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CHRONOLOGIE APOLLO

ANNEXE 6

LES DRAMES DE L' ESPACE 

APOLLO 13, LES NAUFRAGES DU COSMOS

Transciption des moments clefs du vol Apollo 13. Il contient les conversations sol-air entre les CapCom et les directeurs de vol (FD) qui ont eu lieu dans le Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) du 11 au 17 avril 1970.

Corrections et commentaires Copyright © 1998 by Anthony W. Haukap.

Index


Pre-Launch

[During the week prior to launch, backup Lunar Module Pilot Charles M. Duke, Jr., contracted rubella. Blood tests were performed to determine prime crew immunity, since Duke had been in close contact with the prime crew. These tests determined that prime Commander James A. Lovell and prime Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise were immune to rubella, but that prime Command Module Pilot Thomas K. Mattingly II did not have immunity. Consequently, following 2 days of intensive simulator training at the Kennedy Space Center, backup Command Module Pilot John L. Swigert, Jr., was substituted in the prime crew to replace Mattingly. Swigert had trained for several months with the backup crew, and this additional work in the simulators was aimed toward integrating him into the prime crew so that the new combination of crewmen could function as a team during the mission. Ken Mattingly later flew on Apollo 16.]
HH:MM:SS - Ground Elapsed Time (GET)

T-28:00:00 Official countdown starts LM stowage and cabin closeout. (T-31:30:00 to T-18:00:00)

 

[The launch of Apollo 13 is from Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Launch Complex 39, Pad A. Apollo 10 is the only Apollo/Saturn-V to have been launched from Complex 39, Pad B. The stack (spacecraft and launch vehicle) is designated AS-508. The Apollo 13 spacecraft consists of, Command/Service Module CSM-109, callsign "Odyssey" and Lunar Module LM-7, callsign "Aquarius". 13's mission was originally slated as a "Type H" mission.]
T-27:30:00 Install and connect LV flight batteries. (to T-23:00:00)

T-22:30:00 Topoff of LM super critical helium. (to T-20:30:00)

T-19:00:00 CSM crew storage. (to T-12:30:00)

T-19:30:00 LM The thermal shield installation. (to T-15:30:00)

T-16:00:00 LV range safety checks. (to T-15:00:00)

T-15:00:00 Installation of ALSEP FCA. (to T-14:45:00)

T-11:30:00 Connect LV safe and arm devices. (to 10:05:00) CSM pre-ingress operations. (to T-08:45:00)

T-10:15:00 Start MSS move to parksite.

T-09:00:00 Built-in hold for 9 hours and 13 minutes. At end of hold, pad is cleared for LV propellant loading.

 

[By providing built-in holds in the countdown, technicians could use this hold time to evaluate and work any problems without causing delays in the planned lift-off time.]
T-08:O5:00 Launch vehicle propellant loading - Three stages (LOX in first stage, LOX and LH2 in second and third stages). (Continues through T-03:38:00)

 

[The back-up Command Module Pilot's (CMP) task on launch day is to verifiy that each switch in the Command Module (CM), is correctly set for the ingress of the prime crew.]
T-04:17:00 Flight crew alerted.

T-04:02:00 Medical examination.

T-03:32:00 Breakfast.

T-03:30:00 One-hour hold.

T-03:07:00 Depart Manned Spacecraft Operations Building for LC-39 via crew transfer van.

T-02:55:00 Arrive at LC-39.

T-02:40:00 Start flight crew ingress.

 

[About three hours before launch, the prime crew begins to enter the CM. The Commander (CDR), James (Jim) A. Lovell, Jr., takes the left couch. Command Module Pilot (CMP), John (Jack) L. Swigert, Jr., occupies the center couch, facing the caution and warning panel. Lunar Module Pilot (LMP), Fred W. Haise, Jr., takes the right couch. The CDR is the last person to perform an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) align before the computer takes control of the lift-off.]
[The crew compartment is a sealed cabin with a habitable volume of 210 cubic feet. It contains two hatches, five windows, and a number of equipment bays. The two CM hatches are the side hatch, used for getting in and out of the module, and the forward hatch, use to transfer to an from the lunar module when the two modules are docked. The side hatch is a single integrated assembly which opens outward and has primary and secondary thermal seals. It is about 29 inches high and 34 inches wide. The hatch contains a small (about 9 inches in diameter ) window. The hatch weighs about 225 pounds. The hatch normally is operated by a handle which the crewman pumps back and forth. The handle drives a ratchet mechanism which opens or closes the 12 latches around the periphery of the hatch. The latches are so designed that pressure exerted against the hatch serves only to increase the locking pressure of the latches. If the latch gear mechanism should fail, it can be disconnected and the latches opened or closed manually. The hatch also can be opened from the outside by a tool that is part of the crew's tool set and is carried by ground personnel. The tool is the emergency wrench, essentially a modified allenhead L-wrench. It is 6-1/4 inches long and has a 4-1/4 inch drive shaft.]
T-02:00:00 Mission Control Center - Houston/spacecraft command checks.

T-0l:55:00 Abort advisory system checks.

T-0l:51:00 Space Vehicle Emergency Detection System Emergency Detection System (EDS) test.

T-00:43:00 Retract Apollo access arm to stand-by position (12 degrees).

 

[The Apollo access arm ("white room"/swing arm number 9) provides access to the CM and covers the CM hatch until the crew is aboard and the hatch is sealed for launch. At 43 minutes before launch the Apollo access arm is swung away from the spacecraft by 12°, this allows the white room to be quickly repositioned over the hatch to allow the crew to egress should it become come necessary to do so during an abort event. At five minutes before launch, the Apollo access arm is moved to the 180° position on the opposite side of the Launch Umbilical Tower (LUT).]
T-00:42:00 Arm launch escape system.

T-00:40:00 Final launch vehicle range safety checks. (to 00:35:00)

T-00:30:00 Launch vehicle power transfer test LM switch over to internal power.

T-00:20:00 Shutdown LM operational instrumentation. (to T-00:10:00)

T-00:15:00 Spacecraft to internal power.

T-00:06:00 Space vehicle final status checks.

T-00:05:30 Arm destruct system.

 

[In the event of an abort during powered flight the Saturn-V launch vehicle has attached to its outer surface explosive devices that will rupture the fuel and oxidizer tanks, dispersing their contents into the atmosphere to be consumed before reaching the ground.]
T-00:05:27 - KSC PAO: "This is Apollo Saturn launch control. T minus five minutes, twenty-seven seconds and counting. Now as we move into the final phase of the countdown we're receiving go, no-go checks from various elements of the launch team. The spacecraft test conductor Skip Chovin gave the test supervisor a spacecraft ready. At that time on the launch status board, here in the firing room, the green light came on behind the spacecraft. Green light now is also on behind the emergency detection system. Now standing by for more checks. The mission director Chet (Chester M.) Lee from the manned spacecraft center in Houston says 'We are go for launch.' And the range indicated, the range is ready to support. Chilldown of the S-IVB stage, chilldown of the S-IVB stage being completed at this time. The S-IVB will ignite into the mission at nine minutes twenty-two seconds."

T-00:05:00 Apollo access arm fully retracted. (180 degree position)

T-00:05:00 - KSC PAO: "Swing arm number nine, now is retracting to the full retract position, swing arm number nine coming back to the full retract position. And the director of launch operations Walt (Walter J.) Kapryan (Kennedy Space Center) has given Apollo 13 a go for launch. We're now approaching the four minute mark. At the T minus four minute mark we'll be standing by for ??Jack Taltar?? the launch vehicle test conductor to say that his launch vehicle team is ready to carry out the final phase here of the countdown. At the T minus three minute, seven second mark we will get the ignition sequence start, this will put us on an automatic sequencer and the remainder of the count from that time will be on automatic. The astronauts checkout literally hundreds of items in the space vehicle, at the same time the team here in launch control will be monitoring red line values these are such things as temperatures and pressures which we do not want to either go above or below. A final communication check now, the astronauts on the astro-comm circuit and launch operations manager Paul (C.) Donnelly during his final check said 'Good luck. Head for the hills.' He was refering to the Fra Mauro, hilly Fra Mauro region of the moon. As we come up on the T minus three minute mark. At three minutes the capsule communicator (CapCom) Paul (J.) Weitz will begin reading out the minus time to the crew. Looking up at our status board now we can see that the spacecraft, or the first stage preparations are now complete. The firing command has not been initialized, this is the automatic sequencer and we have confirmation on our status board that the launch sequence has started. We're now in our final three minutes of the countdown."

 

[Astronaut Paul J. Weitz, communicates with the crew in the spacecraft from the Launch Control Center (LCC), KSC. In the Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR), Houston, Texas, astronaut Joe Kerwin will be the Capsule Communicator (CapCom) for launch day. Once the Saturn-V vehicle has cleared the tower control of the mission transfers from the LCC to the MOCR.]
(loop)

 

Flight: "Okay. All flight controllers coming up on auto sequence, Booster, how you?."
Booster: "Go, Flight."
Flight: "EECom?"
EEcom: "Go, Flight."
Flight: "GNC?"
GNC: "Go, Flight."
Flight: "Telcom?"
Telcom: "Go, Flight."
Flight: "Control?"
Control: "Go."
Flight: "Network, got it there?"
Network: "That's affirmative, Flight."
Flight: "Okay."
T-00:03:07 Firing command (automatic sequence).

(loop)

 

Booster: "Auto sequence initiated, Flight."
Flight: "Roger."
Booster: "Flight, Booster."
Flight: "Go."
Booster: "S-IVB prepress complete."
Flight: "Roger."
T-00:02:56 - KSC PAO: "Two minutes fifty-six seconds and Apollo 13 continues to be go. The astronauts still reporting back from the spacecraft Odyssey. Spacecraft Commander Jim Lovell says Odyssey is go, he will be the last one to preform a function here during the countdown at the T minus forty-five second mark. The commander Jim Lovell will set the final alignment of the spacecraft guidance, that's the last crew action before the liftoff of Apollo 13. We continue to aim for a liftoff at two-thirteen PM Eastern Standard Time. Now T minus two minutes, eighteen seconds and counting. And our count continues to look good. Our weather is no constraint to launch today, earlier fears about the weather seems to have dissipated. A stationary front over the Florida-Georgia border has not sent down the predicted bad weather that we had feared. We just passed the two minute mark, just pass the two minute mark in the countdown and the pressurization now of the vehicle tanks is beginning. The third stage liquid oxygen has now been pressurized and the second stage liquid oxygen tank has been pressurized. We'll be making our final transfer from external power source, that is from the external power source at the pad to the launch vehicle battery at the T minus fifty second mark. We'll be keeping an eye on that power transfer at T minus fifty seconds. The S-IVB propellants now all pressurized, S-IVB propellant, that's the third stage of the Saturn-V, pressurized. One minute fifteen seconds and counting. The spacecraft equipment, now is on its own internal cooling it's been sharing it's cooling, from it, getting it's cooling from an external power source up to this time. We're now approaching the T minus one minute mark. T minus one minute. T minus one minute and counting. Now in the final minute of our countdown. At the thirty second mark swing arm number one will retract."

T-00:00:50 Launch vehicle transfer to internal power.

T-00:00:50 - KSC PAO: "T minus fifty seconds. As we pass the T minus fifty second mark the power transfer takes place. First stage, seconds stage, third stage, and the instrument unit going to internal power."

(loop)

 

Booster: "Flight, Booster. S1C pre-press complete, and we're on internal power, and we're go."
Flight: "Roger. How's it look EECom? You got your spacecraft..." (interrupted by EECom)
EECom: "Looks good, Flight."
Flight: "Okay. MCC (Mission Control Center) recorders to flight speed."
T-00:00:37 - KSC PAO: "T minus thirty-seven seconds and our count continues to go well. We'll be looking for an ignition of those five first stage engines at the T minus eight point nine second mark. We pass T minus thirty, T minus twenty-five seconds and counting. And Apollo 13 is go. T minus twenty seconds. T minus twenty seconds and counting, seventeen, guidance release..."

 

[At T-17 seconds, the Saturn V's inertial guidance platform is released from the systems which have up to now been holding it in the correct orientation for the flight.]
T-00:00:37 - KSC PAO: "...fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven, ten, nine..."

T-00:00:08.9 Ignition sequence start.

T-00:00:08 - KSC PAO: "...eight, ignition sequence has started, six, five, four, three..."

(loop)

 

Booster: "Ignition, Flight."
Flight: "Roger."
Control: "Clock start, Flight."
Flight: "Roger."
T-00:00:02 All engines running.

T-00:00:02 - KSC PAO: " ...two, one..."

 


Liftoff
00:00 GET / 1:13 PM CST / April 11, 1970

T-00:00:00 Liftoff.

 

[The launch time is determined by "launch windows" - these are periods of time which are influenced by the rotation of the Earth vs. the moon/sun angle at the time of lunar surface landing. The first launch window for Apollo 13 opens 2:13 PM Eastern Standard Time, on April 11, and lasts 3 hours, 23 minutes. If the launch is delayed for any reason, they must wait for three consecutive launch opportunities in May. The first launch window in May opens on the 9th and extends to the 11th.]
T-00:00:00 - KSC PAO: "...zero, we have commit, and we have liftoff at two-thirteen (EST)."

 

[The first stage of the Saturn-V is produced by the Boeing Co.'s Launch Systems Branch, is 138 feet high and weighs close to five million pounds when fueled. The function of this stage is to lift the enormous weight (more than 6.2 million pounds) of the Apollo/Saturn V space vehicle (stack) off the pad and carry it to an altitude of about 38 miles and a speed of about 6000 miles per hour. The first stage uses the F-1, the most powerful engine ever produced. It is 19 feet long, weighs about 18,500 pounds and produces 1,500,000 pounds of thrust. The first stage has five F-1 engines for a total thrust of 7,500,000 pounds.]
[Abort Mode One-Alpha (1A): The pitch control motor at the top of the Launch Escape Tower (LET) is used to push the CM east out over the ocean and out of the path of the launch vehicle. The CM would then descend on parachutes to a splashdown. Used in off-pad aborts and in the first 42 seconds after lift-off when the vehicle wasn't moving fast enough for the canards on the LET to take effect.]
(loop)

 

Booster: "Roger, go all engines."
Flight: "Rog."
00:00:06 - KSC PAO: "The Saturn-V building up to seven point six million pounds of thrust, and it has cleared the tower."

 

[At 1.35 seconds after liftoff, the launch vehicle is yawed 1.25 degrees from vertical away from the LUT to ensure clearance in case a swing arm fails to fully retract or a gust of wind pushes the vehicle towards the tower. At nine seconds into the flight the vehicle is brought back to a vertical position again.]
00:00:12 - JSC PAO: "This is mission control, Houston. We appear to have a good first stage at this point."

 

[Once the vehicle has cleared the LUT, control of the mission is transferred to the MOCR in Houston, Texas.]
(loop)

 

Flight: "Okay, Fido how's it look?"
Fido: "Look good here, Flight. Good agreement."
Flight: "Okay, Booster how do you look?"
Booster: "S1C, look good Flight."
Flight: "Okay, CapCom. We're go here on the ground."
00:00:25 - JSC PAO: "Flight Dynamics Officer (FIDO) says the trajectory looks good. We show one-half mile in altitude at this time."

00:00:30 - CapCom: "13, Houston. Go at thirty seconds."

00:00:34 - Lovell: "Roll complete and we're pitching."

 

[This maneuver places the spacecraft into a "heads down" attitude.]
[The axes of the spacecraft are three straight lines, each at a right angle to the other two. They are used for reference and to describe the spacecraft's movements. The X axis is the line running from the apex of the command module through its base; the Y axis is the line running laterally, or from side to side through the couches; the Z axis is the line running up and down, or from the head to the feet of the astronauts in their couches. The command module's movement about the X axis is called roll, about the Y axis is called pitch, and about the Z axis is called yaw.]
00:00:36 - CapCom: "Roger that. Standby for mode one-bravo. (pause) Mark. One-bravo."

00:00:42 - Lovell: "One-bravo."

