We’ve all seen the movie and watched Tom Hanks (as Jim Lovell) and his fellow crew members survive the near catastrophic explosion that crippled the Apollo 13 spacecraft, but what was it actually like being in Mission Control on the 11th 17th April in 1970?
The planned lunar landing was instantly called off and the new challenge was to get the spacecraft safely back to Earth. When the carbon dioxide in the three astronaut’s exhaled breath threatened to asphyxiate them, the crew improvised a filter device, which had been tested in Mission Control, to make the air breathable. Only hours before hurtling back into the atmosphere did they power up the Apollo spacecraft again not knowing if it had been fatally damaged in the explosion.
Our event this evening (May 5th) at the Cameo Hotel in Copdock, Dr David Baker - Editor of Spaceflight Magazine and NASA Veteran and party to the activities in Mission Control during the flight of Apollo 13, will present a visual recap from behind the scenes on the events in the Mission Evaluation Room at Mission Control during those critical days in April 1970
Join us for this in-depth, inside technical story of how a potential disaster became NASA s finest hour, and told by a member of the team working in Mission Control during the crisis to ensure the astronauts safety.
