Sep 13

Space Rocket History #270 – Apollo 13 – The News Breaks

Cronkite did not look good. He called Schirra over and thrust a sheet of wire-service copy at him. Schirra scanned the text hurriedly, and with each sentence his heart sank. This was bad. This was worse than bad. This was . . . unheard of. He had a thousand questions, but there wasn’t time to ask……

Jules Bergman, ABC Science Editor

Walter Cronkite & Wally Schirra, CBS

Jim Lovell family except son James

Sep 05

Space Rocket History #269 – Apollo 13 – “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” – Part 4

EECOM, Sy Liebergot looked away from his monitor; the end, he knew, was at last here. Liebergot, through no fault of his own, was about to become the first flight controller in the history of the manned space program to lose the ship that had been placed in his charge.

Flight Director Glynn Lunney

Fuel Cells 1-3

Apollo Fuel Cell

Aug 29

Space Rocket History #268 – Apollo 13 – “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” – Part 3

As near as Lovell could tell, it would be a while before the ship’s endgame would play out. He had no way of calculating the leak rate in the tank, but if the moving needle was any indication, he had a couple hours at least before the 318 pounds of oxygen were gone.

Location of major electrical power subsystem equip.

Electrical power subsystem components in CM lower equip. bay

Hydrogen Cryogenic tank

Aug 23

Space Rocket History #267 – Apollo 13 – “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” – Part 2

By the time Flight Director Kranz heard Lovell’s report, of “Houston, we’ve had a problem. ” three controllers had reported related problems. Kranz was wondering which problem Lovell was reporting, as he started relaying the long list of warning indications from the spacecraft displays.

Gene Kranz Lead Flight Director for Apollo 13

EECOM, Sy Liebergot

CapCom, Jack Lousma