 

[Abort Mode One-Bravo (1B): The pop-out canard fins at the top of the launch escape tower (LET) caused the CM to flip over and after a couple of oscillations, settles into a "heavy end forward" (Blunt-End-First attitude) mode that is ready for the LET to be jettisoned and for the safe deployment of the drogue and main parachutes. It took several seconds for the LES/CM to do the turnaround. Used until the air became too thin for the canards to work.]
00:00:46 - JSC PAO: "Altitude one point two miles, velocity fifteen-hundred feet per second."

(loop)

 

Flight: "Okay, we're go at one (minute) CapCom."
EEcom: "Cabin relieving, Flight."
Flight: "Roger"
00:01:03 - CapCom: "13, Houston. Go at one. We show the cabin relieving."

00:01:07 - Lovell: "13, roger."

00:01:10 - JSC PAO: "And at one minute, ten seconds we show an altitude of four point one nautical miles, downrange one mile."

(loop)

 

Flight: "Booster, how do you look?"
Booster: "Look good, Flight. We're go."
Flight: "Okay, Fido?"
Fido: "We're go, Flight. Looks good here."
Flight: "Guidance, how does it look?"
Guido: "Good, Flight."
Flight: "EECom, GNC?"
EECom: "Looks good, Flight."
GNC: "Looks good, Flight."
Flight: "Okay, Surgeon?"
Surgeon: "Looks fine."
00:01:26 - JSC PAO: "All sources continue to report we're go. The trajectory on our plot board is right on the preplan line."

(loop)

 

Booster: "Through max Q, and we're go, Flight."
Flight: "Roger, Booster."
00:01:37 - JSC PAO: "And the booster engineer reports we're now through the region of maximum dynamic pressure. We're go."

 

[Booster sits at one of the consoles on the front row (trench) of the MOCR. After the Saturn V's task is complete and Apollo 13 is on its way to the Moon, the three booster consoles are not used for the rest of the mission.]
00:01:55 - CapCom: "13, Houston. standby for mode one-charlie. (pause) Mark. One-charlie."

00:01:58 - Lovell: "One-charlie."

 

[Abort Mode One-Charlie (1C): Command Module attitude control thrusters are used to turn the spacecraft into the Blunt-End-First attitude mode.]
(loop)

 

Flight: "Go for staging, CapCom."
00:02:00 - CapCom: "And 13 you're go for staging."

00:02:03 - Lovell: "Go for staging, roger."

00:02:06 - JSC PAO: "Altitude now seventeen miles coming up on staging."

00:02:15 - Lovell: "Inboard."

00:02:19 - JSC PAO: "Jim Lovell reports the inboard engine has shutdown as scheduled."

00:02:27 - CapCom: "We confirm inboard out, 13. You're looking good."

 

[To alleviate the severe pogo effect which plagued the early flights and the shock of all five engines of the first stage engines shutting down at once, the center engine of the cluster is shut down earlier than the outboard engines.]
00:02:29 - Lovell: "Roger."

00:02:36 - JSC PAO: "Coming up on thirty miles altitude."

00:02:44 First stage cutoff.

00:02:44 - Lovell: "Staging."

00:02:50 Second stage ignition.

00:02:50 - Lovell: "S-II ignition."

00:02:51 - CapCom: "Roger."

 

[The second stage of the Saturn-V, built by North American Rockwell's Space Division, is the largest and most powerful hydrogen-fueled stage ever produced. It is 81.5 ft. tall and weighs more than 1 million pounds fueled. It takes over from the first stage and boosts its payload of the third stage and Apollo spacecraft into space (an altitude of about 118 miles) and to a speed of more than 14,000 miles per hour. The second stage uses the J-2 engine, the largest hydrogen-fueled engine ever built. The J-2 engine produces up to 225,000 pounds of thrust; the second stage uses five J-2 engines producing a maximum of 1,125,000 pounds of thrust.]
00:03:00 - CapCom: "13, Houston. Trajectory's good, thrust is good."

00:03:04 - Lovell: "Roger."

00:03:06 - JSC PAO: "CapCom ??Bill Cohen?? confirming to the crew that the second stage looks good at this point. We're now forty-six miles high, seventy miles, (correcting himself) seventy-eight miles downrange."

00:03:18 - Lovell: "Tower jett."

 

[The LET consists of the tower, with its solid rocket motors, instrumentation and canards; and the Boost Protective Cover (BPC), which is a cover over the entire CM which protects the spacecraft from the heat generated by friction and from the exhaust of the LET rocket motors four nozzles should it be used for an abort. Only when the LET is jettisoned are the all the windows in the CM uncovered. The forward heat shield contains four recessed fittings into which the legs of the launch escape tower are attached. The tower legs are connected to the CM structure by frangible nuts which contain small explosive charges. When the launch escape system is jettisoned, these charges are fired, breaking the nuts and separating the tower from the module.]
00:03:20 - CapCom: "We confirm skirt sep (separation). Roger, tower jett. Mode two, Jim. Looking good."

00:03:22 - Lovell: "Mode two."

 

[Abort Mode 2: Service Module RCS thrusters are used to separate the CSM from the launch vehicle. The CM would then separate from the SM for re-entry and splashdown.]
00:03:40 - JSC PAO: "And Lovell reports that the guidance system is correcting the small errors."

00:03:44 - CapCom: "13, Houston. The guidance is good and the CMC (Command Module Computer) is go."

00:03:46 - Swigert: "Okay, Thank you, Joe."

00:03:47 - Lovell: "13, roger."

00:03:56 - JSC PAO: "Coming up on four minutes we're now at an altitude of sixty-three miles."

00:04:15 - JSC PAO: "At four minutes, fifteen seconds the trajectory...(interrupted by CapCom)"

00:04:18 - CapCom: "13, Houston. You're go at four minutes. The little red lines are right on the little white lines down here."

00:04:23 - Lovell: "Sounds good."

00:04:33 - JSC PAO: "They're currently about up to eleven-thousand feet per second. That's about thirty-six percent of the amount needed for a minimum orbit. We're now seventy-five miles in altitude, (pause) two-hundred twenty-two miles downrange now. The EECOM reports... (interrupted by CapCom)."

00:05:00 - CapCom: "That's five minutes. You're looking perfect, over."

00:05:01 - Lovell: "13, roger."

00:05:03 - JSC PAO: "And the EECOM reports that the cabin pressure is sealed at six point one pounds, which is normal. We're now two-hundred fifty miles downrange, altitude eighty-one nautical miles."

00:05:27 Center engine cutoff (occurred early, planned for S-II ignition +4min. 47sec.)

 

[During powered flight, five launch vehicle indicator lights are arranged to resemble the pattern of the engine cluster on the S-IC and the S-II stages, these lights will provide the crew with a status of each engine in that stage. When the inboard engine of the S-II stage shuts down prematurely the center light changes from off to on (illuminated).]
00:05:30 - JSC PAO: "And at five minutes, thirty seconds into the launch, we continue to look very good on the second stage. Jim Lovell just reported the inboard engine has shut down as scheduled."

(loop)

 

Booster: "Comfirm inboard out, Flight."
Flight: "Roger."
Booster: "Staging, Flight."
Flight: "Roger."
Fido: "Flight, Fido. Trajectory confirms staging."
Flight: "Roger."
00:05:45 - CapCom: "13, Houston. Standby for S-IVB to CLI capability."

00:05:48 - Lovell: "S-IVB to CLI, roger."

00:05:54 - CapCom: "Roger. You got it now, Jim."

00:05:56 - Lovell: "We've got S-IVB to CLI."

(loop)

 

Booster: "Flight, Booster. That inboard out was way early."
Flight: "Okay."
CapCom: "Flight, confirm number 5 engine down."
Flight: "Rog. Booster, you don't see any problem with that though, do you?"
Booster: "Negative, not right now Flight. All the other engines are go."
00:06:01 - JSC PAO: "Booster reports that the inboard engine shutdown was a bit early, and we're continuing to burn on the four outboard engines."

 

[The early shutdown of the center engine caused considerable deviations from the planned trajectory. The altitude at shutdown was 10.7 nautical miles lower and the velocity was 5,685.3 feet per second slower than expected.]
00:06:04 - CapCom: "(garbled)13;

00:06:08 - Lovell: "Go at (garbled)"

00:06:13 - Lovell: "And Houston what's the story on engine five?"

00:06:16 - CapCom: "Jim, Houston. we don't have a story on why the inboard out was early, but the other engines are go, and you're go."

00:06:24 - Lovell: "Roger."

 

[The center engine of the S-II stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle prematurely shut down at 132 seconds due to large 16 hertz oscillations in thrust chamber pressure.]
00:06:41 - JSC PAO: "At six minutes, forty seconds... (interrupted by CapCom)"

00:06:43 - CapCom: "(Lost under the Public Affairs Commentator)...you're still looking good, your gimbals are good, trim is good."

00:06:46 - Lovell: "Roger."

00:06:57 - CapCom: "13, Houston. Level sense arm time eight plus three, eight, nominal, S-II cutoff time ninerer, plus four, eight, over."

00:07:04 - Lovell: "Roger, nominal on the sense arm, ninerer, four, eight on the S-II cutoff"

 

[Each propellant tank in the S-II stage has five sensors near the bottom which signal when they are uncovered by the draining liquid fuel. When two sensors are uncovered in the same tank, the IU computer begins the engine cut-off sequence. This signal is the "level sense arm" and the CapCom is telling the crew when Mission Control expects it to occur based on current consumption, and when it will lead to engine cutoff.]
00:07:10 - CapCom: "That's affirmative, and standby for S-IVB to orbit. (pause) Mark. You have S-IVB to orbit, Jim." (Contingency Orbit Insertion (COI) - This is another way of saying "Mode 3".)

00:07:13 - Lovell: "Roger. We have S-IVB to orbit."

 

[Should the S-II cut out early, the S-IVB now has the ability to place the spacecraft into a safe orbit. However, there would not be sufficient propellant remaining to preform the TLI burn. The crew would then switch to an alternate Earth orbit mission plan.]
[Abort Mode 3: The Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine is used as a retro-rocket to slow the CSM before CM separation. Used when an immediate return was necessary, as opposed to Mode 4 Abort-to-Orbit.]
00:07:26 - JSC PAO: "We still have four good engines on the Saturn second stage. We show an altitude of ninty-six nautical miles, five-hundred and five downrange."

00:07:45 - JSC PAO: "At seven minutes, forty-five seconds, Booster reports we are go. All four engines remaining looking good."

00:07:59 - JSC PAO: "The early shutdown of the center engine will cause no problem, we will burn a little longer than normally schedule... (interrupted by CapCom)"

00:08:05 - CapCom: "13, Houston. Looking good at eight minutes."

00:08:10 - Lovell: "13, roger."

00:08:18 - JSC PAO: "And at eight minutes seventeen seconds we show a velocity of eighteen-thousand feet per second that's about seventy-one percent of the amount needed for a minimal orbit."

00:08:38 - JSC PAO: "At eight minutes thirty-five seconds continuing to burn on the second stage all four remaining engines looking good at this point."

00:08:49 - CapCom: "Apollo 13, Houston. Mark. Level sense on."

00:08:52 - Lovell: "Mark. Level sense on, roger."

00:09:01 - CapCom: "Apollo 13, Houston. At nine minutes you're go, the CMC is go."

00:09:06 - Swigert: "Okay, Joe."

00:09:07 - Lovell: "13, roger."

(loop)

 

Flight: "Booster, Flight. How you?"
Booster: "Go, Flight."
Flight: "Guidance?"
Guidance: "Go, Flight."
Flight: "GNC?."
GNC: "Go, Flight."
Flight: "EECOM?"
EECOM: "Go, Flight."
00:09:15 - JSC PAO: "Our predicted shutdown time on the second stage is 9 minutes, 48 seconds, Flight Director Milton (L.) Windler (Maroon Team) getting a staging status now from his flight controllers."

00:09:22 - CapCom: "13, Houston. You are go for staging."

00:09:26 - Lovell: "13, roger. Go for staging."

00:09:44 - CapCom: "Apollo 13, Houston. Standby for mode four capability. (pause) Mark. You have mode four, Jim."

00:09:47 - Lovell: "Mode four, roger."

 

[Abort Mode 4: Abort-to-Orbit - the CSM will separate from the Saturn and use the SPS (Service Propulsion System) to continue into Earth orbit.]
00:09:48 Second stage cutoff.

00:09:48 - Lovell: "Staging."

00:09:50 - JSC PAO: "And Lovell reports staging."

00:09:51 Third stage ignition. (S-II separation +03sec.)

00:09:51 - Lovell: "And S-IV ignition."

00:10:10 - CapCom: "Roger that Jim. Thrust looks good."

00:10:11 - Lovell: "Roger."

 

[The third stage is essentially the same as the second stage of the Saturn IB. On the Saturn V it serves in a double capacity. After the second stage burns out and is jettisoned, the third stage's engine burns briefly, just long enough to increase its velocity to about 17,400 miles per hour and put it and the Apollo into earth orbit. It stays connected to the spacecraft from one to three orbits, then its engine is reignited at the proper moment to power itself and the spacecraft toward the moon. The third stage uses the J-2 engine, just like the second stage. The third stage uses one J-2 engine.]
00:10:21 - CapCom: "13, Houston. You're looking good. Trajectory, guidance, CMC are all go."

00:10:26 - Lovell: "Thank you, Joe."

00:10:32 - JSC PAO: "At ten minutes thirty seconds we are now one-hundred two in altitude, one-thousand eighty miles downrange."

00:11:13 - CapCom: "13, Houston. At eleven minutes your are go. Predicted cutoff on the S-IVB is twelve plus three, four. Over."(no response)

00:11:39 - CapCom: "Apollo 13, Houston. You are go at eleven and a half and predicted cutoff time is twelve plus three, four. Over."

00:11:47 - Lovell: "Understand twelve plus three, four predicted cutoff time."

00:11:51 - CapCom: "That's affirm."

00:11:55 Earth orbit insertion.

00:11:59 - JSC PAO: "Coming up on twelve minutes still looking good."

00:12:25 - JSC PAO: "We're standing by for crew report of third stage shutdown."

00:12:34 Third stage cutoff.

00:12:35 - Lovell: "SECO"

00:12:36 - CapCom: "Confirm SECO, Jim. We're looking at the DSKY."

00:12:38 - Lovell: "Roger."

 

[The only significant launch phase anomaly was premature shutdown of the center engine of the S-II second stage. As a result, the remaining four S-II engines burned 34 seconds longer and velocity after S-II boost was 223 feet per second (fps) lower than planned. The S-IVB third stage orbital insertion burn was approximately 9 seconds longer than predicted with cutoff velocity within 1.2 feet per second of the planned velocity. Moreover, an adequate propellant margin was maintained in the S-IVB for the translunar injection burn (TLI).]
00:12:50 - JSC PAO: "And the Flight Dynamics Officer (FIDO) says at first glance we look good on the orbit."

00:13:08 - CapCom: "(garbled)"

00:13:12 - Lovell: "(garbled)...is safe. Thank you, Joe."

00:12:16 - CapCom: "Don't mention it."

00:13:35 - CapCom: "13, Houston. We copy...(garbled)"

00:13:40 - Lovell: "Okay, Joe."

00:14:00 - JSC PAO: "And the Booster Engineer reports at this time that the S-IVB third stage looks good, and being configured now for orbital operations. We're standing by for confirmation from the Flight Dynamics Officer (FIDO) of our preliminary orbit."

00:15:05 - CapCom: "Apollo 13, Houston. You're preliminary orbit down here is one-hundred two point five times one-hundred point three and everything is looking good."

00:15:14 - Lovell: "Roger, Houston. And it looks good to be up here again."

00:15:17 - CapCom: "Roger."

00:15:43 - CapCom: "Apollo 13, Houston. I have your Z torque angle when your ready to copy."

00:15:51 - Lovell: "Roger that. We're ready to copy, Joe."

00:15:53 - CapCom: "Okay. It's plus decimal two, six over."

