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Jim Lovell on Apollo 13
Husband, father, astronaut, captain in the Navy, commander of Apollo 13, and an admirer of Robert Goddard.
Jim Lovell was commander of Apollo 13 on its flight into space-destination: moon. Lovell is married with four children, but from childhood he dreamed of space flight. His hero was Robert Goddard, who developed many principles for liquid fuel rockets.
Only a day away from his moon walk, Apollo 13 began experiencing trouble. His companions were the pilot Fred Haise and Jack Swigert. Lovell and Swigert hoped to be America's third team to experience the lunar surface on the module Aquarius. Lovell had been on three early space flights, but this one proved to different and lift threatening.
The spacecraft gave off a tremendous bang before it began roll and shudder. Lovell's first thought was to look at Haise. In 1954, as a beginning pilot for the Navy, Lovell had become lost over the Pacific during a night flight. It occurred from following the wrong navigation beacon signal. Lovell had not had an experience such as this before, and he was hoping that Haise had bumped into one of Apollo 13's values. From Haise's eyes, Lovell knew this was no bumped value, but more probably a life and death situation for the members of the crew.
On first inspection, they realized that there was an icy condensation and a cloud of debris coming from the side of the spacecraft. Lovell contacted the Houston Space Center, believing they had been hit by a meteor, relayed the quickly depleting oxygen readings. The fuel cells, which made electricity, began to wane. Their main concern now-survival.
With the help of many NASA officials and contractors, they began to invent new ways of coping with a damaged spacecraft. As Odyssey ran out of electricity and oxygen, the three moved to Aquarius, which still had a full supply of oxygen and full batteries. Aquarius had been implemented with the necessary equipment for two occupants to land on the lunar surface, it had not been prepared to return three astronauts from space to Earth. But, Apollo 13 was four days away from Earth and NASA's engineers knew that Aquarius could not sustain life for that long.
As the electricity began to wane, Lovell attempted to transfer navigation data from the keyboard into Aquarius' computer. Earth-bound engineers devised a way for Lovell to use the smaller rocket for boosting Apollo 13 into the trajectory orbit around the moon and then returning to Earth. This put Lovell in a precarious situation-Aquarius' handling was completely different with Apollo 13 still attached. He had not practiced, nor been prepared for this type of situation.
Navigation by the stars was out, since the shimmering debris around Apollo 13 made them impossible to see. This is when the crew turned their attention to the sun and the moon for guiding the engine burns. To preserve the lander's batteries, only the necessary and essential systems were kept running. They had to eat frozen food packets, they were without blankets and coats, and they were on a strict drinking water schedule. Haise was ill with a kidney infection, running chills and fever, but did not complain. There breathe added high carbon dioxide levels, almost lethal. The controllers at NASA devise a unique instrument for coping with the high carbon dioxide from cardboard, plastic bags and duct tape. It was fitted to the size of the command module's cleansing canisters and to the ducts on Aquarius.
On returning to Earth, the crew was hailed as heroes. Lovell said that he was not a hero, he only did what was forced upon him, to the best of his abilities. This was not the first or worse accident experienced by crews of spaceflight, but the Lovell and his companions overcame an almost deadly situation through courage and help from many caring and able-minded people on Earth's surface.
Sources:
1. Petit, Charles W. U.S. News: "Extreme Explorers." US News: USA Aug. 20 - Aug. 27, 2001. Volume 131, Number 7. pps.55-56
Further Study:
Jim Lovell and the Flight of Apollo 13
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