Apollo 13

Forty two years ago at thirteen minutes past seven in the evening (UTC) the spacecraft Apollo 13 blasted off from Cape Canaveral to the moon. It was to be the Americans third mission to the moon, but as anyone interested in spaceflight will no it never made it. Just under fifty seven hours into the mission, with the main spacecraft docked to the lunar module, one of the oxygen tanks in the main spacecraft exploded damaging the all the other oxygen tanks and fuel cells. It was caused by a fault that developed before the spacecraft was launched, that was completely missed before the launch.

From then on it the mission turned from one of getting men to land on the moon to one to save the lives of the crew. It is a story of cool minds doing what they do best, finding solutions to problems as they arose and fixing them any way they could with what equipment was available on the spaceship. At the start as the crew used the lunar module as a lifeboat. Even so the crews chances of survival looked slim to say the least. As the people on the ground worked on the problems their chances increased and increased, until they finally made it back to earth.

It is a story that has been told in Ron Howard's film, Apollo 13, based on a book by the Jim Lovell the commander of the mission. It is a film I love and a tribute to what was done to make sure that the mission didn't end in disaster. It shows what the human mind is capable of in times of adversity. What seems strange is that since the last mission to the moon, Apollo 17, forty years ago this year that man hasn't been back. It is like all the knowledge that was developed back then has been wasted, and it could be years before man steps foot on the moon again.