 


Trans Lunar Injection (TLI)
02:35 GET / 3:46 PM CST / April 11, 1970

02:25:00 - JSC PAO: "This is Apollo control. At 2 hours, 25 minutes, Apollo 13 is now about 10 minutes away from the scheduled ignition of the S-IVB engine to start the spacecraft on it's way to the moon. The Flight Dynamics Officer (FIDO) advises that the planned time for the beginning of that burn will be 2 hours, 35 minutes, 44 seconds, Ground Elapsed Time (GET). Our network controller reports that we just had acquisition of the signal with the spacecraft from Carnarvon (Australia). During this pass flight controllers will be looking at the spacecraft and the launch vehicle, the S-IVB, one last time before translunar injection (TLI)."

 

[The initial one and one-half earth orbits before translunar injection (TLI) were spent in spacecraft systems checkout and included television transmissions as Apollo 13 passed over the Merritt Island Launch Area, Florida, tracking station]
02:35:22 - Swigert: "Joe, read you loud and clear. We're sitting here monitoring time base 6. You can see the countdown, we're 20 seconds away."

02:35:25 - CapCom: "Okay. We're just starting to get data and everything still looks good to us."

 

[This trajectory is nominally one that provides a "free return" to earth; that is, if for any reason the spacecraft is not inserted into an orbit around the moon, the spacecraft will return to earth.]


Transposition (LM Extraction)
04:01 GET / 5:14 PM CST / April 11, 1970

Haise: "We're hard dock, Houston."

CapCom: "Roger, understand hard dock. Good deal. Fred one more thing on the TV, if you could come down to F22 again."

Haise: "Okay. You got F22 again. (pause) Okay, Joe I'm pointing over towards Jack and it's pretty bright with the Earth out that window is that sort of washing out the picture here?"

CapCom: "No Fred it's not, we've got a bright spot where the window is, but the rest of you are semi-silhouetted. It's a pretty impressive picture."

 

[The CM has five windows: two side, two rendezvous, and a hatch window. The side windows, about 13 inches square, are positioned at the side of the left and right couches and are used for observation and photography. The triangular rendezvous windows, about 8 by 13 inches, face the left and right couches and permit a view forward (toward the apex of the module). They are used to aid in the rendezvous and docking maneuvers as well as for observation. The hatch window is over the center couch. The windows each consist of inner and outer panes. The inner windows are made of tempered silica glass with 1/4-inch thick double panes, separated by a tenth of an inch. The outer windows are made of amorphous-fused silicon with a single pane of seven-tenths of an inch thick. Each pane has an anti-reflective coating on the external surface and a blue-red reflective coating on the inner surface to filter out most infrared and all ultraviolet rays. The outer window glass has a softening temperature of 2800 degrees F and a melting point of 3110 degrees F. The inner window glass has a softening temperature of 2000 degrees F. Each window has a shade which can be installed to cut off all outside light, The shades are made of aluminum sheet, have a non-reflective inner surface, and are held in place by wing levers.]
Swigert: "Okay, we're about ready to pull the LM out, Joe."

CapCom: "Okay, 13."

Swigert: "Here she comes. (pause) Okay, it looks like we're clear, Joe."

CapCom: "Okay, looks good. It's weird though, we get the TV about 10 seconds after you call it."

 

[After the CSM and LM have docked, the pressure between the CM and the LM is equalized and the CM forward hatch is removed. A check is made to determine that all docking latches are engaged, the CSM-LM electrical umbilicals are connected, and the CM forward hatch is reinstalled. The LM's four connections to the SLA are severed by small explosive charges, and the spacecraft is separated from the SLA and third stage by spring thrusters.]
Swigert: "Okay, Houston. We have the S-IVB in sight. You're go to maneuver the S-IVB."

CapCom: "Houston, roger that."

Swigert: "Joe, we can see it start to move, however there doesn't seem to be a lot of debris or vapor coming out of it."

CapCom: "Roger that Jack. Booster says that great, he says the booster is doing its thing normally. Concur, we don't see much on the television at all."

 

[The probe is the CM's docking mechanism (male) the drogue (funnel-like shape) is part of the LM docking mechanism (female), the nose of the probe was inserted into the conical shaped drogue on the LM, the drogue has a small hole at its base, the probe's tip (capture latch assembly) would be pushed into this hole, and 3 latches would clamp shut on the inside of the hole - this was a "soft dock" condition, they would then retract the probe, which would bring the two spacecraft together and 12 clamps around the docking ring would snap shut for "hard dock".]
Swigert: "Okay, I can see the S-IVB now out the hatch window."

 


Translunar Coast

[Shortly after the coast period begins, the spacecraft is oriented for navigation sightings of stars and earth landmarks. The spacecraft is then put into a slow roll (PTC) to provide uniform solar heating (about 2 revolutions an hour). This thermal control rolling is stopped for inertial measurement unit alignment and for course corrections.]
CapCom (Joe Kerwin): "...some truck lines are being struck in the Midwest and some school teachers have walked off the job in Minneapolis. Today's favorite pastime across the US, (pause) oh, oh, have you guys completed your income tax?"

Lovell: "How do I apply for an (income tax) extension?"

Swigert: "Yea, Joe. I gotta ... (garbled) ... things kinda happened real fast down there and I, I do need an extension."

CapCom (Joe Kerwin): "(laughing)"

Swigert: "I didn't get mine filed, I'm really serious, would you..."

CapCom (Joe Kerwin): "You're breaking up the room down here."

Swigert: "I may be spending time in a...I may be spending time in another quarantine besides the one they were planning for me."

CapCom (FD Glynn Lunney): "American citizens out of the country get a 60 day extension on filing, I assume this applies to you."

 

[At 30:40:49 GET, a midcourse correction maneuver was made using the service module propulsion system. The crew preparations for the burn and the burn itself were monitored by the Mission Control Center (MCC) at MSC by telemetered data and by television from the spacecraft. This midcourse correction maneuver was a 23.2 feet per second hybrid transfer burn which took Apollo 13 off a free-return trajectory and placed it on a non-free-return trajectory. A similar trajectory had been flown on Apollo 12. The objective of leaving a free-return trajectory is to control the arrival time at the Moon to insure the proper lighting conditions at the landing site. Apollo 8, 10, and 11 flew a pure free-return trajectory until lunar orbit insertion. The Apollo 13 hybrid transfer maneuver lowered the predicted closest approach, or pericynthion, altitude at the Moon from 210 to 64 nautical miles.]


First TV Telecast
32:00 GET / 9:13 PM CST / April 12, 1970

CapCom: "Okay 13. We've got Freddo on TV."

Lovell: "What we plan to do for you today is start out in the spaceship Odyssey and take you on through from Odyssey into the tunnel and into Aquarius and show you a little bit of the landing vehicle and your TV operator is now resting on the center couch looking at Fred Haise who's head is now just about at the beginning of the tunnel and in fact is against the optical area and Fred will now transport himself into the tunnel and into the spaceship Aquarius."

Haise: "Yea one thing I noted, Jack when we first came across here that starting upright in the command module and heading down into Aquarius there's a little bit of an orientation change that I been through in the water tank is still pretty unusual. I find myself now standing with my head on the floor when I get down inside the LM. Once of the nice things, Jack, particularly for a novice like myself is the ease of moving around in here, of course as you know from working in the command module simulator it's really quite a boon to have zero-gravity as an aide, your confined really at one-g to move around very much in there and it's really quite easy. The LM as you can see looks pretty clean I found a couple of loose washers that's about it and the little plastic cap of the sequence camera had come loose and I found it lodge over by the ED (Explosive Devices) panel. Okay. Right under Jim now, he's actually standing on what looks to be a can here, and for the sake of all the people back there, housed inside this can is the LM accent engine, hopefully you can see my hand resting on top of right now. The engine that we use to get off of the Moon. Immediately adjacent to the engine cover here I have my hand on a white box now, which has been shown before, this happens to be Jim's PLSS or the backpack which will supply oxygen and water for cooling while on the Lunar surface. This device we hope to make use of for a planned 4 hours possibly up to 5 hours."

Lovell: "Okay, Houston. For the benefit of the television viewers, we've just about complete our little inspection of Aquarius and now we're proceeding throught the hatch again and through the tunnel and back on the Odyssey."

Lovell: "Just so you know, the new fad with long hair."

CapCom: "Right."

Lovell: "It doesn't work too well up in space, you can't comb your hair up here."

CapCom: "Well, I guess you have to give up something. (pause) At least it, it helps to try, we can see you trying to comb your hair there, Jim. It looks like your beards haven't come along to the point where you have to use the razor though."

Lovell: "Well we've been debating that, we thought we'd take care of our beards tomorrow and make that one of our duties. (pause) And fans I thought we'd get a picture of Jack just so that all the girls know that he's still here. (pause) Say hello Jack."

CapCom: "Yea, we, we appreciate that. There he is, big Jack."

46:33:00 - CapCom (Joe Kerwin): "Ah, roger. The spacecraft is in real good shape as far as we are concerned, Jim. We're bored to tears down here."

 


Second TV Telecast & "Problem"
55:11 GET / 8:24 PM CST / April 13, 1970

Lovell: (doing the camera work) "Roger, Houston. What we plan to do for you today is turn on in the spaceship Odyssey, and take you on through Odyssey into the tunnel and into Aquarius, and show you a little bit of the landing vehicle, and your TV operator is now resting on the center couch looking at Fred Haise who's headed, now just about at the tunnel and back up against the optical area, and Fred will now transport himself into the tunnel and into the spaceship Aquarius."

Lovell: "I might tell you that we're looking at right now, that round bag that's just behind Fred holds our vacuum hose that when we get back inside the LM, we'll hook our vacuum hose to our suits and it's resting, or it's attached to the hatch which we will open to go onto the lunar surface, and of course to come back in."

Lovell: "And now Fred's engaged in his favorite past time."

CapCom: "He's not in the food locker is he?"

Lovell: "That's his second favorite past time, he's, he's rigging his hammock for sleep on the lunar surface now to try it out to see what it's going to be like."

CapCom: "Roger, sleeping then eating."

(loop)

 

EECom: "Flight, EECom."
Flight: "Go ahead EECom."
EECom: "Okay. Let's terminate the battery B charge at 55 plus 5, 0."
Flight: "Okay."
EECom: "And at the same time, I'd sure like to have a cryo stir in O2 tanks."
Flight: "Well, let's wait until they get settled down a bit more."
EECom: "Roger."
55:xx:xx - Lovell: "We might give you a quick shot of our entertainment onboard the spacecraft, which has been keeping us company for some time. (Also Sprach Zarathustra plays on tape recorder) This little tape recorder has been a big benefit, it has been a big benefit to us in passing some of the time away on our transit out to the Moon, and it's rather odd to see it floating like this in, in Odyssey, while it's playing the theme from 2001. And of course the tape wouldn't be complete without the voyage."

55:xx:xx - CapCom: "Okay, Jim. We're seeing the tape recorder now, and just by the way, just how long do you expect to keep the TV on this evening?"

55:xx:xx - Lovell: "Well when ever you ...."

 

LOUD POP can be heard on air-to-ground.

 

55:xx:xx - Lovell: ".... Stand by, one."

55:xx:xx - Haise: "Yea, I got them with the cabin repress valve again there, Jack."

55:xx:xx - Lovell: "Every time he does that our hearts jump in our mouths."

Lovell: "And Jack, anytime you want to terminate TV we're all set to go."

55:xx:xx - CapCom: "Okay, Jim. it's been a real good TV show, we think we ought to conclude it, from here now, what do you think?"

(loop)

 

EECom: "Flight, EECom."
Flight: "Go EECom."
EECom: "We've got 40 amp-hours back in battery B now."
Flight: "Okay."
55:xx:xx - Lovell: "Roger, sounds good, and this is the crew of Apollo 13, wishing everyone there a nice evening and we're just about ready to closeout our inspection of Aquarius, and get back to a pleasant evening in Odyssey. Goodnight."

55:xx:xx - CapCom: "Thank you 13. (pause) We'd like you to roll right to 060 and null your rates."

55:xx:xx - Lovell: "Okay, we'll do it."

55:xx:xx - CapCom: "And we'd like you to check your C4 thrusters."

55:xx:xx - Lovell: "Okay, Jack."

[250k WAV Audio file]

55:52:58 - CapCom: "13, we've got one more item for you, when you get a chance. We'd like you to stir up your cryo tanks. In addition, I have shaft and trunnion ..."

 

[The cryogenic hydrogen tanks are stirred by internal fans to homogenise their density. The cryogen, when in the tank, has been described as a very 'dense fog' rather than a liquid; in zero G it tended to separate into layers of different densities around the quantity gaging system's capacitive probe creating a false quantity reading. The two small fans were used to periodically (once/day) stir up the cryogen (H2 or O2) to make it homogeonous and allow the capacitive probe to produce an accurate signal/reading.]
55:53:06 - Swigert: "Okay." (over CapCom)

55:53:07 - CapCom: "... for looking at comet (J. C.) Bennett (19691), if you need it."

55:53:12 - Swigert: "Okay. Stand by."

(loop)

 

Flight: "Now we haven't stabilized that attitude yet, but I don't think they're going to have any problems."
Guido: "Flight, I don't think there's any problem. They haven't opened up that vent."
Flight: "Yea, that's just what I'm saying. The time to do it is now Guidance."
Guido: "Flight, Guidance."
Flight: "Go Guidance."
As long as he's in P00 and don't reselect it, we can downlink it... (garbled) ...enter it... (garbled)"
Flight: "Fido you got an update on the crew checklist anyway onboard don't ya..."
Fido: (over Flight) "Rog."
Flight: "...don't you got a page update, well why don't we read it up to them and that'll serve both purposes."
Fido: "Alright."
Flight: "The bulkhead matter as well as why don't you tell them what page you want of the checklist."
Fido: "Okay."
Telmu: "Flight, Telmu."
55:55:20 (9:07 PM CT) - Swigert: "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here."

(loop)

 

Flight: "Go, Telmu."
Telmu: "We show the overhead hatch closed and the heater current looks normal."
Flight: "Okay."
55:55:28 - CapCom: "This is Houston. Say again please."

(loop)

 

Guido: "Flight, Guidance."
Flight: "Go, Guidance."
Guido: "We've had a hardware restart. I don't know what it was."
Flight: "GNC you want to look at it?":
GNC: "(garbled)":
Flight: "Roger. See a hardware restart?":
55:55:35 - Lovell: "Ah, Houston, we've had a problem. (pause) We've had a main B bus undervolt."

 

[Summary of events leading to the failure of O2 tank 2.]

(loop)

 

Flight: "You see a AC bus undervolt there Guidance, (correcting himself) er, EECom?"
EECom: "Negative, Flight."
Flight: "I believe the crew reported it."
CapCom: "We got a main B undervolt."
EECom: "Okay, Flight we've got some instrumentation flags. Let me add them up."
Flight: "Rog."
EECom: "We've may have had an instrumentation problem, Flight."
Flight: "Rog."
55:55:42 - CapCom (Jack Lousma): "Roger. Main B undervolt. Okay stand by 13, we're looking at it."

(loop)

 

Inco: "Flight, Inco."
Flight: "Go, Inco."
Inco: "We switched to wide beam width about the time he had that problem."
Flight: "Okay, you say you went to wide beam there?"
Inco: "Yes."
Flight: "See if you can correlate the times, get the time you went to wide beam, Inco."
55:56:10 - Haise: "Okay. Right now, Houston, the voltage is, is looking good. And we had a pretty large bang associated with the caution and warning there. And as I recall, main B was the one that had an amp spike on it once before."

55:56:30 - CapCom: "Roger, Fred."

55:56:54 - Haise: "In the interim here, we're starting to go ahead and button up the tunnel again."

