Launch News 50th anniversary of Apllo 13

Topper

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50 years ago, Apollo 13 lifted off from the Cape. Apollo 13 has shown us how it is possible to manage a crisis. We need more of such experts as well today, no more stupid politcans please! :)
 

llarian

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And, back then, I watched every second of it that I could. Then I watched the movie, again and again and again. It never gets old. They got back because experts were working to get them back and they listened to them. Of course, they were also ex-military. No heel spurs on the lot of them.
 

Urwumpe

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The Kranz dictum resulting from the Apollo 1 accident is still one major definition for me what professionalism is about: Tough and competent.

"Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, and neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been in design, build, or test. Whatever it was, we should have caught it. We were too gung ho about the schedule and we locked out all of the problems we saw each day in our work. Every element of the program was in trouble and so were we. The simulators were not working, Mission Control was behind in virtually every area, and the flight and test procedures changed daily. Nothing we did had any shelf life. Not one of us stood up and said, "Dammit, stop!" I don't know what Thompson's committee will find as the cause, but I know what I find. We are the cause! We were not ready! We did not do our job. We were rolling the dice, hoping that things would come together by launch day, when in our hearts we knew it would take a miracle. We were pushing the schedule and betting that the Cape would slip before we did.

From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: "Tough" and "Competent". Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into Mission Control we will know what we stand for. Competent means we will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. Mission Control will be perfect. When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write "Tough and Competent" on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White, and Chaffee. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control."

Seriously - I really wish all politicians would show a similar professional conduct. But especially responsibility is rare today.
 

asbjos

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In conjunction with the anniversary, BBC has an Apollo 13 podcast, called "13 minutes to the Moon".
Highly recommended, with interviews with several of the people involved, including Kranz, John Aaron, Sy Libergot, Jerry Griffin, several others in mission control, and of course Fred Haise and Jim Lovell, and some of their family members.

Before listening, I feared it would cater more to the general public, and bring nothing new to a "space nerd" like me. But I was wrong. Really great stuff! And great story telling.

You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts. I use Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36P6Xk2292DapFNerkRbDw
 

Notebook

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Apollo 13 has been called ‘NASA's finest hour’. What was meant to have been the third lunar landing in April 1970, 50 years ago, became a struggle to safely return the crew of three when an oxygen tank explosion crippled their Apollo spacecraft. In the end, it was a major success.
The interaction between the Apollo 13 astronauts and mission operations teams on the ground remains one of the finest examples of leadership and teamwork in modern history, and ESA’s mission control, at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), is based on the same approach.

http://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/Space_is_hard_-_mission_control_after_Apollo_13
 

Frilock

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The time distance between Apollo 13 the movie and now is the same as the actual events were from the film.
 
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