight and installed in Apollo 13. The tank passed all of its routine prelaunch tests.
But the Number 2 oxygen tank aboard Apollo 13 did have a slightly tarnished history. In October 1968, the Number 2 tank eventually used on Apollo 13 was at the North American Aviation plant in Downey, ...
Oxygen from these tanks was used not only for the astronauts to breathe, but to help run three fuel cells that provided electrical power to run the command ship's many systems. Inside each oxygen tank was a thermostat which, along with a heater, was used to regulate the temperature inside the tank.
And it went fast," recalled Guenter Wendt , who served as the leader of the launch pad teams at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. Wendt's thick German accent and staunch demeanor prompted the Original Mercury Seven astronauts to nickname him the "Pad Fuhrer.". [ Gallery: Project Apollo .]
However, neither Wendt nor his colleagues wanted to believe they were at fault, and no one wasted any time doing so. Wendt told SPACE.com that once the emergency began, he didn't have time to dwell on the emotions of the moment. "You don't think so much as to how do you feel or what it means. You have a job.".
What Went Wrong on Apollo 13? It was supposed to be the third-ever moon landing. It turned into a rescue mission . It was supposed to be the third-ever moon landing.
Because so much valuable experience was gained in the process of rescuing Lovell, Swiger, and Haise, NASA classified the Apollo 13 mission as a “ successful failure .”.
NASA’s subsequent investigation revealed that the No. 2 oxygen tank onboard Apollo 13 had been accidentally dropped during maintenance before the Apollo 10 mission in 1969, causing slight internal damage that didn’t show up in later inspections. READ MORE: See Photos of How Astronauts Trained for the Apollo Moon Missions.
For nearly 56 hours after the Apollo 13 mission launched on April 11, 1970, it looked to be the smoothest flight of NASA’s Apollo program so far. The spacecraft ferrying astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise to their planned lunar landing had traveled just over 200,000 miles from Earth, and was approaching the moon’s orbit.
They ordered the crew to make their way from the spacecraft’s command module, Odyssey, into the separate landing module, Aquarius . If things had gone as planned, Aquarius wouldn’t have been turned on until the astronauts were ready to touch down on the moon.
One of four Apollo 13 flight directors views the large screen at front as astronaut Fred Haise, Lunar Module pilot, is seen on the screen. While in flight, the astronauts had to turn on the fuel tanks’ internal fans periodically in order to stir the super cold oxygen, which tended to stratify, or settle into layers.
The crew of Apollo 13 waving after their return to Earth. Left to right: Fred W. Haise, James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert. On April 17, after the engineers in Houston succeeded in powering Odyssey back up, the crew prepared for the final stages of their journey to Earth by jettisoning the lunar module.
KahBhume. · 7y. Since the mission was originally designed to put the craft into orbit around the moon , not to return it to earth. The burn was needed to adjust the craft's position and velocity to get it back to a free-return trajectory (sending it back to earth after circling the moon).
Houston knew they were drifting off course and figured out how much they needed to correct, and in what direction. They relayed that to the astronauts, who made the correction. Trying to keep Earth centered in their window served to make sure they ended up on the right trajectory.