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R E M E M B E R I N G A P O L L O 1 3
Compiled from JPL's Public Access Computer Site by Todd Van Hoosear
Country: USA
Mission: Manned Moon Landing
Launched: April 11, 1970
Launch Vehicle: Saturn 5
Spacecraft Mass: 45,931 kg
Crew: James Lovel, Jr., John Swigert, Jr., Fred Haise, Jr.
End of Mission: April 17, 1970 (Earth return).
It is unsure which date will be most remembered by those involved with
Apollo 13: the lauch date of April 11, 1970 or the the Earth return date
of April 17. My money is on the latter date, as it marked the successful
end of an unsuccessful and extremely stressful mission.
The mission, which was classified by NASA as a "successful failure,"
turned disasterous when an explosion ruptured the oxygen tank in the
Command Service Module and crippled power and life-support systems two
days into the mission.
Originally intended for a 10-day lunar landing mission to explore the
hilly upland Fra Mauro region of the Moon and to deploy and activate an
Apollo lunar surface experiments, the mission was aborted after the
system failure.
It was during this mission that astronauts uttered perhaps the second
most famous phrase in the history of space exploration, "Houston, we
have a problem." The crew transferred to the Lunar Module as a lifeboat
for oxygen and power. Apollo 13 then circled around the Moon and then
back the Earth. A free-return trajectory was performed, and the
astronauts returned to the Command Module just prior to entering the
Earth's atmosphere.
Movie goers can look forward this month to a dramatization of the
mission. _Apollo 13_ is scheduled to be released somewhere around the
25th anniversary date.
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- T o d d E. V a n H o o s e a r -
``'''vanhoose@lalaland.cl.msu.edu - vanhoose@msu.edu - vanhoose@lalaland.cl.msu.edu
(._.) Michigan State University - East Lansing, MI USA
(_) Computer Laboratory - Department of Communication
`---' <A HREF="http://lalaland.cl.msu.edu/~vanhoose/">My Home Page</A>
"I.R.S.: We've got what it takes to take what you've got!"
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