Well I realise that I cant please everyone, but having recently received an email from James Lovell himself, who loves what I have done and has asked me to keep him informed of the series as it develops, I will take his reaction to it rather than your own....no offence meant or taken. Thanks for the comment.
That is amazing to have read this---James Lovell himself wrote you personally. Great job in everything you've done! For not just youtube, but for everyone involved in this mission, the astronauts, Houston command center themselves ----their families, wives, children, and grandchildren.
lunarmodule5 that is amazing although you posted this a while ago to have Jim Lovell add his own comments is brilliant. He is one man I would love to meet. I have followed space travel most of my life these postings are brilliant thank you again 😀
These guys were ice cold and calm in space.. I'm sitting here on the edge of my seat decades later listening to recordings. What a crew. Thanks for creating this. Awesome.
Jim Lovell was America’s most experienced astronaut (this his fourth and final space flight). And for the other crewmen, you couldn’t have picked two finer rookies. Fred Haise knew the LM systems inside and out. And as for the last minute bachelor replacement as CM pilot, Jack Swigert was just as competent for the CM’s systems, and actually wrote most of the emergency procedures used in simulations.
Christopher U.S. Smith, also Jack Sweigart told NASA that wanted to be a CM Pilot only. Fred Haise was originally the backup LM Pilot for Apollo 8, and would have flown on Apollo 11, but was bumped for Mike Collins (as Apollo 11 CMP; Buzz Aldrin was moved from CMP to LMP) who was originally selected to fly as Apollo 8 CMP, but was grounded due to neck surgery. Haise, for being the Marine that he was, was placed by Deke Slayton on the Apollo 11 backup crew with Lovell and Ken Mattingly.
Agree, totally difrent than in "Apollo 13" Holywood movie with Tom Hanks. However it was made in the movie for purpuse, to add some action and feel of danger.
The problem wasn't in the crew itself. The problem is unfortunately on Jim Lovell who was offered the option of replacing the tank and launching at a later date but Lovell felt the pressure from NASA and relied on the engineers
16:56 'we are venting something out in to the space' . I can't imagine how Lovell kept his nerve while transmitting that. Truly heroic pilots. Thank you for uploading this. with love , respect and admiration from India.
Especially since it could be the liquid form of the oxygen he was breathing.... and maybe the venting could not be stopped. (I'll never forget when Tom Hanks made the venting comment in the movie..)
Jim Lovell is 96 now, I can’t imagine he’ll be around for much longer. Hearing him speak through such a nightmare situation with such a coolheaded demeanor is really impressive by itself. I wish I could meet him
This is one of the main reasons that NASA chose military test pilots as their astronauts. They were used to being the first to fly essentially untested craft. Their jobs were to report. A calm demeanor was a massive plus they wanted to have from their astronauts.
At 4:09 the call from Mission Control to "...stir up your cryo tanks." For those who want to witness the exact moment in history...and hear the actual sound of the explosion: 6:05. And the dreaded moment of 16:59 - "...we are venting something out into space." You're welcome.
One thing I have discovered since *really* spending a lot of time on RUclips is that I am an absolute junkie for listening to FC Loops from spaceflights. This particular one has proved a bit elusive to me to find in it's entirety, as mostly you can just find the 2min30sec or so that the penultimate statement of emergency ("Houston, we've had a problem...") and the immediately following status report (The Undervolts, amperage, etc) are spoken by Swigert and Lovell. That said, I agree with the rest of the comments thanking you for posting this. People like me really appreciate it.
Thanks for the comment Cassidy - I recently put together the "As It Happened" Apollo 13 accident which includes both the air-to-ground and Flight Dir loop combined. The whole sequence of the loop is available on You Tube by another user. Hope you enjoy those too
This is ... extraordinary. Being fascinated by Apollo program in general and Apollo 13 mission in particular I love this audio. Huge thanks for posting this. And yes, in my book astronauts and mission control engineers were and are heroes.
The greatest invention of the 20th Century, was not the auto mobile, or the aeroplane or even the internet. It was the Saturn V rocket, that took men to the moon. Thanks for the upload
English Josh I think it's a tie. The Saturn V was one of the greatest engineering achievements. But it "benefited" 14 people (the ones who got to go to the Moon) The Internet is the greatest technological achievement in human history. Back when Apollo was flying, a person on Earth wouldn't know bad weather was coming until it was practically on top of them. Now, with the Internet and a radar app, you could know HOURS before the storm gets there.
