Apollo 13'S Harrowing Journey

JIM LOV The famous astronaut recounts Apollo 13 — the mission that almost didn’t make it home. BY RICHARD TALCOTT

TO THE AVERAGE AMERICAN living in 1970, the space program had become rather humdrum. The previ- ous year had witnessed Apollo 11’s historic first Moon landing and Apollo 12’s precision touchdown within walking distance of the unmanned Surveyor 3 spacecraft. But by early 1970, NASA’s run of success had turned much of the nation complacent. Many wondered whether fixing problems on Earth demanded more attention than exploring the Moon. It was in this climate that Apollo 13 set off on April 11 for the third lunar landing. The mission was to be the first devoted largely to science, and targeted an area near Fra Mauro Crater that scientists thought had been splattered by debris from the impact that formed Mare Imbrium. Jim Lovell served as Apollo 13’s commander. This was his fourth trip into space. He had previously teamed with Frank Borman on Gemini VII The Saturn V rocket that sent Apollo 13 on its in December 1965, when they way to the Moon ignites achieved the first rendezvous with its engines on the afternoon of April 11, another manned spacecraft; with 1970. ALL PHOTOS BY NASA UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED Buzz Aldrin on Gemini XII in November 1966, that program’s final mission; and with Borman and

18 ASTRONOMY • APRIL 2020 ELL REMEMBERS Triumph over tragedy

Bill Anders on the historic Apollo 8 mission in December 1968 that first sent astronauts to the Moon. On Apollo 13, he was joined by a pair of rookies: Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert and Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise. Swigert was a last-minute replacement for Ken Mattingly, who had been exposed to German measles a week before launch and was the only crew mem- ber who did not have immunity. The first two days of the mission went largely according to plan, if little noticed by the broader public. None of the three major U.S. TV networks carried the crew’s prime- time television broadcast the evening of April 13. But the world certainly took notice later that night The crew of Apollo 13 — Astronomy: Thank you, Lovell: Well, actually, this Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, when an oxygen tank in the service Captain Lovell, for joining us is the first time that we were and Fred Haise (left to right) — posed for their module exploded and put the today and reminiscing about really going for exploration official portrait 11 days mission — and the lives of the Apollo 13, whose 50th anni- or discovery. The first [two], after they returned to Earth. An explosion astronauts — in jeopardy. The har- versary is coming up quickly. Apollo 11 and Apollo 12, were on their way to the We have several questions merely machines to say, “Hey, Moon prevented the rowing return journey transfixed about the mission and your we can do the job. Here it is.” astronauts from landing on the lunar surface. the nation and the world. reactions to everything that … But by the time 13 came Recently, I had the honor to inter- transpired during Apollo 13. around, [NASA] didn’t worry view Captain Lovell about Apollo 13 My first question is, Apollo 13 so much about the transition at the Lake Forest, Illinois, public was going to be the third Moon and the mechanics of get- landing. Could you talk a little ting to the Moon. What the library. As you might expect, the bit about the objectives of your scientists were now looking events of the mission remain etched mission and how it differed at was the Moon itself. We in his mind even after 50 years. from Apollo 11? were going to a place called

WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 19 countdown demonstration test, which was two weeks before the flight, we had the spacecraft load- ed with fuel and things of this nature. The test was completed — everything worked fine for launching the vehicle. We left and the ground crew went in to secure the spacecraft. One of their jobs was to remove the liquid oxygen from the two liquid oxygen tanks that were in the spacecraft. And the way they did it, they put gaseous oxygen, or gas, in the fill line and forced it out the vent line through a system in the tank itself; the plumbing allowed you to do that. But years before the flight, this FROM TOP: The staff at tank had Mission Control looks Fra Mauro. Fra Mauro was sup- be an earlier been dropped on during a live TV posed to be a very informative flight. in the fac- broadcast from Apollo 13 the evening of April place with different kinds of I went tory. Now 13. (Haise appears on materials than 11 or 12 picked home and I they tested it the giant screen.) Less than 10 minutes after up. That was our whole objective, told my wife, out for every- the broadcast finished, and so that’s what we trained for. “We’re gonna go thing it had to do an oxygen tank onboard exploded. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it. on 13, not 14,” and to supply oxygen to she said, “13?” I said, the spacecraft, but they The Apollo 13 insignia Astronomy: I understand your “Well, it comes after 12.” failed to look at the mecha- included the Latin phrase Ex Luna, crew was originally scheduled to [Laughs.] Then they put that in nisms and the tubing to remove Scientia — “From the fly on Apollo 14 and not 13, but the movie. [Laughs.] the oxygen after a routine test. So Moon, knowledge” — a reference to the NASA rejected [Director of Flight when the flight crew, after the last mission being the Crew Operations] Deke Slayton’s Astronomy: How do you feel test, just two weeks before the first scheduled lunar recommendation for the Apollo 13 about that, looking back now? flight, tried to remove the oxygen, landing in which the return of science would crew, and thus bumped you up. I they couldn’t do it. play the most was wondering, how did you feel Lovell: Well, being in the gov- So they looked at the schemat- significant role. about that at the time and how ernment at NASA, we don’t ics of the tank. They looked and do you feel looking back on that believe in myths like the number they said, “Well, wait a second. in retrospect now? 13, but it did have — as you look This tank has a heater on it. And The day before at the flight and you analyze the we should just apply ground Lovell: Well, it’s kind of inter- mission from its inception to the power because we have ground the flight, they esting. After Apollo 8, … I was finality of it, you’ll see that it was power at the launch site” — put liquid the backup to Neil on Apollo 11. plagued by bad omens and bad 65-volt ground power, while the Then I was assigned Apollo 14, so luck from the very beginning. spacecraft flew at 28-volt power. oxygen back we started training for that, but One by one, now that I look back They applied the 65-volt power the NASA management deter- on it, I can see the things that to the oxygen tank’s heater sys- into [the mined that Al Shepard didn’t occurred that told me that, hey, tem and, as they predicted, it oxygen tank], have enough training. He was something’s gonna happen here. worked out. They boiled the oxy- grounded for some time. gen out of the tank and made and from then So one day Deke came in Astronomy: Can you mention everything all squared away, all and said, “Look, we want to put a few of those things? set to go. But what they didn’t on it was a you on 13 rather than 14.” I know, as the temperature in the bomb waiting thought that would be fine. I Lovell: Yeah. First of all, we tank got up close to 80 degrees, mean, we’d be coming up six were getting all squared away which is kind of unusual for liq- to go off. months or some time earlier. It’d to check things out. During the uid oxygen, the little thermostat

20 ASTRONOMY • APRIL 2020 was gonna open up to shut off the Astronomy: Yeah. In retro- power and keep the heat down. spect, it sounds quite interesting. But when it came up, the higher [Along] that same line of thought, voltage welded those contacts the Apollo 13 liftoff started flaw- shut, and from then on, we had lessly, but the center engine on the no safety. Saturn V, the second stage, shut As it turned out, the tempera- down about two minutes early. ture got up to 300 or 400 degrees. Did you have concerns at that The ground crew never knew point, whether you’d be able to it. The oxygen was all removed. reach the Moon? The tank didn’t explode for some strange reason. All the oxygen got Lovell: Yes, we did. Suddenly, out. But the day before the flight, the center engine shut down I they put liquid oxygen back into think one minute or two minutes it, and from then on it was a early, and we had that big light bomb waiting to go off. blinking at us and we said, “Boy, But the anomaly of this whole what’s the story?” thing was, back in 1965 I think it Well, it turned out that on the was, the manufacturer of the third stage we had enough fuel spacecraft told the manufacturer to get into Earth orbit and then of the liquid oxygen tank to go around, and with enough change the circuit breakers or the fuel left on the third stage to thermostats from being compat- give us the velocity to go to the CLOCKWISE FROM ible for 28-volt to 65-volt. They Moon. But that was another little Lovell: Well, first of all, we TOP LEFT: Swigert, Lovell, and Haise (left did not do it. They did not do it. bad omen. didn’t know. I heard a loud bang. to right) enjoy a brief Then, what made things worse The funny thing is on one of The funny thing is during our moment of relaxation April 9, 1970, two days is that the manufacturer didn’t the unmanned Saturn Vs — there test phases, while we were in before taking off for the double-check his directive to do it were two unmanned Saturn V the spacecraft, Fred Haise made Moon. and, consequently, they damaged launches — that same thing had things kind of funny. He would As Apollo 13 pulls the tank, and then 200,000 miles occurred, and they felt they had pull on a — I think it was an oxy- away from Earth, the out — on April 13 — the tank everything all squared away by gen valve or something — it sort astronauts catch this view of home and a exploded. [the time of our launch]. Of of gave a bang, too. cold front crossing the Of course, other omens were course, on 8 and 10 and 11, every- And I thought at first that it Pacific Ocean. we had [exposure to German] thing worked fine. was Fred. “Why is he doing that Lovell stands for his measles just before the takeoff again?” Then I looked up at him. formal portrait four and Jack Swigert had replaced Astronomy: Can you describe I had been down in the command months before the April 1970 mission. Ken Mattingly. So these are the your reaction when you heard the module. I looked up at him and The crew’s destination things that led up to Apollo 13 loud bang that resulted from the his eyes were as wide as saucers. — Fra Mauro Crater — [being] unusual. oxygen tank exploding? I could tell. He said, “It’s not me.” lies near the center of the Moon globe.

WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 21 Then, of course, things started As the astronauts piloted their to happen. crippled craft behind the Moon, Astronomy: they managed to When you saw the take a few images gas venting from the command of the lunar farside. module, how quickly did you Here, the 114-mile- wide (184 km) crater realize that this was something Tsiolkovsky takes major? center stage. Lovell: Well, before I saw that, I saw that we lost two out of three fuel cells. I knew that one fuel cell would give us enough electrical power to just get us around the Moon and back home again. But then I looked up at the instru- ment panel and I saw the quantity gauges of the two fuel cells in the service module, and one fuel was zero, and the other fuel cell started to go down ever so slightly, but something you would never see in the normal uses of oxygen on a flight to the Moon. Then I went out to the side window. I can’t tell you today why I did it, but when I looked out the window, I saw escaping at the rear of my spacecraft in sort of a flame or flume type of thing, a gaseous substance, and I realized quickly that that gas I saw coming out was the oxygen, and that I had lost … both oxygen tanks. So the explosion ruptured part of the second We knew quite tank, too, which was not damaged by the factory crew when they quickly that we pumped it. were in a dying Astronomy: How did you hold vehicle and your composure in such an extraordinary and unprecedented that we were moment of crisis? gonna have to Lovell: Well, when you’re in a go into the situation like this, I could have bounced off the walls for 10 min- lunar module. utes trying to figure out what to do, and then nothing would have changed. And remember, the crew was former test pilots. So I had been used to an engine quitting The rugged farside of occasionally when testing air- the Moon holds few of the large maria seen on planes and things like that. the nearside. One of So I finally had to decide what the backside’s largest to do. We knew quite quickly that is Mare Moscoviense, seen at the center of we were in a dying vehicle and this image. that we were gonna have to go

22 ASTRONOMY • APRIL 2020 Command module separates from APOLLO 13’S HARROWING JOURNEY lunar module 141:30:00 Service module separates from command module 138:01:48 Pacific splashdown Fourth midcourse 142:54:41 correction 137:39:52 Trans-lunar Third midcourse R injection eturn t correction o Earth 2:35:46 105:18:28 Earth Moon

Earth parking orbit Second Trans-Earth midcourse Oxygen tank injection explodes correction Launch To the Moon First midcourse 79:27:39 55:54:53 61:29:43 April 11, 1970 correction 2:13 P.M. EST Command and 30:40:50

t Saturn V lunar modules dock i b r

third stage 3:19:09 o

s separates ’ n Y

o L

3:06:39 L o E K

M N E O R

: Y

Everything was proceeding according to plan until an oxygen tank in the service module exploded a little more than two days M O N

