On the evening of April 13, NASA astronauts James Lovell Jr., John Swigert Jr. and Fred Haise Jr. were about to go to sleep for the night in the Apollo 13 command module. They were about 200,000 miles away from Earth on the way to the moon.
The astronauts had just finished a TV broadcast providing a tour of the lunar module that would land on the moon.
On the ground in Houston's Mission Control center, Apollo 13 flight director Gene Kranz and his team were about to hand off to another shift.
In audio from the mission, the crew was asked to stir up the liquid oxygen tanks. Swigert flipped a switch.
Then, an explosion crackled over the audio from Apollo 13's command module. "Houston, we've had a problem here," Lovell said.
And we know the rest of the story.
Amazing ingenuity and incredible teamwork in the face of very long odds got the 3 astronauts safely back to Earth.
This story amazes me. The movie starring Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise and a whole bunch of others is one of my favorites.
If you find the story fascinating as well, be sure to check this out:
Apollo 13 astronauts Jim Lovell and Fred Haise on their moon mission 50 years later
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt
p.s. in case you don't know, John Swigert Jr. passed away way back in 1982 -- and he was the one who first said "Houston, we've had a problem here" (contrary to the CNN story above):