 

[The forward (docking ) hatch is a combined pressure and ablative hatch mounted at the top of the docking tunnel. It is about 30 inches in diameter and weighs about 80 pounds. The exterior or upper side of the hatch is covered with a half-inch of insulation and a layer of aluminum foil. The forward hatch has a six-point latching arrangement operated by a pump handle similar to that on the side hatch except that only one stroke is needed to open the latches. The handle is offset so that it can be reached easily by a crewman standing in the tunnel. This hatch also can be opened from the outside. It has a pressure equalization valve so that the pressure in the tunnel and that in the LM can be equalized before the hatch is removed. The valve is similar to the vent valve in the side hatch. There are no provisions for opening the latches manually if the handle gear mechanism should fail. Jim Lovell notes in his book "Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13" that Jack Swigert tried to seal the hatch to the tunnel leading into the LM several times and could not get the hatch to seat or lock, then he (Jim Lovell) tried and couldn't get it to seat. By this time he realized that if the LM had been it by a meteor and the hull compromised the spacecrafts would have depressurized by now. Its interesting to note that later in the mission just before jettisoning the LM the hatch seated and sealed without any problem.]
55:57:04 - Haise: "That jolt must have rocked the sensor on, see now, oxygen quantity 2. It was oscillating down around 20 to 60 percent. Now it's full-scale high."

55:57:07 - CapCom: "Roger."

55:57:44 - Lovell: "Okay. And we're looking at our service module RCS helium 1. We have, B is barber poled and D is barber poled, helium 2, D is barber pole, and secondary propellants, I have A and C barber pole."

 

[In both the LM & CM there are indicators (talkback) for important functions that are either "gray" (functioning properly) or "barber pole" (red & white stripes - problem or needs attention), they tell what state the monitored system is in.]
Lovell: "And Houston, we had a restart on our computer. We had phase light and restart, reset."

CapCom: "Roger, reset."

55:58:07 - Haise: "Okay, AC 2 is showing zip. I'm going to try and reconfigure on that, Jack."

55:58:25 - Haise: "Yes, we got a main bus A undervolt now too showing."

CapCom: "Main A undervolt."

55:58:29 - Haise: "It's reading about 25 and a half. Main B is reading zip right now."

CapCom: "Okay and Houston, we'd like you to attemp to reconnect fuel cell to main A and fuel cell 3 to main B. Verify that quad delta is open."

 

[Controllers asked the crew to connect fuel cell 3 to dc main bus B in order to be sure that the configuration was known]
Haise: "Okay, Houston, I'm showing that, I tried to reset and fuel cell 1 and 3 are both showing gray flags, but their both showing zip on the flows."

 

[When fuel cells 1 and 3 electrical output readings went to zero, the ground controllers could not be certain that the cells had not somehow been disconnected from their respective busses and were not otherwise all right. Attention continued to be focused on electrical problems.]
(loop)

 

Flight: "Go, EECom."
EECom: "(garbled) ...down to bravo, our high gain won't drive that AC 2."
Flight: "Okay. You want omni Bravo?"
EECom: "Right."
56:03:42 - Haise: "In the interim, to help out MAIN A voltage, I've got MAIN BUS TIE BAT AC on. Or would you rather accept the 25 volts we are seeing on MAIN A?"

56:03:52 - Capcom: "Okay. BUS TIE AC on."

56:04:09 - Capcom: "13, Houston. We need OMNI Charlie, please."

56:04:19 - Haise: "You got it."

Lovell: "Okay, Houston, are you still reading Apollo 13?"

CapCom: "That's affirmative, We are reading you. We're still trying to come up with some good ideas for you."

(loop)

 

CapCom: "Is there any kind of leads we can give them? are we looking at instrumentation, or we got a real problem, or what?"
Flight: "Okay Sy, what do you want to do?. Have you got a sick sensor type problem there or what?"
Lovell: "Fuel cell 1 and 3 are both showing grey flags, but both are showing zip on the flows."

CapCom: "We copy."

Lovell: "And Jack, O2 cryo number 2 tank is reading zero. Did you get that?"

CapCom: "O2 quantity is zero."

Lovell: "And ah, Jack our O2 supply number 2 tank is reading zero, did your get that?"

(loop)

 

EECom: "That's roger, Flight. That's the AC problem."
Flight: "Rog."
CapCom: "O2 quantity number 2 is zero."

CapCom: "13, Houston. We like you to verify a couple of reading for us. We'd like the nitrogen pressure on fuel cell 1, we need the oxygen pressure on fuel cell 2."

Haise: "Okay. Systems test 1-A says zip, and 2 baker which is the oxygen says point 6."

CapCom: "2 Baker says point 6 and say again the other one."

Haise: "Fuel cell 1 nitrogen reads zero."

CapCom: "Roger, zero."

56:09:07 - Lovell: "That appears to be what we're seeing. Okay. (pause) And it looks to me, looking out the hatch that we are venting something."

56:09:10 - CapCom: (over Lovell) "Roger."

(loop)

 

Flight: "Crew thinks they're venting."
EECom: "I got that, Flight."
Lovell: "We are, we are venting something out into the, into space."

CapCom: "Roger. We copy you're venting."

Lovell: "It's a gas of some sort."

CapCom: "Can you tell us anything about it?, Where is it coming from?"

Lovell: "It's coming out of window one right now, Jack."

(loop)

 

Flight: "Okay let's everybody think of the kind of things we'd be venting. GNC, you got anything that looks abnormal in your system?"
GNC: "Negative, Flight."
Flight: "How about you EECom see anything that, with the instrumentation you got that could be venting?"
EECom: "That's affirm, Flight. (pause) Let me look at the system as far as venting's concerned."
[Since the problem was reported at 55:55 GET, the EECom and his backroom have been looking at this as an instrumentation failure. With Jim Lovell's report of venting they're starting to realize the extreme seriousness of the situation.]
56:09:58 - Haise: "Okay, Fuel cell 1, you just wanted off the line now Jack, is that right?"

56:10:01 - CapCom: "We just want (garbled) fuel cell 1"

56:10:05 - Haise: "Okay. she's off the line."

(loop)

 

Flight: "Okay, let's start scanning. I assume you've called in your backup EEComs"
EECom: "Flight, say again."
Flight: "You've called in your backup EEComs now - see if we can get some more brain power in this thing?"
EECom: "We got one here."
Flight: "Rog."
Flight: "Okay, now let's everybody keep cool. We got the LM still attached. The LM spacecraft's good so if we need to get back home we got a LM to do a portion of it with. Okay, lets make sure that we don't do anything that's going blow our CSM electrical power with the batteries, or that will cause us to loose the main, or the - fuel cell number 2. Okay, we want to keep the O2 and that kind of stuff working - we like to have RCS, but we got the command module system so we're in good shape if we need to get home. Let's solve the problem but let's not make it any worst by guessing."
Flight: "I'll tell you what, GNC can you get somebody in the backroom to try to figure out what the equivalent delta V is we're getting? So that we can see if we can back track to see if we can figure out what's venting"
GNC: "Rog, we'll give it a try Flight."
Flight: "Okay."
Swigert: "Jack, are you copying O2 tank 1 cryo pressure?"

CapCom: "That's affirmative."

(loop)

 

Flight: "Well lets get some recommendation here, Sy, if you got any better ideas. Do we have instrumentation problems?"
EECom: "Well we've lost AC. It does appear we've lost AC bus 2, voltage. Main B is reading 4 volts and that effectively takes AC 2 away from us."
Flight: "Okay."
(loop)

 

Guido: "Flight, Guidance."
Flight: "Go, Guidance."
Guido: "He's getting close to gimbal lock there."
Flight: "Roger. CapCom, recommend he bring up C3, C4, B3, B4 C1 and C2 thrusters, and advise he's getting close to gimbal lock."
CapCom: "Roger."
CapCom: "13, Houston. We see you getting close to gimbal lock there, we'd like you to bring up all quad C's on main A, C1, C2, C3, C4, on main A and also bring B3, B4, up."

 

[The four quad clusters, which form the Service Module's RCS system, are labelled A to D with quad A being situated on the SM wall, directly below the main hatch of the CM. Each carries four thrusters, or jets, apiece numbered 1 through 4.]
CapCom: "13, Houston. Do You read?"

Haise: "Yes, we got it."

Lovell: "Affirm."

(loop)

 

Flight: "Okay, EECom I'm coming back to you."
EECom: "Flight."
Flight: "Go ahead."
EECom: "I think the best thing we could do right now is start a power down."
Flight: "Okay, you want to power down, look at the telemetry and all that good stuff, and then come back up?"
EECom: "That's right."
Flight: "How much do you want to power down?"
EECom: "A total of 10 amps, Flight."
Flight: "A total of 10 amps (whistles). - CapCom, we recommend emergency power down checklist 1 through 5. We want to power down a delta of 10 amps from where we are now."
CapCom: "Roger, Flight."
[Sy Liebergot (White-EECom) notes in a video interview that he knew at this point that the cryo tanks and fuel cells were gone and that they would not be able to bring the power back up in the command module.]
CapCom: "Okay, 13, this is Houston. We'd like you to go to your GNC checklist, the pink pages 1 dash 5. Do a power down until we get a delta of 10 amps, over."

CapCom: "13, Houston. Did you copy our power down request?"

Swigert: "Roger, Jack, we're doing it right now."

CapCom: "It's the pink pages, emergency pages 1 through 5."

Swigert: "Okay."

CapCom: "Power down until you get an amperage of 10 amps less then you have now."

Swigert: "Okay."

(loop)

 

EECom: "Flight, EECom."
Flight: "Go, EECom."
EECom: "Okay. I need one thing right now. He's powering down, he's down to 41 amps total spacecraft, I'd like to get my AC 2 bus back so I can look at O2 tank 2 pressure, I have no insight into that."
Flight: "Okay."
EECom: "Let's get, I guess we can put inverter 3 to main A, AC 2. (pause) And we'll just use ...." (interrupted by Flight)
Flight: "Let me ask a question. Before your do that would you like to make sure you got all AC loads you don't need isolated from the bus?"
EECom: "Nah, let's not do that right now, Flight. I think we're in good shape that way. Main A is up high enough to where it can handle the inverter."
Flight: "The thing that concerns me is starting - is throwing equipment. We had a problem, we don't know the cause of the problem, and ...." (interrupted by EECom)
EECom: "Flight, I've got a feeling that we've lost two fuel cells. I hate to put it that way, but I don't know why we've lost them, it doesn't all tag up, and it's not an instrumentation problem, the best I can tell right now."
(loop)

 

Flight: "You don't want to get fuel cell pumps off do you?"
EECom: "We can do that on fuel cell number 1, Flight."
Flight: "Okay, well let's make sure we don't blow the whole mission. Can we review our status here Sy, and see what we got from a stand point of status. What do you think we got in the spacecraft that's good?"
EECom: "We're reading zero O2 pressure in fuel cell 1 and 13 psi on fuel cell 3 O2 pressure."
Flight: "Okay Barret what do you want to do? Open circuit fuel cell 1 and 3?"
EECom: "That's affirm, Flight."
(loop)

 

Flight: "Telmu and Control, from Flight."
Telmu: "Go, Flight."
Flight: "Will you take a look at the pre-launch data and see if there's anything that may have started the venting?"
Telmu: "Roger, Flight."
Flight: "And I want a report on that in the next fifteen minutes - quick look type stuff."
Telmu: "Roger."
Flight: "Network from Flight."
Network: "Flight, Network."
Flight: "Bring me up another computer in the RTCC (Real-Time Computer Complex), will you."
Network: "We got a - one machine on in the RTCC, and we got dual CP's downstairs."
Flight: "Okay, I want another machine up in the RTCC, and I want a bunch of guys capable of running d-logs down there."
Network: "Roger that."
Flight: "GNC, Flight."
GNC: "Go, Flight."
Flight: "Give me a gross amount of thruster propellants consumed so far."
GNC: "Roger, Flight. We're still below the limits."
Flight: "EECom, from Flight."
EECom: "Go, Flight."
Flight: "What does the status of your buses tell you now?"
EECom: "It tells me... uh... give me about two more minutes, Flight."
Flight: "Okay. take your time."
EECom: "Flight, EECom."
Flight: "Go, EECom."
EECom: "Let's have 'em isolate the surge tank and save it. We'll use the cryo as much as we can."
Flight: "Uh, say that again."
EECom: "Let's isolate the surge tank in the command module."
Flight: "Why that?, I don't understand that, Sy. I want to use the cryos as much as possible. That would seem to be the opposite of what you want to do if you want to keep the fuel cells going."
EECom: "The fuel cells are fed off the tanks in the service module, Flight. The surge tank is in the command module. We want to save the surge tank, which we'll need for entry."
Flight: "Okay, I'm with you, I'm with you. - CapCom, let's isolate the surge tank."
[The Real-Time Computer Complex (RTCC), a group of five IBM series 360 state-of-the-art mainframe computers of the era, one of which was dedicated to making calculations for the mission, with another as a dynamic standby.]
CapCom: "13, Houston. We'd like you to isolate your O2 surge tank."

Swigert: "Roger."

Swigert: "Is the surge tank off now, Jack?"

CapCom: "That's affirmative."

 

[Oxygen Surge Tank - The Inconel tank has a diameter of 13 inches and is 14 inches high and holds 3.7 pounds of oxygen at a pressure of about 900 pounds per square inch. It provides oxygen during entry and for augmenting the SM supply when the operational demand exceeds the flow capacity of the inlet-restrictors. In emergencies, it can supply oxygen at a high flow rate. It is in the left-hand equipment bay of the command module.]
(loop)

 

EECom: "Flight, EECom."
Flight: "Go ahead, EECom."
EECom: "I want to shut off reactant valves, starting with fuel cell 3 first, to see if we can stop the flows."
Flight: "You want to shut off the reactant valve to fuel cell 3?"
EECom: "Roger."
Flight: "CapCom, let's have them close the reactant valve to fuel cell number 3. We're going to try to stop this O2 flow."
CapCom: "Okay, 13, this is Houston. It appears to us that we're losing O2 flow through fuel cell 3, so we want you to close the reac valve on fuel cell 3. You copy?"

Haise: "Did I hear you right?, you want me to shut the reac valve on fuel cell 3?"

CapCom: "That's affirmative."

Haise: "You want me to go through the whole smash for fuel cell shut down?"

CapCom: "That's affirmative."

 

[The reactant (reac) valves control the flow of O2 from the cryo tanks to the fuel cells, once they were closed by the crew, they could not be reopened without ground support equipment. This request from the ground put to rest any hopes the crew had of still landing on the lunar surface.]


News Reports

(ABC News - "From ABC News space headquarters here is commentator Frank Reynolds." Frank Reynolds: "There has been an emergency, the flight of Apollo 13, the prime objective of the mission the landing on the moon the further exploration of the lunar surface has been canceled and now the only consideration that remains is the safe return of the three astronauts.")

(BBC News - James Burke: "...some kind of explosion occurred in the spacecraft's main engine. The explosion affected the spacecraft's main power system supplied by fuel cells, and that means that their oxygen supply is in jeopardy and their water supply is officially termed critical.")

(CBS News - David Shoemaker: "A problem has developed aboard Apollo 13. Trouble serious enough to jeopardize the continuation of the mission. Just over an hour ago spacecraft commander Jim Lovell suddenly radioed 'Houston, we've had a problem here' a problem with the onboard electrical power system. Apparently an unexpected power surge set off a master alarm in the command module. Lovell said the 'voltage now is looking good', but he add 'it was a pretty large bang'. He also reported that the oxygen in one of the electricity generating fuel cells was registering zero, meaning that it was empty. And the spacecraft was 'venting something into space, a gas of some kind'. At one point during the drama John Swigert said the spacecraft was 'twisting out of control', he worked feverishly for a moment and then reported 'that got it, that got it stopped'. What all this means is only speculation at this point. First, although there has been some tumbling or rotation of the spacecraft the astronauts do not appear to be in any immediate danger. The venting has been decreasing there are three fuel cell onboard and at least one is operating partially and there is ample battery backup power besides that. Apollo 13 is now two-thirds of the way to the moon, two hundred thousand miles from Earth, at a point, even in an emergency it is more efficient to swing around the moon and return, rather then to try an immediate abort. If it is necessary to end the flight the astronauts could burn their main spacecraft engine tomorrow and splash down in the Pacific, Saturday afternoon. Now that's based on information we've received before this mission and has not yet been confirmed tonight. At the moment the astronauts are continuing to try and isolate their trouble. A late report says the spacecraft is now operating on battery power alone, all unnecessary equipment is being turned off. Lovell reports that he's checked service propulsion system engine, the main spacecraft engine, and that all fuel quantities and pressures are good. It should be kept in mind that there is another backup engine too, the descent engine of the lunar module, that too could provide the boost back home. Once again briefly, an electrical malfunction threatened the flight of Apollo 13. We'll keep standing-by for further details. This has been a CBS news special report. David Shoemaker, CBS news space headquarters, New York.")