into the flight. The times listed denote the hours, minutes, and seconds elapsed since launch. O R T S A into the lunar module, because it had to fire it up — and put it in. was the only thing that still had So we knew then in the lunar oxygen tanks. Because of the loss module what our attitude was, so of electrical power, we lose our we could use the lunar module rocket engine on the command later on with [its] engine to module. So it was gonna be dead, maneuver to different attitudes. which is exactly what happened. We discussed it. Finally, I for- Astronomy: At this stage, you’d get exactly when, we got to talk to already performed a midcourse the ground. The ground at first correction to get off the free- thought that this was a communi- return trajectory, onto a better cations problem, that somehow path for landing near Fra Mauro. we were interrupted by the radio How quickly did Mission Control waves or the rays coming from figure out how to get you back the Sun or something of this onto that free-return trajectory nature, and giving all these false and to speed the spacecraft up to indications on the consoles down get you home early? there. But we knew what the story was right from the beginning. Lovell: It took a little while, So they finally agreed that that but that was the first thing they was the case, let’s go in the lunar thought of. It’s kind of interest- module. The first thing we did, ing. We started out to the Moon which was very, very fortunate, on a free-return course, which The Apollo 13 astronauts we took the guidance parameters essentially meant that if our But then about, I don’t know, would never have made it home safely if they out of the guidance system and engine quit in the service mod- 20 hours after we were taking off, hadn’t figured out a way put them into the guidance sys- ule, that we were on a course going from the Earth to the to remove carbon dioxide from the air. With tem in the lunar module. So the that would take us all the way Moon, they called up and said, the help of engineers on guidance system in the command to the Moon and … with the “Look, we’ve looked at your situa- the ground, they jury- module knew our attitude with help of the Moon’s gravity, we’d tion. When you get around to rigged a square canister from the command respect to the celestial sphere. So switch around and come back on starting to go down to land on module to fit into the we got that information back into a course to the Earth at such an Fra Mauro, we’ve kind of figured round holes of the lunar module’s environmental the lunar module’s guidance attitude that we could cut into the out that the Sun is gonna be just system. system — which was dead, we Earth’s atmosphere. above you. So it’s gonna wipe out

WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 23 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Swigert (at everything down below. You’re right) and Lovell (off camera, to the left) gonna be like landing in a saucer fiddle with some of the of milk. So we’re gonna get you temporary hoses and other gear they needed off that free-return and put you to convert the lunar on a course that when you get module into a lifeboat around and start landing, you’ll for the trip home. start to see the craters and the Lovell catches some shadows and things like that.” shut-eye during the long, nerve-wracking So that’s fine. journey back to Earth. Then, of course, when the accident occurred, we were in a An oxygen tank explosion on the way to position that, had we not gotten the Moon crippled the off that course, [we would have Apollo 13 spacecraft. The blast blew away gone] around the Moon [and a panel on the service come] back to the Earth, [but] we module, seen here would miss the Earth completely after the astronauts jettisoned the module and we’d end up in a long ellipti- shortly before cal orbit, going back out to where reentering Earth’s atmosphere. the Moon was, back to where the Earth was, back to the Moon; I don’t know, for years, I guess.

Fortunately, Astronomy: That’s a little scary. One consequence of the free- when you’re in return trajectory was that you set deep trouble, a record for the farthest humans have ever been from Earth. Did you learn you realize that at the time or were you too preoccupied with pretty fast. the tasks at hand?

Lovell: No, we didn’t. Although when we came around at the apogee, this time we didn’t slow down, of course. We let the apogee take us back. I looked back at

