Houston, we have a problem...

At 19:13 UTC (14:13 EST) the seventh manned launch in the Apollo series, and the third scheduled for a manned lunar landing lifted off from launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center. 

I was an almost ten year old space cadet that day.  A space cadet for whom these adventures had not yet become routine. Who am I kidding here?  Those of you who know me or for those who have read some of my previous posts will probably know that I’m still a space cadet and now forty two years later, those adventures have never become routine and still never cease to amaze me.

 Little did the world know that this mission would become NASA’s Adventure of the decade.

Lovell, Swigert and Haise.

That Saturday afternoon, Mission Commander James Lovell Jr. Command module pilot John “Jack” Swigert and Lunar module pilot Fred Haise Jr. strapped themselves atop the ultimate E-Ticket ride on the ultimate machine; the monstrous three stage Saturn V, thirty-six stories tall and capable of muscling 262,000 pounds into orbit. Think about that number, that’s forty five Cadillac Escalades carried to an altitude of at least one hundred and sixty miles over the Earth’s surface all in about 17 minutes or so.  That would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 570 mph.  The Saturn Five remains the biggest, most powerful, bad-ass beast of a rocket mankind has ever developed. One testament to the Saturn program, and a little known fact about the Apollo 13 mission is that during the second stage burn the center engine shut down two minutes early, the remaining four engines were able to compensate and complete the maneuver that placed the Command, Service and Lunar modules on the way to the moon.  Can you tell that I find this nothing but AWESOME?   Too bad this isn’t about the Saturn program, maybe I’ll devote a future blog about it. 

I hadn't intended this to become a history lesson, that's been covered.

Three days later, on April 14th, 1970 C.E. things turned sideways and we began to hold our collective breath.

From 199,990 miles closer to the Moon, Jack Swigert sends a radio transmission to Houston. That radio transmission is often misquoted and has become part of the American lexicon.

The actual radio message is; "Okay Houston, we've had a problem here."

              

We all know the outcome of what NASA calls a "successful failure."   The Lunar module was used as a lifeboat and towed the crippled Command module to the moon for a flyby and then back home.  

Lovell, Swigert, Haise and the entire team on the ground all showed "The Right Stuff" during April of 1970.

Thanks folks...