 


LM Lifeboat

(loop)

 

EECom: "Flight, EECom."
Flight: "Go ahead, EECom."
EECom: "The pressure in O2 tank 1 is all the way down to 297 we better think about getting in the LM, or using LM systems."
Flight: "Telmu from Flight."
Telmu: "Go ahead, Flight."
Flight: "I want you to get some guys figuring our minimum power in the LM to sustain life."
Telmu: "Roger."
Flight: "And I want LM manning around the clock."
Telmu: "Roger that too."
[LM flight controllers were on duty in Mission Control at the time of the accident in support of the scheduled crew entry into the LM. If the accident had occurred at some other time during the translunar coast phase, LM system specialists would not have been on duty, and it would have taken at least 30 minutes to get a fully manned team in Mission Control.]
Swigert: "Okay, Jack, it looks like O2 tank 1 pressure is just a hair over 200."

CapCom: "We confirm that here, and temperature also confirms it."

Swigert: "Okay. Does it look like it's still going down?"

CapCom: "It's slowly going to zero, and we're starting to think about the LM lifeboat."

Swigert: "Yea, that's what we're thinking about too."

 

[The resultant loss of oxygen made the fuel cells inoperative, leaving the CM with batteries normally used only during reentry as the sole power source and with only that oxygen contained in a surge tank and repressurization packages. The LM, therefore, became the only source of sufficient electrical power and oxygen to permit safe return of the crew to Earth.]
(loop)

 

EECom: "Flight, EECom."
Flight: "Go ahead."
EECom: "We need to open up the surge tank. The pressure's dropping, and the rate's accelerating."
Flight: "Wouldn't you rather have them breathe off the LM?"
EECom: "We've got to get into the LM first, Flight."
Flight: "CapCom, get 'em going into the LM. We've got to get the oxygen on in the LM."
CapCom: "13, Houston. We'd like you to start making your way over to the LM."

Swigert: "Fred and Jim are in the LM already."

 

[There were three different LM activation checklists contained in the Flight Data File for normal and contingency situations; however, none of these was appropriate for the existing situation. It was necessary to activate the LM as rapidly as possible to conserve LM consumables and CM reentry batteries to the maximum extent possible.]
(loop)

 

Flight (Glynn Lunney): "Okay. Now is it possible that we still have that tank, and it's good. And we could somehow get power on B and use it?"
EECom: "Not likely, Flight."
Flight: "Not, what's not likely, Clint."
EECom: "Not likely to be able to actually have anything left in that tank."
Flight: "You don't think so?"
EECom: "I don't think so, but let, we'll cross that one too."
Flight: "Alright."
EECom: "Let me get you a time it look like we got on tank 1 here."
Flight: "Alright."
EECom: "Flight, EECom. It looks like we got about 40 minutes left in that tank."
Flight: "Okay. Does it look like it's still going down?"
EECom: "That's affirmative. Yes."
Flight: "EEcom...go..." (interrupted by EECom)
EEcom: "Go, Flight."
Flight: "...go one more time around that room, we're letting this... thing go down, although I realize we don't have any more thoughts to do, but I want to be sure if there's anything we can do here that we're doing it... To keep your... (interrupted by EECom)"
EEcom: "Just power down, Flight. All we can power down will put us in that much better configuration."
Flight: "Okay. I got that part, but is there any other things that you can do besides that is what I'm getting at."
EEcom: "Negative, Flight."
EECom (Clint Burton): "Flight, EECom." (no response)
EECom: "Flight, EECom."
Flight: "Go ahead."
EECom: "Okay, got an update on the time, look like we got about 18 minutes until we get down to 100 psi and that's on the cutoff point."
Flight: "Alright."
EEcom: "But we're charging battery A."
Flight: "Well that doesn't mean much in 18 minutes though."
EECom: "But we're doing all we can do."
Flight: "EEcom, Flight."
EEcom: "Go ahead, Flight."
Flight: "Let me try one more time. Is it possible that if we got power to main B that we could get tank 2 powered up, and up in pressure?"
EEcom: "We don't feel like that's a possibility, Flight. We might conceivably get power to B, but we don't feel like we can get anything out of tank 2."
Flight: "Okay, Now why is that. Tell me why. I'm just reviewing the situation .... (interrupted by EECom)"
EEcom: "Because the numbers we're looking at indicate that it's essentially ambient, all gone."
Flight: "Okay."
EECom: "Flight, EECom. Temperature and the pressure correspond, so we're going to be there in 15 minutes."
CapCom: "Jim we have a procedure for getting power from the LM we'd like you to copy down."

Swigert: "Okay."

Lovell: "Stand-by, Jack."

Swigert: "That sounds like good news."

Haise: "Okay, Jack about how long is it?"

CapCom: "It's not a very long procedure, Fred. We figure we got about 15 minutes worth of power left in the command module so we want you to start getting over in the LM and getting power on that, and you ready to copy procedure?"

Haise: "Okay."

CapCom: "Okay, in the CSM... (interupted)"

Haise: "Stand-by."

57:46:00 - JSC PAO: "This is Apollo control at 57 hours 46 minutes ground elapsed time. The black team of flight controllers is now on station in mission control center looking at possible alternate missions, as we have an apparent serious oxygen leak in the cryogenic oxygen in the service module and now in the process of powering down the command module. Less then 15 minutes remaining of electrical power to the CSM. The command module surge tank has been charged with oxygen for entry. This scheme of going across to the lunar module still connected with the open tunnel. The lunar module would serve as sort of a lifeboat for the crew of Apollo 13. Sometime later in the mission it is expected that they would return to free return trajectory that they left yesterday in the mid-course correction number two. The pericynthion, near the Moon, they would use the descent propulsion system (DPS) of the lunar module for transearth injection burn at about 79 hours 30 minutes ground elapsed time, this would produce a day early entry at about 142 hours, that is a day earlier then a nominal free return entry. We're continuing to monitor the situation and still live on air-gound."

CapCom: "Aquarius, Houston. "

Haise: "Go ahead, Jack. "

CapCom: "Okay. We want you to know that, we've got some gyro torquing angles for you and we want you to tell us when you got attitude control in the LM"

Haise: "Okay. We're still working on the pressurization of... (garbled) ...Jim in here so he can help out. "

CapCom: "Roger. "

58:46:00 - JSC PAO: "This is Apollo Control, 58 hours, 46 minutes, ground elapsed time. Lovell and Haise still powering up the lunar module getting attitude control, aligning the platform, in preparation for what turns out to be an alternate mission, in which no lunar landing will be possible. However the spacecraft will fly around the moon, at this point in translunar coast it is more economical in propellant and time to continue to coast on around the moon and come back to Earth intersecting trajectory. In about 20 minutes, in the Houston news center, there will be a press conference in the small briefing room. Stand by."

Lovell: "Houston, I've got some numbers for you, but I want you to double check my arithmetic so far."

CapCom: "Okay, Jim."

Lovell: "The roll CAL (calibration) angle is minus 2 degrees, the command module angles are 355.57, 167.78, and 351.87."

CapCom: "Roger, we copy."

CapCom: "Okay, Aquarius, your arithmetic looks good there."

(loop)

 

Flight (Glynn Lunney): " (regarding leaving the CM's Guidance System Heater turned on) ... point 8 (0.8) amp for the rest of the mission, it's going to cost me 64 amp hours, I can't afford that."
[During the LM powerup and the CSM powerdown, there was a brief time interval during which Mission Control gave the crew directions which resulted in neither spacecraft having an active attitude control system. This caused some concern in Mission Control because of the possibility of the spacecraft drifting into inertial platform gimbal lock condition. Had gimbal lock actually occurred, sufficient time was available to re-establish an attitude reference.]
58:40:00 - Lovell: "Okay. Aquarius is up and Odyssey is completely powered down according to the procedures you read to Jack."

CapCom: "Roger, we copy. That's where we want to be, Jim."

 

[The LM was designed to support two men for 49.5 hours, but by turning off all the LM's systems except those relating to life support, communications, and environmental control (ECS), (drastically reducing Aquarius' power consumption), stretched its resources to provide life support for three men for 84 hours. Mission Control developed contingency plans for further reduction of LM power for use in case an LM battery problem developed. Procedures for use of CM water in the LM also were developed for use if needed.]
(loop)

 

Flight: "Is everybody on the loop? Give me an amber please. (pause) Retro you up? (no response) Guidance get a Retro up on the loop will you please?."
Retro: "Go ahead."
Flight: "Now look, as I see it we got a number of things to do, no big hurry right now. Telmu I assume that you're working out all the consumable options, and as soon as control has got a mode here your going to able to layout a power profile to tell us where we stand on all your O2, and your water, and your power, right?."
Telmu: "Roger."
(loop)

 

Control: "Flight, Control."
Flight: "Go, Control."
Control: "It looks like we're drifting around on the gimbal angles here. He's in mid-impulse right now and I'm assuming that's where he wants to be, but if he doesn't watch it real close, he's going to get himself into gimbal lock real quick."
Flight: "He may be looking for stars."
Control: "Maybe, but it might be worth a confirmation."
Flight: "Roger. Capcom, have him watch his gimbal angle."
Capcom: "Roger."
CapCom: "Aquarius, Houston. You're watching your gimbals there aren't you?"

Haise: "."

(loop)

 

Fido: "Flight, Fido."
Flight: "Go ahead."
Fido: "Let me bring you up to speed on what we're doing down here. We're looking at a maneuver that we think should get us a free return."
Flight: "Mm-Hmm."
Fido: "We've got the backroom working on all the vectors right now, and in about ten minutes I can have the maneuver ready, and we could execute it at about the 61:30 mark in the mission."
Flight: "And it's a free return?"
Fido: "That's affirmed, It'll be a 16 foot per-second burn. So you can work with that number."
Guidance: "Flight, Guidance."
Flight: "Go, Guidance."
Guidance: "We've got good guidance and navigation data right now, and we could probably get a real good burn off now and get that free return."
Flight: "Roger."
Flight: "Fido, Flight."
Fido: "Go, Flight."
Flight: "Exactly how long would it take you to get that free return maneuver? Could you get one at 61 hours instead of 61:30?"
Fido: "Uh, Roger that, I can. It's just a question of which vector I want to do it on. "
Flight: "Gentlemen, we're going to proceed to do a 16 foot per-second free return maneuver here at 61 hours. We want to get on a free return first, and then we'll kick it at PC+2. Fido, get me data on this pronto for the 61 hour mark and then run me data on more sets at 15 minute increments thereafter, in case we can't get this one off."
Fido: "Roger."
Flight: "Guidance, tell me what vectors we want to use for all those times."
Guidance: "Roger."
Flight: "Control, figure out where we want to pick up on the checklist for all of these maneuvers."
Control: "Roger."
Flight: "And Capcom, why don't you inform the crew about all this."
[166]
JSC PAO: "We now show an altitude of 180,521 nautical miles. Here in mission control we're looking, now looking towards an alternate mission, swinging around the moon and using the lunar module power systems, because of the situation that has developed here this evening. We now show a velocity of 3210 feet per second, this is Apollo control, Houston."

Lovell: "Here are the gimbal angles from the command module three, five, six – six, five. One, six, three – four, two. Three, four, six – six, seven. Aquarius is three, oh, two – two, six. Three, four, five – three, two. Zero, one, one – seven, nine. Over. "

CapCom: "Okay, Jim. I got the command module three, five, six – six, five. One, six, three – four, two. Three, four, six – six, seven. Aquarius three, zero, two – two, six. Three, four, five – three, two. Zero, one, one – seven, eight. "

Lovell: "That's zero, one, one – seven, niner. "

CapCom: "Say again please. "

Lovell: "The LM middle gimbal is zero, one, one – seven, nine. "

CapCom: "Zero, one, one – seven, niner. Got it. "

JSC PAO: "Those angles being read back from Aquarius and from Odyssey were from the coarse alignment of the lunar module guidance system platform. Returning to the alternate mission now being considered, the descent propulsion system trans Earth injection burn will take place at about seventy-nine hours, thirty minutes ground elapsed time. Producing an entry at about one hundred, forty-two hours. At this point in the trans lunar coast it is cheaper and swifter to coast on around the moon and come back to earth then it is to do a deep space abort. Continuing to monitor air-ground from Apollo 13. This is Apollo control. "

CapCom: "Okay Aquarius, and down here we're getting re-grouped trying to work on your control modes and trying to setup something for PTC (Passive Thermal Control), and taking a look at consumables as opposed to flight plan, and so forth. As soon as we get all that information we'll pass it up to you. We also have the 14 backup crew over at the simulators looking at dock burns, and also trying to see what kind of alignment procedures they can come up with for looking at stars out the window. So if you ever are able to see any stars out there and think you could do an alignment out the windows, why let us know."

Lovell: "Okay, Jack. Right now we're not able to, the sun light reflecting off the reflectors and whatever debris gave away at the time of the mishap is still with us., but that stars are defined,. Why, what respect do you want us to do the stars out the window, just to check the LMS align, is that correct? "

CapCom: "Affirm. We'd like to correlate what information we get with your, so that we can use it to update the platform if we can. "

(loop)

 

Flight: "(regarding the handover) ...How come? (pause) We still? I thought that was only going to take thirty seconds? "
Lovell: "Okay, Jack. How do you read now? "

CapCom: "Okay. Hearing you five square now, Jim. (pause) And the question we have is: is there some way you can orient the spacecraft so that the service module is between the LM and the Sun, so you can recognize constellations out the window? And secondly can you see anything out the AOT? "

 

[5 square or 5 by 5 is a radio term where the quality of the voice is given so many marks out of five. The first figure represents the strength or loudness of the voice, the second its readability. 5 by 5 is "loud and clear". Its use is due to the aviation background of the crews and many others in the program.]
(loop)

 

Inco: "Flight I don't think he's got an uplink comm. "
Lovell: "Hello Houston, Aquarius. "

CapCom: "Aquarius, Houston. Go. "

Lovell: "Okay. That's the first clear words we've heard from you, Jack. You think it could be my pitch attitude that's breaking up your incoming signal? "

(loop)

 

Flight: "It was us, Jack. (pause) It was on the ground. "
CapCom: "We've been hearing you and the problem is on the ground. Hope we have it corrected now. "

Lovell: "Okay. That sounds good."

CapCom: "We're considering powering down the PGNS, but we want to know what capability you have to do a coarse and fine align and we read you conversation about being unable to see out the window very good, how about out the AOT? "

Haise: "He's looking now. "

Haise: "Yea, I know the problem. Right now Jack, I'm looking out the right window and it's pretty dark out that window, but there are about a 1000 or so false stars out here from, left over from some of the debris, it's hard to discern what's real and not real."

CapCom: "Okay. That's good information, and during the time that we see you're continuing to pitch, if you ever get in a position where you think the AOT (Alignment Optical Telescope) might be of some use, we'd like you to periodically look out of it and see if you can see some stars that would enable us to get a P52."

Lovell: "Okay, at this attitude, Jack that we're pitching around I can not use the AOT to see stars. We're just not able to see them at all, now we may be able to maneuver off in yaw or, and/or roll and see stars, right now we haven't been able to. The AOT is useless. The command module structure is just radiating too much light into the, into the telescope."

CapCom: "Jim, what we want you to do is go with your current fine align, and disregard the P51, what we're attempting to do is crank up some LMS simulations to correlate what we can get out your window with what we can get out the LMS window to see if that will help us any. So when you can see some stars, if you can, think you can recognize them, can recognize constellation please let us know."

Lovell: "Okay, we'll check, stand-by."

