September 23 2008, Apollo 13 Astronauts Return Safely
door Theo Verbeek
Kennedy Space Center - On board of the spacecraft Apollo 13 a critical situation developed today, when one of the oxygen tanks exploded, damaging the other. The crew had to shut down the Command Module and move to the Lunar Module just to survive.
The planned landing on the moon was cancelled. And the utmost was done to get the crew safely back to earth. And the ground team in Houston succeeded!
They had to overcome poisoning of the crew by carbon dioxide. They had to correct the speed using the Lunar Module rockets, but without a computer or navigating aids. And lastly they had to find a way to start up the Command Module again with almost empty batteries, because entering the atmosphere in the Lunar Module was impossible.
Here are some pictures of the ground team, working themselves in a sweat in the so called Jobs room in Houston.
Heated discussion going on around the desk of CapCom, the service desk of Houston.
The Flight Specialists (Problem management) trying to find solutions.
Sofia of CapCom keeping track of the incidents, while in the background the Apollo 13 is shown bound to disappear behind the moon.