24 ASTRONOMY • APRIL 2020 the Moon and I could see that it’s immediate crisis, while they were not the one I saw on Apollo 8. It’s planning ahead on how to get a lot smaller. you safely home. What was the [But] that’s fine with me dynamic like, talking to them and because I know we’re not gonna working things out? slow down, either. So I’ve got the velocity to not get captured by the Lovell: It was pretty good. In Moon, to get back home again. the beginning, though … they knew we had to get back on the Astronomy: That’s good. The free-return. … We had a pro- lunar module obviously was never cedure in the computer to slow designed to operate as a lifeboat down and come back again, but and using it was truly unprec- we didn’t think the lunar mod- edented. How difficult was it to ule’s fuel system would handle operate and maneuver the lunar all that. So they were debating module, running the engines and what to do … as we were going using that to navigate back home? towards the Moon. But we talked back and forth. Without Mission Lovell: Well, normally a lunar Control, I think we wouldn’t be module is like any other vehicle. talking today. I mean, when you do things, when you do the controls, they’ll Astronomy: Is it true that Jack go the way they were designed to and Fred were captivated with To the relief of nearly go and you learned it that way. taking photos of the lunar farside? They had cameras in their hands. everyone on Earth, the Apollo 13 command But when the explosion occurred Can you imagine, with cameras module splashed down and we had to use the lunar mod- Lovell: [Laughs.] Well, after in their hands? safely in the South Pacific Ocean on ule, [we still] needed the com- we got back on the free-return I said, “Gentlemen, what are April 17. mand module and its heat shield course, the ground came up your plans here?” They said, “As to get back into the atmosphere. again and said, “Look it, we have we go around the farside of the [This is] what happened when analyzed your situation and the Moon, we’re gonna take some I first tried to maneuver the vehi- amount of electrical power you pictures.” And I said, “If we cle, before we got to the Moon, to have on the lunar module, and don’t get home, you won’t get They figured get back on that free-return it’s fairly touch and go. We think them developed.” [Laughs.] But course [after] the ground gave us you’ll run out before you get back, I got the procedures, they got out a way of the particular attitudes to do it. and you’re gonna have to have their photographs, and so we taking a [When] I started to maneuver in electrical power to get your final came home. the normal way — it didn’t work. position for landing. And so we’re canister from The center of gravity, instead gonna speed you up.” Astronomy: How ill did Fred get of being in the center of the lunar This was on the way to the on the trip back home? Was that the dead module like it is normally, was Moon. So we have a crew down in a major concern for you? command way out in left field someplace, the simulators now working out and if I wanted to go right, it went the directions. Then, as we got Lovell: Yeah. He got an infec- module, which someplace else. If I wanted to go closer and closer to the Moon, tion, a bladder infection. He got left, it [went someplace else]. they said, “By the way, when you the chills and things like that. I was square, So I literally had to learn get behind the Moon now, you’ll tried to keep him warm. Every and trying to fit by the [way it handled] how to lose communication with us, so once in a while I’d give him a maneuver, or how to place my be sure you’re ready to copy [our bear hug and try to heat him with it into a round controller to get to the proper instructions].” And I said, “Well, my body. But he hung in there, position. It took a little while for I have my two companions, and fortunately. hole, which we me to do that. But, fortunately, if I miss something to copy on The temperature kept drop- finally did with when you’re in deep trouble, you this next procedure, I’m sure ping slowly. At first, we didn’t learn pretty fast. they’ll pick it up.” notice it. We were turning off all duct tape. So as we got very close to the the electronic equipment that Astronomy: That’s always good. Moon, they call up and say, “Are provided the heat, to balance the I was curious how the com- you ready to copy?” and I said, “I temperature inside the spacecraft. munications between you and am,” and I started to copy. And I Finally, when all that stuff was Mission Control worked out. You looked at my companions. They down, it got kind of cold in there. were obviously working on the weren’t paying any attention. But he hung in.

WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 25 Jeff Kluger called up and he was a writer for Discover magazine. He said, “I’ve always wanted to write a story on NASA and the space program, and I thought 13 was the way to go.” I said, “That’s what we’ve been thinking about.” But by that time, Fred had a job with Grumman and so he wasn’t interested, and Jack had died. … And I said, “Well, let’s do it. We’ll split. We’ll go fifty-fifty. I’ll be the guy that gives some of the information.” I liked his writ- ing, and so that’s what we did. That’s what started out to be Lost Moon. … It’s kind of funny how [the movie] got started. … We hadn’t finished the book yet, They figured out a way of taking when our [agent] said, “Look, a canister from the dead com- there’s some interest in the mov- mand module, which was square, ies for it.” So I got a call from Ron and trying to fit it into a round Howard: “Could you come out hole, which we finally did with and talk to me about this particu- duct tape and everything of that lar story?” nature. And it worked. This was It turned out that the son of a a miraculous thing, because if flight controller also worked for that didn’t happen, that carbon Ron Howard, and his job was to dioxide was building up and I go through all the books and the don’t know what would have scripts and everything that people happened then. handed him, to see if they’re worthwhile making a movie. He Astronomy: On a somewhat saw this manuscript, which was lighter note: What was the not completed, and he went to experience like working on the Ron Howard and he said, “Look Apollo 13 film and appearing in at this. I think this would be kind it, as well as your association of interesting.” So [Jeff] and I FROM TOP: The Apollo with making the film? went up and talked to him, and 13 crew of Haise, Lovell, Astronomy: What were your that’s how it all got started. and Swigert (left to right) finally breathe thoughts as you splashed down in Lovell: It was kind of interest- a sigh of relief as they the Pacific and you knew that you ing. As a matter of fact, just after Astronomy: From the Apollo 13 step on the deck of their recovery ship, had made it home safely? we finally landed and we got on film as well as from your getting the USS Iwo Jima. the [recovery ship] Iwo Jima and safely back home, I think in most Lovell: Of course, it was one we’re dusting ourselves off and people’s minds, Apollo 13 is right On board the USS Iwo Jima, Lovell reads a of pure delight. We were com- Fred got into sick bay, we went up there with, or maybe just a newspaper story that ing back in, and we got through down to see him and we’re sit- little bit below, Apollo 11 in terms gives a detailed account of Apollo 13’s that one other big problem that ting around talking. We said, of what people remember about successful conclusion. we had, that we were being poi- “You know something. This is an the Apollo program. How does soned by our own exhalations. unusual flight. I mean, look what it feel to be part of something The environmental system in the happened. … We ought to write a that didn’t work, but, in the end, lunar module had just one canis- book about it.” ended up becoming even more ter to remove carbon dioxide, and So we decided, well, maybe famous? it was designed only for two guys that’s a good idea. I talked to Jack for two days, and we were three Swigert at that time and Fred Lovell: Well, it did become more guys for four days. Haise, and then nothing hap- famous in the beginning, at least So we had to figure out a way pened for a while. Days went by, in the eyes of NASA. I have to of getting rid of the carbon diox- or years went by, actually. tell you an interesting story. We ide, which Mission Control did. Then a fellow by the name of came back. It’s a failure. … So the

