Forty years after the Apollo 13 mission, Universe Today takes a look at the missions, the accident and how the astronauts got back to earth safely: 13 Things That Saved Apollo 13 (Link via MetaFilter: Surviving a Space Scrape 40 years Ago.)
So far, nine of the 13 parts have been posted. (I’m going to add the other links as the pages become available.)
- Part 1: Timing
- Part 2: The hatch that wouldn’t close
- Part 3: Charlie Duke’s measles
- Part 4: Using the LM for propulsion
- Part 5: Unexplained shutdown of the Saturn V center engine
- Part 6: Navigating by Earth’s terminator
- Part 7: The Apollo I fire
- Part 8: The command module wasn’t severed
- Part 9: Position of the tanks
- Part 10: Duct Tape
- Part 11: A Hollywood movie
- Part 12: Lunar Orbit Rendezvous
- Part 13: The Mission Operations Team
- Plus: Never before published images of Apollo 13 recovery
Gene Kranz was the flight director for NASA‘s Gemini and Apollo Missions. Here’s a Discovery Channel Video of Kranz talking about his experiences with the Apollo 13 mission. I’m reading Kranz’s book Failure is not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond right now and enjoy it immensely.