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so by the time we got to apollo 13 this

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was our third lunar landing mission

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previous two missions had been pretty

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sporty and we were hoping this mission

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crewmen for jim lovell fred hayes and

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ken mattingly

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lovell and hayes were they crew in the

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lunar mountain they're scheduled to

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descend a very rugged landing site on

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the moon that we called fraumero

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ken mattingly was the command module

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pilot he'd remain circling the moon in

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the ship

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about three days prior to launch we had

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been scrubbed from the mission because

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he had been exposed to measles

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and is replaced by jack swaggart a

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member of a backup crew

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emissions run in trust

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when you turn and a half million pounds

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of thrust loose with saturn five that's

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commitment there is no change in their

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mind no turning back from that decision

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and trust allows you to make the

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split-second decisions very rapidly seek

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out every option that may exist

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we lost an engine during the second

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stage of powered flight

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we looked at the remaining four engines

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they were all go we computed the new

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engine shutdown times verified we had

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enough propellant to get the corrupted

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orb

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pass this information up to the crew

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everything everything kept working

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got him up in orbit checked the

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spacecraft out and two and a half hours

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later we give the crew the go for

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translunar injection

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so now by the end of the second day this

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crew is 200 miles 200 000 miles from

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earth

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a fifty thousand miles from the surface

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of the moon

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and we're entering a phase of the

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mission we use the term entering the

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lunar sphere of influence and this is

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the point in the mission where you cross

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over from the earth's gravity

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to the booze moon's gravity

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and for about a short period of time of

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four hours you have two mission award

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options one comes around the front side

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of the moon takes a day and a half to

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return to earth

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the other one goes completely around the

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moon takes between four and five days to

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get back home

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it's got to make up your mind quick

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because time on these options is running

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out

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my team was on the console we were just

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finishing our second shift everything

64
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was looking pretty good

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during the shift we had had a television

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broadcast from the crew

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and during the broadcast the crew's

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wives and families had been sitting

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behind me in the viewing room

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when we secured the television link

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families went home

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and now in my main control room the

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noise level was building up because the

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next team of controllers had reported in

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for shift handore

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their flight director was glenn lonnie

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he was a leader of the black team

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we used colors to identify teams in

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those days he was sitting next to me at

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the console reading my log

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final thing my team had to do is to put

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the crew to sleep

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00:02:41,110 --> 00:02:39,599
we have a five page pea sleep checklist

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we go through very carefully to make

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sure everything's properly configured

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before we give the go for start of the

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sleep we got down to the final entry and

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the final entry asks a question do we

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require a cryo stir

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now the fuels on board the spacecraft

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are cryogenic oxygen and hydrogen

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super dense super cold liquid packed in

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vacuum insulated tanks at incredibly low

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temperatures of minus 300 minus 400

95
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degrees fahrenheit

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cryogenics react with the catalyst in a

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fuel cell to produce electricity

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and as a byproduct they produce heat and

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pure water

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so this is the energy heat and water

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resource we need to go to the moon

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operate in the vicinity of the moon and

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then return to earth so they're

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enormously important

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two days into the mission however i've

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used some of these cryogenics and if i

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could look inside the tank right now i

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would see a two-phase condition part

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liquid part gas

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and in this condition it's very

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difficult to manage the inlet pressures

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to the fuel cells because within the

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same tank there are different different

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areas of very the pressure varies

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throughout the tank

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so the designers put fans inside the

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tank they would turn on to stir this

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mixture up and we had a heater that we

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used to raise the pressure that's what a

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crosstar was all about

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jack swigert in the command module

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acknowledged our request for this stir

123
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and he looked behind him and coming

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through the tunnel from the lunar module

125
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with fred hayes

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swigert then threw two switches

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nothing happened for 16 seconds

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and then inside oxygen tank to a spark

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just between the fan and the heater

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assembly and the pressure in that tank

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rises very rapidly over the next six

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seconds until it blows the dome of the

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tank off

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when the dome came off the insulation

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surrounding the tank caught fire and fed

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by the oxygen it was oxygen it was like

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a blowtorch racing through the bay of

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the spacecraft carrying out the

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instrumentation and the plumbing and the

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electrical system shocking valves closed

141
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until the pressure increased to the

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point where it blew the side of the

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spacecraft off

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when the side came off the spacecraft

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the area surrounding it

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was enveloped in a cloud of debris from

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an explosion and frozen particles of

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oxygen

149
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we did not know an explosion had

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occurred

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it's 55 hours 55 minutes and four