26 ASTRONOMY • APRIL 2020 spacecraft, the command module, which was the only thing left of Apollo 13, really, was in a ware- house down in Florida for about six months. Then, they tried to forget about it. They wanted to go on to Apollo 14 and everything like that. Then France called up, Paris called up, [the] museum at Le Bourget, which was where Lindbergh landed. They asked the Smithsonian, “Do you have any space artifacts that we could have in this museum?” Then the lights came on in the Smithsonian and also NASA, “Well, we can get rid of this spacecraft.” So they exiled Apollo 13 to Le Bourget, and it stayed there for 20 years. kept it for 20 years, and now it About 18 years … after that, came back here. [Laughs.] I had a classmate that went out there and he saw it and he wrote Astronomy: Do you recall what me a letter. He said, “Do you the first thing you and Marilyn know where your spacecraft talked about once you returned is?” I didn’t at that time. No one after Apollo 13? What did that told me it was in Le Bourget. conversation go like? Did [she] Then, later on, a year or so encourage you to find a different later, my wife [Marilyn] and I career path maybe? were in Paris and we went out to this museum, which was at the Lovell: Well, I have to tell you airfield there, and there we saw it. another interesting story along We walked up to it. It was still on those lines. About a week or two the cradle that they had rolled it weeks after we got picked up in in on. It was all by itself, just Hawaii and then we came back, about, nothing else around it. The we had a big press conference hatch was missing. The instru- of course. All the NASA people ment panel was missing. The came in and all the reporters FROM TOP: Jim Lovell seats were missing. The only came in, and TV people and stuff right behind us, here was the per- reminisces about the Apollo 13 mission with thing I saw was … a piece of like that, and a lot of the families fect opportunity to put them on Senior Editor Rich paper that was stuck on the side came in to listen to the whole the wall and say yes, because they Talcott. ASTRONOMY: DAVID J. that said, “Apollo 13,” and gave thing. We were in the audito- had not talked to us, the 13, just EICHER the names of the three crew rium down in the Johnson Space 11 and 12. I was about ready to Commander Jim Lovell members. … And then Ron Center. So we started talking say something like that when, out chatted with Astronomy magazine in August Howard made the movie. Of about that. in the audience, I saw a hand go 2019 about the Apollo 13 course they made the movie that At the beginning of the con- up. Then I saw it go down like mission. ASTRONOMY: DAVID J. was shown in France, and all ference, a reporter asked, “Jim, this. [Jim gives a thumbs down EICHER those French people said, “Oh, are you gonna ask for another gesture.] It was my wife. [Laughs.] it’s out there in Le Bourget. Let’s flight? Obviously, this was not I could tell. I said, “No. I think go see it.” successful.” Before that, on this is the last flight I’m gonna Meanwhile, NASA was so Apollo 11 [and] 12, management make.” [Laughs.] “If we don’t get embarrassed and the Smithsonian, said, “Look, if there’s a problem that a museum out of Hutchinson, with this flight, we’ll get you Senior Editor Richard Talcott home, you Kansas, called the Cosmosphere, back and we’ll give you the very remembers the anxious moments offered to go get [it] and bring it next one.” and ultimate elation of Apollo 13’s won’t get [the back and pay for it — and they So when that question came journey as if it happened yesterday. pictures] did. And all those Frenchmen up from the reporter, I thought to His latest book is Space Junk now were mad because they had myself, because management was (Ziga Media, 2019). developed.”