JSC PAO: "Participants in the forthcoming press conference within the next 15 minutes or so will be manned spacecraft center deputy Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. ...(interupted)"

Haise: "Jack, Aquarius. What kind of return time is this maneuver give us? "

CapCom: "It puts you back in the water at one-hundred thirty-three hours. "

Haise: "One-hundred thirty-three, ay? "

CapCom: "Affirm. Now that's an Atlantic landing site. "

Haise: "Atlantic landing? "

 

[To improve the consumables margin, it was necessary to speed up the spacecraft's velocity. Several velocity changes were possible. The one which would save the most time would bring the crew down in the Atlantic Ocean at 133 hours, but recovery would be awkward. The maximum return time was 152 hours to the Indian Ocean. A second option would reduce the return time from 152 hours to 142 hours and bring the spacecraft to a splash down the Pacific as planned where the Recovery forces were deployed.]
CapCom: "Affirmative. That's the PAD (Pre-Advisory Data) we've given you, but we may change our mind later on, we want you to have this info for now. And that's a minimum... (interrupted) "

Haise: "Okay. "

CapCom: "Minimum time return. "

CapCom: "Aquarius, Houston. We got to change the REFSMMAT (Reference to a Stable Member Matrix) to the one on which your aligned so we'd like to have P00 inate and we'll ship that up to you. "

Lovell: "Roger. "

 

[The computer must be in an idle status (running P00, essentially a "do-nothing" program) with switches set to accept ground updates. P00 is commonly referred to by all the Apollo crews as POO after the character from A. A. Milne's book 'Winnie the Pooh.']
60:21:00 - JSC PAO: "This is Apollo control, 60 hours, 21 minutes ground elapsed time. At the present time the flight dynamics officer (FIDO) here in mission control is computing a maneuver to place Apollo 13 back on a free return trajectory within the next hour. The maneuver would likely come at 61 hours ground elapsed time. The lunar module primary guidance and navigation system, so called pings (PGNS) will be left powered up for the next hour, and then powered down to conserve water, which is used for cooling the electronics in the system. We'll stand-by as the, this next maneuver is generated and passed up to the crew, having some communication problem as the spacecraft drifts through the various omni antenna look angles, the high gain antenna has not been powered up to conserve electrical power. At 60 hours, 22 minutes ground elapsed time, standing-by, this is Apollo control."

 


Press Conference

Brian Duff (PAO): " ... Sig Sjoberg, director of flight operations. We'll start with statements and then go to questions. "

Christopher Kraft: "Well I guess we should start out by saying we have a serious problem in the command and service module. We appear to have some kind of accident with the, in the region of the fuel cells and the oxygen tanks. We have not tried too much to reconstruct what has happened because we're more concerned at the moment for getting the situation under control. As you have seen we have begun to use the LM as a device for keeping oxygen in both the command, service command module and the lunar module and we're using the power system from the lunar module. The, (changing his though) ...it appears at the present time everything is under control and that we have a safe situation at the moment. I think colonel McDivitt may want to give you some more detail on the systems and mister Sjoberg could certainly talk about the operation plans that are going on at the present time in the control center. "

Jim McDivitt: "Right, Chris. The way we have the spacecraft configured right now is with the CSM powdered down completely. Before we powered it down we were able to isolate the surge tank and the emergency repress tanks in the CSM, (correcting himself) in the command module, these provide oxygen for reentry. So we have a command module that has oxygen for reentry, it has the reentry batteries, it has pyro batteries and all the systems that are in the command module. Our malfunction apparently occurred in the bay which includes the hydrogen tanks, the oxygen tanks and the fuel cells. It was in no way connected with the command module. We should be able to provide power, electrical power from the LM for the return voyage to earth. We should be able to return on the oxygen within the LM and we'll be using the lithium-hydroxide out of both the command module and the lunar module. We can still power the command module from the lunar module at low power levels through the wiring that is normally used to power the LM from the command module. So we expect that we'll be using a dual spacecraft mode from now until the time that we get back to earth. We'll be firing the LM engine at sometime later to accelerate our return voyage and I think Sig will probably comment on that best. "

Sig Sjoberg: "The minimum return to earth time, this will be a total flight duration will be about 133 hours. That will result in a landing in the Atlantic, that's one option we have. A second option is will be to go to the Pacific line, that would take about 142 hours total flight duration. The burns to get the crew back will be made at about between 77 hours and 79 hours of flight from liftoff. We would anticipate the (LM's) descent propulsion system will be used for either of these maneuvers, would have the capability that I described. The first milestone, and I consider this after the accident I guess, more or less the survival now. The first milestone was to get the alignment on the LM platform. Alignments are important it, you know, because without knowing exactly which way the attitude of the spacecraft is in space, there's no way to tell how to burn, or how to use the engines of the spacecraft to get the, the proper trajectory to come home. The position we are in now, Earth-Moon plane, we have to go around the, the, the Moon to get back, if we are going to use the DPS engine. You, you would have had enough capability with the SPS engine, but of course we don't dare use that now. So we have to go to the back side of the Moon to come back."

Reporter: "How much electrical power do we have in the LM, and how much oxygen? "

Jim McDvitt: "It depends on how we use it. We have four batteries in the descent stage of the LM and two in the ascent stage. As far oxygen, we have forty-eight pounds in the descent tanks and one pound each in the ascent tanks. "

Reporter: "Compared to other emergencies, Chris, for example Scott Carpenter's overshoot, Gemini 8's stuck thruster, or John Glenn's retro pack problem, how would you classify this situation? "

Christopher Kraft: "...I would say that this is as serious a situation as we've ever had in manned space flight. We've always called the LM a good lifeboat under those circumstances. If at anytime in the mission, however, the LM had separated, and we would have gotten ourselves into a rendezvous situation, or a the, the Command Module being around the Moon, then what you state is absolutely true. It would, it would be a fatal situation. What we'll be doing until we get them back on the water is concentrating on everything this is, their lives are dependent upon at the moment, rather then worrying about the accident, because there's nothing we can do about that now."

 


Midcourse Correction 4 (MCC-4) Burn
(To Place Spacecraft in Free Return Trajectory)
61:30 GET / 2:43 AM CST / April 14, 1970

CapCom: "Okay, Aquarius, are you ready to copy P30 maneuver pad?"

Lovell: "That's affirm."

CapCom: "Okay, here we go, the purpose is mid-course correction for free return. NOUN 33, 061, 2, 9er, 4284 minus 00213, HA and HP are NA, Pitch is..."

 

[A number of propulsion options were developed and considered. It was necessary to return the spacecraft to a free-return trajectory and to make any required midcourse corrections. Normally, the service propulsion system (SPS) in the SM would be used for such maneuvers. However, because of the high electrical power requirements for using that engine, and in view of its uncertain condition and the uncertain nature of the structure of the SM after the accident, it was decided to use the LM descent engine (DPS) if possible.]
(loop)

 

Flight: "Guidance. Okay?"
Guidance: "We're good Flight."
Flight: "Control. Okay?"
Control: "We're okay, Flight."
Flight: "Telmu?"
Telmu: "We're go, Flight."
Flight: "Inco. Okay?"
Inco: "We're good, Flight."
Haise: "Mater arm is on, one minute."

CapCom: "Roger Aquarius, and you're go for the burn."

Lovell: "Fifty percent."

CapCom: "Okay Aquarius, you're looking good."

Lovell: "Auto shutdown."

Haise: "Eleven and sixteen-eighty-five now, Jack."

CapCom: "Okay. You're go on the residuals. Proceed."

Haise: "Okay when you say 'go on the residuals' you mean don't trim them, is that right?"

CapCom: "That's affirmative. No trim is required."

Lovell: "Roger."

Lovell: "Okay, Houston, burns complete. Now we have to talk about powering down."

 

[Had they not been able to perform any maneuvers following the explosion and since the spacecraft was not on a free return trajectory it would have swung around the Moon and headed back towards Earth, but without actually intercepting the Earth. The spacecraft would have missed the Earth by about 2,400 miles and would have made two more elliptical orbits of Earth finally entering Earth's atmosphere over the eastern Atlantic Ocean on May 20, 1970 (40 days after launch).]
70:24:00 - JSC PAO: "This is Apollo control, at 70 hours, 24 minutes. A decision has been made to preform the pericynthion plus 2 (PC+2) hour maneuver. This will be a docked, or a docked descent propulsion system (DPS) burn of approximately 900 feet a second and will bring landing into the Pacific Ocean at 142 hours elapsed time. We'll be passing up to the crew a procedure shortly for them to preform a Sun check in the alignment optical telescope of the Lunar module so that we may better understand what the present LM inertial platform alignment is."

 

[PC+2 burn: Pericynthion (closest approach to the far side of the moon) plus 2 hours.]
Lovell: "Okay, Houston. We have our attitude check."

CapCom: "Roger, Jim."

Lovell: "I hope the guys in the backroom have thought this up right, know what they are saying."

Haise: "And looking through the AOT there, Jack and the Sun is right at the top and it maybe about 2 degrees to the right of the cursor, so that looks real good."

CapCom: "Roger. Good going."

77:07:00 - JSC PAO: "Apollo 13 now 421 nautical miles above the moon. Just a little over one minute now from time of lost of signal (LOS) with the spacecraft. This is Apollo control Houston, 77 hours, 7 minutes."

 


Pericynthion Plus 2 Hours (PC+2) Burn
(To Shorten Return Trip)
79:32 GET / 8:45 PM CST / April 14, 1970

CapCom: "By the way, Aquarius, we see the results now from 12's seismograph it looks like your booster just hit the moon and it's rocking it a little bit, over."

Lovell: "Well at least something worked on this flight."

Haise: "I say, I'm sure glad we didn't have a LM impact too."

 

[Two hours after TLI, the S-IVB attitude thrusters were ground commanded on to adjust the stage's trajectory toward the moon with an impact of the S-IVB stage on the lunar surface in proximity of the seismometer placed in the Ocean of Storms by the crew of Apollo 12. The impact point was 74 nautical miles from the seismometer at 77:56:40 GET. Seismic signals relayed by the Apollo 12 seismometer as the 30,700-pound stage hit the Moon lasted almost 4 hours and provided lunar scientists with additional data on the internal structure of the Moon.]
Lovell: (On VOX) "Okay. Let's get the cameras put away - get all set for the burn - you got one chance now."

79:30:00 - JSC PAO: "Less then 2 minutes away now from schedule time of ignition. Velocity reading 4560 feet per second, distance from the moon 5383 nautical miles."

JSC PAO: "Now one minutes away from schedule time of ignition. (pause) Apollo 13 now fifty-four hundred, twenty-six nautical miles out from the moon. Traveling at a speed of forty-five hundred, fifty-two feet per second. (pause) Less then thirty seconds away. (pause) Engine is armed. Standing-by."

CapCom: "Jim, you are go for the burn, go for the burn."

Lovell: "Roger understand go for the burn."

(loop)

 

Flight: "Inco, Okay?"
Inco: "We're good, Flight."
JSC PAO: "Ground confirms ignition."

Lovell: "We're burning forty percent."

CapCom: "Houston copies."

JSC PAO: "Attitude looks good at this point."

CapCom: "Aquarius, Houston. You're looking good."

Lovell: "Roger."

JSC PAO: "One minute now into the burn."

JSC PAO: "DPS is looking good. Two minutes into the burn."

CapCom: "Aquarius, you're looking good at two minutes. Still looking good."

Lovell: "Two minutes. Roger."

JSC PAO: "Velocity is buildign up. DSKY shows we've gained four hundred fifty-one feet per second at this time."

JSC PAO: "Reports to flight director Gene Krantz indicate all systems are looking good. Coming up on three minutes into the burn."

CapCom: "Aquarius, you're go at three minutes."

Lovell: "Aquarius roger."

JSC PAO: "The on-board display shows less then a minute to go now."

JSC PAO: "Coming up on four minutes into the burn."

JSC PAO: "Go for DPS descent rate one off. Ten seconds to go."

Lovell: "Shutdown."

CapCom: "Roger. Shutdown."

79:32:00 - JSC PAO: "That was commander Jim Lovell reporting shutdown, engine is off. We're at 79 hours, 32 minutes into the flight."

Lovell: "Are you reading sixteen-forty there, Houston?"

CapCom: "Roger. We're reading it."

Lovell: "Fifty feet. Here's our residuals."

CapCom: "Roger. Very small."

JSC PAO: "Apollo control. 79 hours, 33 minutes, fifty-seven hundred and seven nautical miles out from the moon at this time."

CapCom: "I'd say that was a good burn."

Lovell: "Roger. Now we want to power down as soon as possible."

CapCom: "Rog. Understand."

 

[An emergency powerdown checklist was available in the Flight Data File on board the LM. Minor revisions were made to the list to reduce electrical energy requirements to about 20 percent of normal operational values with a corresponding reduction in usage of coolant loop water.]
JSC PAO: "We're at 79 hours... (interrupted)"

Lovell: "Houston."

CapCom: "Go ahead."

Lovell: "Suggest maybe that if you just read off the circut breakers that you want us to power down for us."

CapCom: "Okay. We have a procedure ready to send up to you here, it's about two minutes. Let us know when your all ready to take it."

Lovell: "Okay."

Haise: "Okay, Houston. Can I do this, write this on the blank page, Vance or can we use some portion of the powerdown list of the contengency book that already says?"

CapCom: "Stand-by one."

 


Chat With The Boss

CapCom (Deke Slayton): "Hey, guys, this is Deke, Just wanted to let you know we're gonna get you back. Everything's looking good. We think you guys are in good shape all the way around. Why don't you quit worrying and get some sleep?"

Lovell: "We think that's a pretty good idea."

 


Constructing a Lithium Hydroxide Canister Adapter
94:17 GET / 11:30 AM CST / April 15, 1970

CapCom: "How you doing there Aquarius?"

Lovell: "We're going good, Jack."

CapCom: "Okay. Sometime when you get two guys available there and you could construct one of these lithium hydroxide rigs, we'd like to have you get the materials together and we'll go through the steps together."

Lovell: "Okay sounds good and how do you read me now?"

CapCom: "Well there's a lot of background noise and sometimes its worst then others and right now I hear you better then I have in the past."

Lovell: "Okay Jack I'm kind of curious about our perturbations of the PTC attitude is changing I noticed that we are getting off attitude, I'm just kind of curious how far we can let this go?"

CapCom: "We were tracking the attitudes with Fred earlier and it looked like what we were doing was oscillating about some point, but coming back. Are you detecting some kind of a divergence now?"

Lovell: "Not too much. I noticed that it was different then when I went to sleep. We're more on a angle now with the terminator of the Earth. So (garbled) just about parallel with the terminator and now we're canted off so much. I haven't seen any trends as though of going back and forth."

 

[Direct sunlight, with its large infrared component, heats one side of the spacecraft. Meanwhile, deep space chills the other side as energy is radiated away at infrared wavelengths. One of the difficulties the spacecraft designers were having with the heatshield material around the Command Module was trying to make it withstand extreme cold as well as heat. It would take thirteen hours for the heatshield to cool to the point where it began to crack and flake. Thus by simply changing the spacecraft's attitude by rotating it slowly in the sunlight kept the spacecraft from becoming too cold and insured uniform surface heating. The maneuver which resulted was the Passive Thermal Control (PTC), dubbed by many the 'barbecue' mode. This mode was used during crew rest periods and at other times in translunar and transearth coast when a stable attitude is not required.]
Lovell: "Houston, Aquarius."

CapCom: "Aquarius, Houston. Go ahead."

Lovell: "Okay, Jack is up with me now, and you all have the procedure for making these lithium hydroxide devices and as soon as he gets on his helmet he'll be ready copy and he'll get started making one."

CapCom: "Roger that, Jim... uh..."

Lovell: "(garbled)"

CapCom: "Go head."

Lovell: "I'll, I'll give Jack the headset for awhile and let him copy down the instructions."

CapCom: "Okay, Jim I didn't copy your second thought, over."

Lovell: "I'll give Jack the headset and let him copy the instructions."

CapCom: "Okay, Jim. The way I thought it might be best to do it would be to have you gather the equipment and let us talk you through the procedure while you do it. Maybe you can give Jack the headset and get the equipment together and talk you through the procedure, I think it will be a little easier to do that way, then if you tried to copy it all down then go do it."

Lovell: "Okay do you have the equipment listed, I'll just get it and give it to him while he's setting up."

