2023-04-14 01:00:00
He April 13, 1970 one of the occurred accidents of the most important NASA in history and that would originate the famous phrase “Houston, we have a problem”. It is about the explosion that the ship suffered apollo 13 in his cabin, which caused the third moon landing mission should be cancelled.
Two days earlier, the crew made up of Commander Jim Lovellthe pilot of the command module, Jack Swigerand the lunar module pilot, Fred Haisehad taken off from John F. Kennedy Space Center No problem.
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Was the seventh manned mission and aimed to investigate a unexplored area of the moon, located south of the lunar equator. It was going to be one of the most difficult moon landings to date, but it never came to fruition.
What was the mission of Apollo 13?
The objective of the expedition was to set foot on the moon over the formation Fra Mauro to investigate the area, since it was believed that it would provide information not only about the moon, but also about the early earth history.
He April 11 at 7:13 p.m. US time, Apollo 13 lifted off from the John F. Kennedy Space Center without major complications. Despite this, NASA’s third mission to the moon, it was not very seen and only one television network broadcast the takeoff live.
After orbital insertion, the necessary spacecraft checks were performed and preparations for the lunar approach began. While the steering maneuvers were being carried out, they took pictures of the earth and the moon. Everything seemed to be going well in space.
On the night of April 13, 1970, the astronauts conducted a routine live broadcast. The audience was limited, since no television network was broadcasting the broadcast, so the commander’s wife had to go to the Mission Control room to see her husband and her crewmates.
The Apollo 13 accident and mission cancellation
Minutes after the astronomers cut off the broadcast, Swinger went to check the service module, since something seemed wrong. Once you have powered on the system to remove the liquid oxygen from one of the tanks a damaged cable caused a short circuit and then a burstwhich let out the contents of the container to the outside.
Communications with Earth were lost for 1.8 seconds, until the system recovered automatically by changing the direction of the antenna. Once the signal was recovered, the accident was reported to the Control Center located in Houston.
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After the explosion, the astronauts were forced to cancel the mission. This because of the Oxigen it was needed not only for breathing, but also for generating electrical power, so the service module’s propulsion systems were unable to function.
So, they changed the plan to land on the moon to return home alive. The astronauts took the command module systems offline to conserve resources. HE transferred to the lunar modulewhich had charged batteries and full tanks, which would become your lifeboat.
The troubled return to earth of Apollo 13
On the way back home, the situation started to come back critical. The crew suffered complications due to a lack of power and a shortage of water. In addition, electrical consumption was at a minimum, so the ship’s temperature dropped 3 degrees.
When everything seemed to be working, the astronauts noticed that the carbon dioxide exhaled by them was beginning to increase and was poisoning them, since the purifiers of the lunar module did not have the sufficient capacity to remove the CO2 emitted by the three astronauts.
From Houston they were told how to adapt, with plastic bags, cardboard and adhesive tape, the carbon dioxide purifiers of the command module so that they would work in the lunar module and it will help them breathe. In turn, they had to ration the water, necessary for cooling the equipment, so that at that point they were already weak, dehydrated, cold and sleepless.
In order to achieve a push towards the ground, the ship had to follow its trajectory towards the moon and circle it. When that moment came, Apollo 13 passed by the farthest side of her, flying some 254 kilometers from her and becoming the farthest humans in space, until last year.
Once the satellite’s orbit was completed, the lunar module managed to head towards Earth, but there would be a new problem there. The kit contained a plutonium-based battery and the NASA I was afraid of where it would fall, since it would contaminate the place in large quantities.
This is how they had to recalculate the trajectory, this time to ensure that the lunar module was discarded in the deepest part of the Pacific Oceanalso getting rid of the damaged service module.
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The most dramatic thing happened at the moment they should have pierce the scorching heat of the atmosphere. For six minutes the conversations with Houston were cut off and in the sky a ball of fire was seen falling at great speed.
Fortunately, after that time the parachute and the astronauts managed splash down safe and sound in the Pacific the day April 17th, six days after takeoff. On a mission that had been a success within failure.
“Houston, we have a problem”: the history of the emblematic phrase
After the explosion in the lunar module, Jack Swigert informed Houston of the problems they were facing, not knowing that this phrase would go down in history forever, albeit with a subtle twist.
On April 13, the astronaut saw the warning that accompanied the outburst and contacted the Command Center: “Ok Houston, we’ve had a problem here.”. Followed by a repeat and adding: “We have had a power outage on Main Bus B”.
Over time, and due to word of mouth, the phrase began to be repeated in the wrong way and with that subtle change it was established in the collective unconscious as “Houston, we have a problem.” finally the movie Apollo 13 (1995)starring Kevin Bacon y Tom Hanksfinished sowing that version in a large part of the population.
rv / ds
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