Apollo 13 Reminds Us of Hard Things Worth Doing, op ed, By Jim Lovell and Jim Bridenstine, WS Journal “As the coronavirus pandemic unfolds, Americans can take comfort in our history of facing difficult times with courage and emerging stronger on the other side of struggle. The Apollo 13 mission, launched 50 years ago Saturday, reminds us of Americans’ characteristic resilience and ingenuity. … When things went wrong on the […]

Apollo 13 “Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the service module upon which the Command Module depended. Despite great hardship caused by […]

Will NASA Ever Recover Apollo 13s Plutonium From the Sea?, Txchnologist “I don’t think that anyone has seriously considered that,” said Leonard Dudzinski, a NASA program executive who deals with radioisotope power systems. The plutonium was in an oxide form contained in fuel capsule, which itself was inside a graphite and ceramic fuel cask. “The cladding would not be compromised over time by the seawater,” Dudzinski said. The current expectation […]

The Manual Pages That Saved Apollo 13, Gizmodo “On April 13, 1970–321,860 kilometers into its Moon trip–an oxygen tank exploded in the Odyssey’s Service Module. James Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise had a really big problem. These pages saved their lives. The pages–with notes from Lovell–will be up for auction April 13 at Bonhams in New York.”