CapCom: "Okay. I think the equipment you'll need will be: two command module lithium hydroxide canisters, a roll of the gray tape, the two LCGs, because we're going to use the bags from the LCGs, and one, one LM cue card, one of the cardboard cue cards which you will cut off about and inch and a half out from the rings. I think that's all we need, over."

 

[When the pressure suits are not being used, a valve allows cabin air to enter the ECS (Environmental Control System) circuit where it will be cleansed of particles, cooled, dried and scrubbed of exhaled carbon dioxide (CO2) and odors. The filter canisters contain granules of lithium hydroxide (chemical formula - LiOH) to absorb CO2, and activated charcoal to remove odors. - The Apollo 13 emergency highlighted the incompatibility between the square canisters used in the CM, and the round ones used in the LM. It also demonstrated that having the LM's spare canisters outside the cabin was unfortunate. The lithium hydroxide (LiOH) cartridges would have become ineffective due to saturation at about 100 hours.]
CapCom: "Okay, right. Okay, I'm ready to start into the procedure. When you answer me back speak up, speak up into the microphone because our downlink is pretty noisy. The first thing we want you to do, and we'll do this on one canister and then let you go ahead and repeat it on the second. So take one of the LCGs and cut off the outer bag by cutting along one of the heat seals. Do it carefully and close to the heat seal because we may have to use the outer bag if we damage the inner bag. So go ahead and do that and then we'll do the next step."

Swigert: "Okay, take an LCG cut the outer bag by the heat seal, be careful not to damage the inner bag, right?"

CapCom: "Right. Just cut along one side."

Swigert: "Okay, Houston, Odyssey or (correcting himself) Aquarius I've done that."

CapCom: "Okay, Jack, now, now remove the inner bag from the outer bag and cut the inner bag also along one of the heat seals down one side."

Swigert: "Okay. Remove the inner bag from the outer bag and cut the inner bag along the heat seal along one side."

CapCom: "Okay. That's correct."

Swigert: "Okay Joe, we've got that done."

CapCom: "Okay Jack, now you can put the LCG itself, that is take it out of the inner bag, put it in the outer bag and stow it someplace, we recommend A1, of course you can stow it wherever its convenient."

Swigert: "Okay Joe, we done that."

CapCom: "Okay. Now pick up one of the lithium hydroxide canisters and let me describe which end is which. It's approximately square, on one, one of the vented flat ends has the strap and that end we call the top the end opposite we call the bottom is that clear? over."

Swigert: "Right."

CapCom: "Okay. Now then we're, we want you to take the tape and cut out two pieces about three feet long or a good arms length and what we're, what we want you to do with them is to make two belts around the sides of the canister one belt near the top and one belt near the bottom with the sticky side out, wrap it around sticky side out as tight as possible, it'll probably take both of you to get it nice and snug, over."

Swigert: "Okay Joe."

CapCom: "Okay Jack...(interrupted)"

Swigert: "Houston are you reading the Aquarius?"

CapCom: "Jack...(interrupted)"

Swigert: "Okay. I got the two belts around the top and one around the bottom all done."

CapCom: "Okay, fine. The next step now is to anchor that tape and the way we want you to do that is to cut about a two foot length off the roll and then tear it lengthwise, so that you have two strips about two feet long and about a halt an inch wide. And you'll wrap those around the canister at right angles more or less to the tape that you got, so that it goes across the top and across the bottom. And when it goes across the top and the bottom put it so that its outboard of the center hole and try and get it over one of the ridges between the screen so that it won't block the flow is that clear? over."

Swigert: "Yea Joe, very clear."

CapCom: "Okay. Press on."

Swigert: "(on board) Okay I got to cut two foot here and tear lengthwise from that and go around right here on this ridge all the way around, right angle... (garbled) ...yea. (on air-to-ground) Hey Joe just to clarify that's sticky side down right? On the tape that I'm putting on now."

CapCom: "I didn't quite copy that Jack. Say again."

Swigert: "Okay. That will be the sticky end down on the container ay?"

CapCom: "Oh, that's correct. I forget to say that. That's right."

Swigert: "Okay Joe, Aquarius has got that done."

CapCom: "Okay Jack. The next step is to get the EVA cue card and use it to form an arch over the top of the canister just, just tuck one short end under one ridge on the top the other one against a ridge on the other side so that it forms a rounded arch over the top of the canister. You see Jack what we're going to do is slip the bag over this whole assembly and the cue card will serve to keep the bag from being sucked down against the screens, over."

Swigert: "Okay I got the idea."

CapCom: "Okay and when you've done that, to hold the arch in place just run a strip of tape across the sides of the, that is across the top of the arch and anchor it down to the sticky strips along each side."

Swigert: "Okay I got the idea. Okay let me just repeat it here. Take a cue card, form an arch over the top sticking it under the sides here when we're through run a piece of tape along the sides across the top and anchor it to the other side."

CapCom: "That's correct."

Swigert: "Okay Joe we got that arch built and its all taped up securely."

CapCom: "Okay Jack. The next, the next step is a, to stop up the bypass hole, which is the hole in the center of the bottom of the canister, we want to stop that up, because we don't want to bypass the flow, and I forgot to tell you to get something to stick in that hole we recommend that you either use a wet wipe or cut off a piece of sock and stuff it in there or you can probably even crumple up some tape and use that, over."

Swigert: "Okay we'll start plugging up the bypass hole."

CapCom: "Okay."

Swigert: "(on board) We got to plug that hole, we can either, we can put some, he said, what about a piece of your towel there?"

CapCom: "Sounds good."

Swigert: "Okay Houston, Aquarius. We have the bypass hole all plugged up."

CapCom: "Okay Aquarius the next step is to take the inner LCG bag that you've cut opened and slip it over the top of the canister when you do that orient it so that the ears of the bag, that is that corners that stick out on the closed end are orientated along the open ends of the arch, because we're going to snip one of these corners and stick the hose in. Pull it down until it fits snugly over the arch, over."

Swigert: "Okay Joe. Put the bag over the canister so that the arch is at the bottom of the bag and that the ears are along, orientated along the, lets see I guess it would be at the sides of the arch."

CapCom: "That depends on what you mean by sides, over the open ends of the arch."

Swigert: "That's right the open ends of the arch."

CapCom: "Okay."

Swigert: "Okay Joe we got that done."

CapCom: "Okay, now press the bag against the sticky belts that we put on the sides of the canister, if there's any excess material just kind of pleat it so that it makes a fairly tight seal and then take another three foot snip, strip of sticky tape and wrap it around the outside of the bag opposite the bottom, bottom sticky belt to make a nice tight seal."

Swigert: "Okay. In work. (pause) Okay Joe we got the canister inside the bag, the strips around the sides of the bag real tight... (garbled) ."

CapCom: "Okay. Real fine. Now there's probably a couple of inches of excess bag sticking out around the bottom of the canister. To prevent this from sucking in against the bottom screen, we'd like you to trim it off with the scissors and when you've done that we'd like you to cut two more strips of tape about twelve inches long or so cut them, tear them lengthwise to get four pieces twelve inches long and half an inch wide and then use those four strips to secure the bag by passing the strips from the sides of the canister outside the bag around the bottom of the canister and back up the other side and when you do that, just as you did on the top, make them go outboard of the hole and in between the screens, over."

Swigert: "Okay. You want me to trim the excess material that's sticking off here, trim it at the edge of the canister? Or do you want any excess left over?"

CapCom: "No. you don't need to have excess. Just trim it approximately level."

Swigert: "Okay now Joe you want to cut four strips twelve inches long each and half inch in diameter place them on the outside of the bag across the ribs."

CapCom: "That's correct, Jack. That's just for additional security on the bag. When you get those done you'll have, you'll have two strips going one way and the other two will be perpendicular to them."

Swigert: "Okay Houston, Aquarius. We got the four strips in place."

CapCom: "Okay. We're in business now with the bag and the next step to perform is to get ready to put the red suite hose, either the commanders or the LMPs, because we're going to want you to have both of these made up eventually, into the top of the, of the bag. And to do that you first of all have to assure that the red hose is separated from the blue hose, I don't know whether this has been done already, but if it hasn't what you have to do is cut the outer beta cloth sheath down the full length of the hoses and then also cut the rubber ties that secure the two hoses together and then the hoses should come apart and the comm cable should come off. Over."

Swigert: "Okay. Take the, we want to separate the red hose from the blue hose by cutting their beta clothing and that's in work."

CapCom: "Okay."

Swigert: "Okay. Houston, Aquarius. I have the LMP's red hose separated from the others."

CapCom: "Okay. Real find. Now the next step is to cut a diagonal hole in one ear of the, of the plastic bag near the arch. You can pick either one and cut about a one and a half or two inch diagonal hole, big enough to slip the red hose through and when you done that, you'll just slip the red hose through so that it goes about to the center of the canister its not, its not critical, except that the opening should be down and then tape the bag to the hose where it goes in so that its nice and snug. Over."

Swigert: "Okay. Copy that. (pause) (on board) Okay we want to put a one and a half inch hole right here in this ear and put the hose in here and down towards the canister and tape the deal around here. (pause) Okay Houston, Aquarius."

CapCom: "Aquarius, Houston. Go ahead."

Swigert: "Okay. Our do it yourself lithium hydroxide canister change is complete. Joe the only thing different is our arch on this piece of cardboard is not big enough to position the red hose with the inlet down, where the inlet is, or the inlet to the red hose is lying on its side, but I think it will still work."

CapCom: "Okay, Jack. I concur. I think it will work too. There's one step that I, that I omitted which you can do now quite, quite conveniently and it's this: where you stuffed the towel into the bypass hole on the bottom we recommend that you cut a few short pieces of tape and just tape that over so that it doesn't fall out. Over."

Swigert: "Okay Joe. That's done."

CapCom: "Okay Jack. Now the, the remaining steps are simply suite loop configuration steps to get this thing into full operation, and our ECS people want to hold off on that until the canister you're working on gets to seven point six millimeter of mercury. Which will probably be another forty-five minutes or an hour, it's at, we're reading four point seven now. So what we'd like you to do in the interim is to set up the second command module canister the same way you just did the first one using the commander's hose..."

Swigert: "(over CapCom) Okay."

CapCom: "...and get that all set, probably about that time it will be time to switch over. For your information when you got that done and you've had your breakfast and so on the next thing I got for you is a switch configuration list for the command module which will represent the, the power down square one starting configuration for all our, our pre-entry checks. Over."

Swigert: "Okay. Will do. We'll start setting up the commanders hoses configuration, same as the LMP's hose and I'll get a set of, I guess you want me to use my launch switch launch checklist when we start going over... (garbled). "

CapCom: "That affirmative, Jack. What we have done is marked up the liftoff configuration checklist and we'll run through that for you whenever you get around to it."

Swigert: "Okay. I assume that we're going to...(garbled)."

 


LM Battery Explosion
97:13 GET / April 15, 1970

Haise: "I just heard a little thump, sounded like down in the descent stage, and I saw a new shower of snowflakes come up."

 

[The thump and the venting were related to an apparent short circuit in the LM descent battery 2, this was not directly related to the CSM or to the accident.]


Partial CM Power-up
101:53 GET

Haise: "What are you guys reading for cabin temperature in the CM?"

CapCom: "We're reading 55-56 degrees."

Haise: "Now you see why we call it a refrigerator."

CapCom: "Uh-huh. Sounds like it's kind of a cold winter day up there. Is it snowing in the command module yet?"

Haise: "No, Not yet."

CapCom: "You'll have some time on the beach in Samoa to thaw out after this cold experience."

Haise: "Sounds great."

 

[The CSM was partially powered up for a check of the thermal conditions of the CM. Thermal conditions on all CSM systems observed appeared to be in order for entry.]
Haise: "Both came down here rubbing their hands, shivering, it's pretty cool up there. "

CapCom: "Are you keeping warm in the LM? "

Haise: "Yea, its, its pretty reasonable down here. "

Lovell: "Houston, Aquarius. "

CapCom: "Go ahead Aquarius. "

Lovell: "Ah Vance, we got to realize we got to establish a work-rest cycle up here. So while, we just can't wait around here, just reading procedures all the time up to the bird, we got to get them up here, look at them and we got to get some people to sleep. So ah, take that into consideration when your getting ready to... (garbled) ...and close the hatch. "

CapCom: "Yea, I know Jim. We're very conscience of that... we're a... we should be ready to go in about five minutes. (pause) That's all I can say. Stand-by. "

Lovell: "Okay. "

Haise: "Just out of curiosity, what, you all get a read out of what the cabin temp was up there. "

CapCom: "Yea, we're getting forty-five to forty-six degrees. "

Haise: "Now you see why we call it the refrigerator. "

CapCom: "Yea, its kind of a cold winter day up there isn't it? "

JSC PAO: "Velocity now of five-thousand, three-hundred, forty-two (5,342) feet per second. Henry H. Wilson, Junior, president of the Chicago Board of Trade has forwarded the following message to the mission control center: 'The Chicago Board of Trade will suspend trading at eleven AM today for a moment of tribute to the courage and gallantry of America's astronauts and a prayer for their safe return to Earth.' "

 


Midcourse Correction 5 (MCC-5) Burn
(To Stop Spacecraft Shallowing in Entry Corridor)
105:18 GET / 10:31 PM CST / April 15, 1970

CapCom (Vance Brand): "We don't want to power up the spacecraft completely, so that means no computer or mission timer. We'll simply go with a manual burn, with you controlling the engine with the Start and Stop switches. For attitude, what we're going to want to do is manually orient the spacecraft to place the Earth in the center of your window. If you hold it there throughout the burn, the attitude will be correct. Got that?"

Lovell: "Roger, I think so."

 

[The Apollo spacecrafts were designed to be flown without an operational computer. All the tasks that the computer normally manages (making attitude adjustments, firing the engine, etc.) could be done manually, this was done so that when a critical piece of equipment fails there is always a backup system to take its place.]
(loop)

 

Control: "He needs to put his throttle to min also Flight."
Flight: "Throttle to min?"
Control: "Yes, he's at 29 percent now, roughly."
Control: "We're at burn attitude, Flight."
PAO: "Ignition (pause) thrust looks good (pause) shutdown."

Haise: "Okay, you're looking at it Houston."

CapCom: "Okay. Nice work."

Haise: "Let's hope it was."

105:30:00 - JSC PAO: "Time 105 hours, 30 minutes, elapsed. Delta velocity 7.8 feet per second. Burn time of 15 seconds with the notation to shutdown the engine manually at 14 seconds. Targeting for a perigee after this burn 19.8 nautical miles verses present perigee of 87 nautical miles."

 

[This continual shallowing of the CSM-LM wasn't completely understood until after the flight. The cause was traced to the vapor coming from the LM's water based sublimator. This provided a constant, although very small thrust, that would under normal conditions never have been noticed, but over the 240,000 mile trajectory this small thrust proved to be more than enough to push the spacecraft out of its entry corridor and resulted in a burn at MCC-5 and again at MCC-7 to center the spacecraft in the corridor.]
CapCom: "Hang in there it won't be long."

CapCom: "...in the meantime...tonight's movie, shown in the lower equipment bay, will be John Wayne, Lou Costello, and Shirley Temple in "The Flight of Apollo 13"."

 


Alignment Check

Lovell: "Okay. We got it. I think we got it. What diameter was it?"

Haise: "Yes. It's coming back in. Just a second."

Lovell: "Yes, yaw's coming back in. Just about it."

Haise: "Yaw is in..."

Lovell: "What have you got?"

Haise: "Upper right corner of the Sun..."

Lovell: "We've got it!"

 


The Trip Home

Swigert: "RCS A stands at six-two percent and B at six-two percent."

Lovell: "I'd say we've gone a hell of a long time without any sleep. We got to start thinking about getting the crew back to sleep again because a, ...I ...I didn't get any sleep last night at all."

Lovell: "Haise is lying in the tunnel with his head on the ascent engine cover, Swigert is lying on the floor in a sleep restraint."