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seconds from launch

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my voice loops come alive hey flight

154
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we've had a computer restart another

155
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controller calls off main bus interval

156
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third one says antenna switch then down

157
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from the spacecraft level calls hey

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houston

159
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we got a problem

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i already had a bunch of problems

161
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reporting i was wondering which one he

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was talking about

163
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the controllers at that instant didn't

164
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know what to believe because none of

165
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their data made sense the crew thought

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they had been hit by a meteor

167
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and for about 60 seconds the

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communications loops are literally

169
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chaotic with all the reports coming in

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and then the training kicked in the

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controller started working the problem

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we started voicing instructions up the

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resource some of the lost functions

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so by three minutes we're into the

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process of recovery but all the problems

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that remain

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fall upon a single controller by the

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name of silaberg

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and psy has the system's responsibility

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for those things you need to stay alive

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in space power oxygen pressure heat

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water but i can't work with psy because

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the tumbling motion of the spacecraft is

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momentarily overcome levels ability to

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control it now we're driving towards a

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condition we call gimbal luck

187
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if this occurs we're going to tumble our

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gyros we'll lose our ability to point

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the spacecraft communicate perform

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maneuvers find our way back to earth if

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we get in the gimbal lock condition

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we're literally going to be lost in

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space

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until we can go through the complex and

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time-consuming process of reordering a

196
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navigation system so we must avoid it at

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all costs and you're becoming

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00:06:10,230 --> 00:06:08,639
increasingly desperate you're working

199
00:06:12,230 --> 00:06:10,240
the blind and you still have a clue

200
00:06:14,230 --> 00:06:12,240
what's happened

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plus 20 minutes lovell's looking outside

202
00:06:17,990 --> 00:06:15,919
the hatch when he says hey houston i see

203
00:06:21,270 --> 00:06:18,000
some kind of a gassy substance

204
00:06:23,270 --> 00:06:21,280
i believe we are venting our oxygen

205
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all of a sudden the pieces fit together

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there had been explosion on board the

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spacecraft with an enormous amount of

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collateral damage

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when i debriefed my controllers after

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the mission they described their feeling

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00:06:35,909 --> 00:06:33,600
at that instant as if they were just

212
00:06:37,909 --> 00:06:35,919
tumbling into a void

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i was a fighter pilot fighter pilots and

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i they use the term looking into the

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eyes of a tiger

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and this is the stark and the very

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lonely feeling that you get when the

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only thought on your mind is survival

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and you're trying to find some way out

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of the box you're in

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i was a flight director and my job to

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get going so i call the flight

223
00:06:58,469 --> 00:06:56,639
controllers up and say okay flight

224
00:07:00,070 --> 00:06:58,479
controller settle down

225
00:07:02,309 --> 00:07:00,080
quit your guessing and let's start

226
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working this problem electrical basa is

227
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still good don't do anything to screw it

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up

229
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the lunar module is attached we're going

230
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to use that as our lifeboat now get me

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some backup people here and get me more

232
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computing and communications resources

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plus 30 minutes my boss chris craft

234
00:07:20,629 --> 00:07:18,800
comes in just as we're starting a series

235
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of emergency power downs we're trying to

236
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buy some time

237
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and bieber got comes to me and he says

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00:07:27,270 --> 00:07:25,520
flight i'd like to shut down fuel cells

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one and three

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00:07:30,309 --> 00:07:28,800
i say sorry we better think about that