 


Midcourse Correction 7 (MCC-7) Burn
(To Center CM in Entry Corridor)
137:40 GET / April 17, 1970

[A 22.4 second LM RCS maneuver to assure that the CM would reenter the Earth's atmosphere at the center of its corridor resulted in a predicted entry flight path angle of -6.49 degrees]


SM Jettison
138:01 GET / 7:14 AM CST / April 17, 1970

[Due to the unusual spacecraft configuration, new procedures leading to entry were developed and verified in ground-based simulations. The resulting timeline called for a final midcourse correction (MCC-7) at entry interface (EI) -5 hours, jettison of the SM at EI -4.5 hours, then jettison of the LM at EI -1 hour prior to a normal atmospheric entry by the CM.]
CapCom: "Roger, understand SM jett 138:12, it's not that time critical, Jim."

Lovell: "Can we do it at any time, Joe?"

CapCom: "I think so, but let me check. (pause) Aquarius, Houston. You can jettison the Service Module when you are ready. No big rush, but any time."

Lovell: "Okay. Sounds good."

139:01:00 - JSC PAO: "Apollo control Houston, 138 hours, 1 minute into the flight. As you have heard earlier Joe Kerwin told Apollo 13 that they can separate at their convenience, that followed the time identified by Jim Lovell which would be some two minutes after what we have earlier carried on the ground. We now show Apollo 13 at a distance of thirty-five thousand, seven-hundred and twenty-nine (35,729) nautical miles away from Earth traveling at a speed of ten-thousand, four-hundred (10,400) feet per second."

138:02:08 - Lovell: "SM sep."

CapCom: "Copy that."

139:02:00 - JSC PAO: "We copied that report from Jim Lovell of service module seperation at 138 hours 2 minutes and 8 seconds."

Lovell: "Okay, I've got her, Houston."

CapCom: "Beautiful, beautiful, and for your information, Jim, you'll be coming up on an RCS caution light for helium. No sweat. Over."

Lovell: "And there's one whole side of that spacecraft missing."

CapCom: "Is that right."

Lovell: "Right by the... (on board) look out there would you. (on air to ground) Right by the high gain antenna the whole panel is blown out almost from the base to the engine."

CapCom: "Copy that."

Haise: "And it looks like it got to the SPS bell too, Houston."

CapCom: "You can see it dinged the SPS engine bell, huh?"

Haise: "Way it looks. Unless it's just dark brown streaks. It's really a mess."

Swigert: "Man, that's unbeliveable."

 

[Photos of the SM taken by the crew at this time show the panel covering bay 4 missing (About 25 psi of uniform pressure in bay 4 is required to blow off the panel - an average pressure of about 10 psi on the CM heat shield would separate the CM from the SM), the fuel cells on the shelf above the oxygen shelf tilted, and the high-gain antenna damaged.]
Haise: "Boy, you wouldn't believe this LM right now! There's nothing but bags from floor to ceiling!"

139:59:00 - JSC PAO: "This is Apollo control Houston. At 139 hours, 59 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 13. We presently show Apollo 13 at 23,196 nautical miles away from Earth, and with a speed of 12,798 feet per second. The retro-fire officer advised flight director Gene Krantz that our entry times are holding quite firm, there's only a 1 second change in ground elapsed time (GET) for entry interface (EI). We're now looking at 142 hours, 40 minutes , 39 seconds, for time of entry into Earth's atmosphere and at a velocity of 36,211 feet per second, and an entry angle of 6.5, minus 6.5 degrees. We're at 140 hours now into the flight and this is Apollo control Houston."

 


LM Jettison
141:30 GET / 10:43 AM CST / April 17, 1970

Haise: "Sure wish I could go to the FIDO party tonight. "

CapCom: "(laughing) Yea, it's going to be a wild one! We'll cover for you guys and if Jack's got any phone numbers he wants us to call, well just pass them down."

Lovell: "Well I can't say that this thing hasn't been filled with excitement. "

CapCom: "Well, James if you can't take any better care of a spacecraft then that, then we might not give you another one. "

Lovell: "Okay, Joe. Understand that the LM jett attitude will be similar to service module normal jettison. Which will be up and out of plane and as soon as I finish maneuvering to LM jett attitude I'll scramble up and close the LM hatch making sure the vent valve is open and then we'll jettison with the tunnel pressurized. "

CapCom: "Ah, that affirmative. (pause) And Deke says don't forget to close the command module hatch on your way in. "

Lovell: "I'm scared Jack will have it closed before I get up there. "

CapCom: "(laughing)"

CapCom: "Aquarius, Houston."

Lovell: "Go ahead."

CapCom: "Okay. You're go to start powering up the command module."

Lovell: "Righto, we're staring now."

CapCom: "Okay."

 

[In order to conserve the CM batteries, LM jettison was delayed as long as practical. The LM batteries were used to supply part of the power necessary for CM activation.]
Swigert: "Houston, we'll punch off at 1,4,1, plus 3, 0."

CapCom: "Okay, Jack. We copy, and we concur."

141:27:00 - JSC PAO: "Jack Swigert indicating that they plan to jettison the lunar module in about 3 minute from this time."

CapCom: "Odyssey, Houston. We can give you a go, if you put the logic on momentary, please."

Swigert: "Okay the six logic is on."

CapCom: "Okay, just copied that and you're go for pyro arm."

Swigert: "Real fine."

CapCom: "Odyssey, Houston. We just had a formal go for LM jett at your convience, over."

Swigert: "Okay. Thanks, Joe."

141:30:00 - Lovell: "LM jettison."

CapCom: "Okay, copy that."

CapCom: "Farewall Aquarius, and we thank you."

 

[When the LM was jettisoned at 141:30 the approximate remaining margins were: Electrical power 4-1/2 hours, Water 5-1/2 hours, and Oxygen 124 hours]
141:31:00 - JSC PAO: "This is Apollo control, Houston. At 141 hours, 31 minutes into the flight. We've had lunar module jettison. And for Apollo 13 the age of Aquarius ended at 141 hours, 30 minutes ground elapsed time (GET)."

Capcom: "Odyssey, Houston. Over."

Haise: "Go ahead."

Capcom: "Okay. At 10 minutes to 400K, you're looking good, we're real happy with the trajectory and a minutes ago we just lost contact with your friend Aquarius."

Haise: "Okay. Where did she go?"

Capcom: "Oh, I don't know she up there some where."

Haise: "She sure was a good ship."

Capcom: "Hey, just as I said that we got another burst of LM data so I guess it's still ticking."

 


Entry Interface
142:35 GET / 11:48 AM CST / April 17, 1970

JSC PAO: "Five minutes to go now for re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Now reading a velocity of thirty-four thousand three-hundred and thirty-five (34,335) feet per second. Range to go twenty-nine hundred, twenty-one (2,921) nautical miles. "

 

[To return the spacecraft to Earth, the following midcourse corrections were made:
MCC-4
A 38-fps correction at 61:30 GET, using the LM descent propulsion system (DPS), required to return the spacecraft to the Earth. This placed the spacecraft back on a free return trajectory.

 

PC+2
An 81-fps burn at 79:28 GET, after swinging past the Moon, using the DPS engine, to shift the landing point from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific and to shorten the return trip by 9 hours.

 

MCC-5
A 7.8-fps burn at 105:18 GET, using the DPS engine to lower Earth perigee from 87 miles to 21 miles. This was done to stop the spacecraft from shallowing in entry corridor.

 

MCC-7
A 3.2-fps correction at 137:40 GET, using LM RCS thrusters, to assure that the CM would reenter the Earth's atmosphere at the center of its corridor.]
Swigert: "Hey, I want to say you guys are doing real good work."

CapCom: "So are you guys, Jack."

Swigert: "I know all of us here want to thank all of you guys down there for the very fine job you did."

Lovell: "That's affirm, Joe."

CapCom: "I tell you, we all had a good time doing it."

Lovell: "You have a good bedside manner."

CapCom: "That's the nicest thing anybody's ever said."

CapCom: "Okay. LOS in a minute or a minute and a half at entry attitude we'd like omni Charlie and welcome home."

Swigert: "Thank you."

142:41:00 Entry Interface (EI).

 

[The principal task of the heat shield that forms the outer structure is to protect the crew from the fiery heat of entry-heat so intense that it melts most metals. The ablative material that does this job is a phenolic epoxy resin, a type of reinforced plastic. This material turns white hot, chars, and then melts away, but it does it in such a way that the heat is rejected by the shield and does not penetrate to the surface of the spacecraft. The ablative material controls the rate of heat absorption by charring or melting rapidly. this dissipates the heat and keeps it from reaching the inner structure.]
JSC PAO: "Moments ago we had a report from the Retro-fire officer that based on his data, predicted set of coordinates, for splash at 21 degrees, 39 minutes south, by 165 degrees, 22 minutes west. (garbled) ...the period of blackout for the spacecraft should have begun about 20 some odd seconds ago. "

 

[The actual Apollo 13 slash down location was 21 Degrees, 38 Minutes, 24 Seconds South, 165 Degrees, 21 Minutes, 42 Seconds West.]


Splashdown
142:54 GET / 12:07 PM CST / April 17, 1970

JSC PAO: "Apollo 13 should be coming on max G right now. (pause) Our last estimate for max G was five point two Gs."

JSC PAO: "Apollo 13 should be out of blackout at this time. We are standing-by for any reports of ARIA acquisition. AIRA the C-135 type aircraft."

(loop)

 

Flight: ""
Network: "Not at this time, Flight."
Network: "ARIA (Apollo Range Instrumentation Aircraft) 4 is A.O.S., Flight."
JSC PAO: "Coming up now on three minutes until time of drogue deployment. Standing-by for any reports of acquisition. (pause) Got a report that ARIA 4 aircraft has acquisition of signal."

 

[At about 25,000 feet during entry, the forward heat shield is jettisoned to expose the earth landing equipment (all the parachutes, recovery antennas, beacon light, sea recovery sling) and permit deployment of the parachutes.]
CapCom: "Odyssey, Houston standing by. Over."

Swigert: "Okay, Joe."

CapCom: "Okay. We read you, Jack."

JSC PAO: "That was Jim Lovell responding with the 'Okay, Joe.' (pause) Correction there, that was command module pilot Jack Swigert. Less then two minutes now till time of drogue deployment."

CapCom: "We're looking at the weather on TV, it looks just as advertised. Real good."

 

[Entry and Recovery Weather in the prime recovery area was as follows: broken stratus clouds at 2000 feet; visibility 10 miles; 6-knot ENE winds; and wave height 1 to 2 feet.]
CapCom: "Houston, standing-by for you now, sixty seconds to drogue deploy. Over."

Swigert: "(garbled)"

CapCom: "Roger that."

JSC PAO: "Report of two good drogues. Coming up now on main chutes. (pause) Standing by for confirmation of main chutes deploy."

 

[Automatic operation of the earth landing subsystem is provided by the event sequencing system located in the right-hand equipment bay of the command module. The system contains the barometric pressure switches, time delays, and relays necessary to control automatically the jettisoning of the heat shield and the deployment of the parachutes.
  • Drogue Parachutes - Two white nylon conical-ribbon parachutes with canopy diameters of 16.5 feet. They are deployed at 23,000 feet to orient and slow the spacecraft from 300 miles an hour to 175 miles an hour so that the main parachutes can be safely deployed. They are 65 feet above the command module.
  • Pilot Parachutes - Three white nylon ring-slot parachutes with canopy diameters of 7.2 feet. They deploy the main parachutes and are 58 feet above the main parachutes.
  • Main Parachutes - Three orange-and-white-striped ringsail parachutes with canopy diameters of 83.5 feet. Each weighs 127 pounds counting canopy, risers, and deployment bag. They are deployed at 10,000 feet to reduce the speed of the spacecraft from 175 miles an hour to 22 miles an hour when it enters the water. The parachutes are 120 feet above the command module. The main parachutes hold the CM at an angle of 27-1/2 degrees so the module will hit the water on its "toe", which will produce water penetration at the least impact load. If one of the main parachutes fails to open, the remaining two will be able to land the CM safely.]
CapCom: "Odyssey, Houston. We show you on the mains. It really looks great!"

 

[Internal and external mirrors are provided to aid astronauts' visibility. The internal mirrors (4 by 6 inches) include one for each couch and are designed to help the astronaut see to adjust his restraint harness and locate his couch controls while in his pressurized suit. The external mirrors are 2-1/2 by 3-1/2 inches and are located at the top and bottom of the right-hand rendezvous window so that the astronaut in the right-hand couch can verify parachute deployment during entry.]
JSC PAO: "Extremely loud applause as Apollo 13 on main chutes comes through loud and clear on the television display here."

Recovery: "Apollo 13, Apollo 13, this is recovery. Over."

JSC PAO: "We have a report from the (USS) Iwo Jima that Apollo 13 at a distance of four miles from the ship. The smoke you see is venting of RCS propellants, reaction control system propellants."

Swigert: "Coming through five-thousand."

Recovery: "Wonderful, 13. This is recovery and your chutes look good. (pause) Apollo 13 this is recovery, we observe your RCS burn. Over."

JSC PAO: "As you heard the conversation between the recovery helicopter and the crew of Apollo 13. (pause) The floor of the mission operations control room now crowded."

JSC PAO: "We have reports from the Iwo Jima that Apollo 13 is descending at a point four miles due south of the ship."

Recovery: "Apollo 13, recovery. Passing through one-thousand feet. (pause) Coming through five-hundred feet."

142:54:41 Splashdown - 12:07:41 PM CST.

 

[During a water impact the CM deceleration force will vary from 12 to 40 G's, depending on the shape of the waves and the CM's rate of descent. A major portion of the energy (75 to 90 percent) is absorbed by the water and by deformation of the CM structure. The module's impact attenuation system reduces the forces acting on the crew to a tolerable level. The impact attenuation system is part internal and part external. The external part consists of four crushable ribs (each about 4 inches thick and a foot in length) installed in the aft compartment. The ribs are made of bonded laminations of corrugated aluminum which absorb energy by collapsing upon themselves at impact. The main parachutes suspend the CM at such an angle that the ribs are the first point of the module that hits the water. The internal portion of the system consists of eight struts which connect the crew couches to the CM structure. These struts (two each for the Y and Z axes and four for the X axis) absorb energy by deforming steel wire rings between an inner and an outer piston. The struts vary in length from 34 to 39 inches and have a diameter of about 2-1/2 inches.]
Recovery: "Photo one observes splashdown at this time."

 

[After splashdown, the main parachutes are released and the recovery aid subsystem is set in operation by the crew. The subsystem consists of:
  • Uprighting System - Three inflatable bags in the forward compartment of the command module and two air compressors in the aft compartment. The compressors are manually initiated to provide air to the bags through tubes. Each bag has a volume of 22 cubic feet. If the command module turns apex down after landing, the air bags are inflated to right the spacecraft.
  • Sea Dye Marker - Powdered fluorescient dye packed in a 3 by 3 by 6-inch metal container. When the marker is deployed, dye colors the sea yellow-green around the command module. The marker is in the forward compartment of the command module. It is released manually and is connected to the command module by a 12-foot tether. The dye last approximately 12 hours.
  • Flashing Beacon - Flashing self-powered strobe light to aid in recovery of crew and command module. Eight seconds after main parachutes are deployed, the beacon is automatically extended form the forward compartment of the command module. The light is turned on manually. The arm is one-foot long.
  • Swimmer's Umbilical - This is the 12-foot dye marker tether. A recovery frogman can connect his communications equipment to the end of the tether to talk to the command module crew.
  • VHF Beacon Transmitter - The two VHF recovery antennas are located in the forward compartment with the parachutes. They are deployed automatically 8 seconds after the main parachutes. One of them is connected to the beacon transmitter, which emits a 2-second signal every 5 seconds to aid recovery forces in locating the CM. The other is connected to the VHF/AM transmitter and receiver to provide voice communications between the crew and recovery forces.]
JSC PAO: "Another cheer in the control room as we had splashdown."

Recovery: "Photo one reports the command module is stable one at this time and is riding comfortably."

JSC PAO: "The spacecraft splashed in stable-one, that is with the apex cover up out of the water."

Recovery: "The vertical axis is approximately fifteen degrees."

 

[The crew, picked up by a recovery helicopter, were safe aboard the recovery ship Iwo Jima at 12:53 PM CST, less than an hour after splashdown.]