241
00:07:33,110 --> 00:07:30,319
and he says no flight i think that's the

242
00:07:34,390 --> 00:07:33,120
only way we're going to stop these leaks

243
00:07:36,230 --> 00:07:34,400
and they say sorry are you ready for

244
00:07:37,430 --> 00:07:36,240
your final option he says yes flight

245
00:07:39,350 --> 00:07:37,440
it's time

246
00:07:41,430 --> 00:07:39,360
i have three fuel cells on board the

247
00:07:43,350 --> 00:07:41,440
spacecraft that use these cryogenics to

248
00:07:45,510 --> 00:07:43,360
produce all the resources we need to fly

249
00:07:49,189 --> 00:07:45,520
but the problem was once they're shut

250
00:07:51,029 --> 00:07:49,199
down they could never be restarted

251
00:07:53,430 --> 00:07:51,039
very reluctantly i agree outside that

252
00:07:55,029 --> 00:07:53,440
it's time to shut down to the fuel cells

253
00:07:55,990 --> 00:07:55,039
we always see instructions up to jim

254
00:07:57,350 --> 00:07:56,000
lovell

255
00:07:58,869 --> 00:07:57,360
and the discussion with jim is very

256
00:08:01,029 --> 00:07:58,879
short very intense

257
00:08:03,430 --> 00:08:01,039
and very reluctantly jim proceeds to

258
00:08:05,510 --> 00:08:03,440
shut down to the fuel cells

259
00:08:07,189 --> 00:08:05,520
this is probably the lowest point in

260
00:08:08,550 --> 00:08:07,199
morale in the entire mission because now

261
00:08:10,390 --> 00:08:08,560
we know there's no more going to the

262
00:08:14,070 --> 00:08:10,400
moon we also know it's going to be tough

263
00:08:15,909 --> 00:08:14,080
maybe impossible to get this crew home

264
00:08:18,469 --> 00:08:15,919
not through decisions yet because you

265
00:08:20,550 --> 00:08:18,479
have to pick the return path

266
00:08:22,309 --> 00:08:20,560
if i jettison the lunar module and use

267
00:08:23,749 --> 00:08:22,319
the bulk of my propellant i can be home

268
00:08:25,830 --> 00:08:23,759
in roughly about a day and a half i'll

269
00:08:27,589 --> 00:08:25,840
come around the front side of the moon

270
00:08:29,670 --> 00:08:27,599
but something some gut feeling and

271
00:08:31,270 --> 00:08:29,680
that's all it is is don't use it that

272
00:08:32,870 --> 00:08:31,280
engine won't work

273
00:08:34,230 --> 00:08:32,880
the other option i'm going to have to go

274
00:08:36,149 --> 00:08:34,240
completely around the moon it's going to

275
00:08:37,029 --> 00:08:36,159
take between four and five days to get

276
00:08:38,709 --> 00:08:37,039
home

277
00:08:40,070 --> 00:08:38,719
but to the best of my knowledge i only

278
00:08:43,269 --> 00:08:40,080
have enough electrical power in the

279
00:08:45,030 --> 00:08:43,279
lunar module for two people for two days

280
00:08:46,389 --> 00:08:45,040
there's nothing more than this gut

281
00:08:48,150 --> 00:08:46,399
feeling

282
00:08:49,509 --> 00:08:48,160
i make the decision

283
00:08:51,110 --> 00:08:49,519
to swing the mission around the moon

284
00:08:53,030 --> 00:08:51,120
call my controllers up and say okay all

285
00:08:55,110 --> 00:08:53,040
flight controllers listen up

286
00:08:58,150 --> 00:08:55,120
be advised that all mission planning

287
00:09:00,949 --> 00:08:58,160
from now on will be around the moon we

288
00:09:02,710 --> 00:09:00,959
will not i repeat we will not execute

289
00:09:04,230 --> 00:09:02,720
a direct abortion

290
00:09:06,310 --> 00:09:04,240
this comes as a shock to many of the

291
00:09:08,630 --> 00:09:06,320
controllers because they believe this is

292
00:09:10,230 --> 00:09:08,640
the wrong decision but they also know it

293
00:09:12,150 --> 00:09:10,240
is decision time

294
00:09:13,430 --> 00:09:12,160
and they are the ones that must execute

295
00:09:14,870 --> 00:09:13,440
it

296
00:09:16,470 --> 00:09:14,880
plus one hour

297
00:09:18,310 --> 00:09:16,480
my team has finally accomplished

298
00:09:20,389 --> 00:09:18,320
handover to glenn lonnie's team and he

299
00:09:22,070 --> 00:09:20,399
is immediately challenged because the

300
00:09:23,670 --> 00:09:22,080
third fuel cell is now failing in

301
00:09:26,230 --> 00:09:23,680
lifetime and that cell is down to less

302
00:09:27,750 --> 00:09:26,240
than 15 minutes so he scrambles the crew

303
00:09:29,350 --> 00:09:27,760
over the lunar module to complete the

304
00:09:31,030 --> 00:09:29,360
power but most importantly has to

305
00:09:32,550 --> 00:09:31,040
transfer the navigation data from the

306
00:09:33,670 --> 00:09:32,560
command module computer which is going

307
00:09:35,110 --> 00:09:33,680
to die

308
00:09:37,269 --> 00:09:35,120
and put it over in the lunar module

309
00:09:39,030 --> 00:09:37,279
computer we didn't have a data bus

310
00:09:41,350 --> 00:09:39,040
transfer capability in those days all