To be fair to Ron Howard, he had to condense 3 or 4 days into 2-1/2 hours. The DVD has a great commentary by Jim and Marilyn Lovell and he gets into what parts had a bit of artistic license to it....HIGHLY recommended.
The real Jim Lovell was so composed and understated when he said 'Uh, Houston, we've had a problem.' His tone of voice was what you'd expect from a person when they turn their ignition and their car didn't start.
EdwardVan Leppard Thanks for the comment Edward - am glad you found the channel - I guess you got a heck of a weekend trying to catch up on the full mission series - good luck and let us all know how you get on! regards - LM5
I think the content you are posting are such a great historical presentation. Which will keep these events alive for many years to come. And inspire a lot of people. Young people who may one day forge ahead, and keep the memory alive.
Fascinating to listen to! I've heard it a couple of times before, and it's still riveting even now. You can hear how calm they sound, how professional they remain....but I can definitely detect extreme worry underneath it all. Those guys were terrified, as anyone would have been.
andy42878 That’s the main reason why the astronauts from the first two classes were all experienced test pilots. Group three (Chaffee’s) opened the field to other pilots of military aircraft, not just the top guns from Edwards, Nellis and Pax River.
This was particularly true when Earth could not get up the flight plan for return post the earth insertion burn quickly. Jim Lovell go pretty testy then because he knew time was short, I also think he suspected there were huge tech difficulties and the crew was not being told. The main difficulty being the power budget. ....
The Astronauts were my heroes as a kid. I followed every mission. Fred Haise who is from Biloxi MS, did a slide presentation of the mission at Fernwood Jr in front of the student body. I'll never forget it.
Thanks for providing this. Obviously for the film they had to make things more dramatic. But it is awesome that these guys were calm although I'm sure they probably scared big time.
Many thanks,Lunar Module 5,for this video.This shows just how cool and calm the astronauts were in such a dangerous situation.Had I heard the news reports about this,I would have stayed up all night watching the coverage.I found out just how serious their situation was the next morning.Without any sleep,I would have had to call in sick that day.This brings back a lot of memories.
Thanks for posting this. I was to young to fully understand when it actually happened. A lot of this happened late at night and overnight which I didn’t see, couldn’t see. I had to get up for school in the morning and back then there were no VCR's or DVR to record it, so thanks.
Alan Bean once said he thought his crew of Apollo 12 could probably have flown any other mission as well as anyone else. Except for 13. What a crew and what a team on the ground, to bring them out of the jaws of certain death and back home again. The right stuff on all levels.
I actually saw all the apollo missions as they happened and would like to say that you have done a fantastic job in re-creating this historic and factual mission and hope it puts an end to all the people that say we never left the earth. Thank you for the memories.
How cool these guys were with all this - just working through the problems. This has to be one of the greatest Space flights of all with the crew, Mission control and the engineers all working to get the capsule safely back to earth. Great post! many thanks for this.
sir - all the audio is available for download on the nasa audio collection. Just google it and you will be able to navigate to the bits you want. make sure you clear it with NASA if you are adding it to a commercial use - like to music etc.
"..... and if I remember Main B had an amp spike before" Clearly there was a short on a previous stir that did not cause any problems with the tank. As accidents go, it could not have happened at a better time. Had this happened with Haise and Lovell on the Moon (and Swigert in orbit) it would have been a fatal outcome. No way they could get back to orbit and dock quick enough.
I have often wondered about that, thinking "this couldn't have been the first stir". Given the massive damage that was done...what would the outcome have been if the explosion happened sooner in the mission? They may have not had enough life support for the type of abort they did. So except if it happened in LEO, it couldn't have happened at a better time.
Even if they ascended and docked quickly enough they still wouldn't have been able to get home, the lunar module ascent stage could only fire once and they would have used up its oxygen during their stay on the moon
Yeah, and Sy Libergot said during an interview that had the accident happened after they were on the Moon, even if they couldn't get back, consumables would have been a serious issue because they would not have all the stuff in the descent stage. Then, obviously, if it happens on the trip home, it's fatal. No LEM = No lifeboat.
I've been thinking: APOLLO 13 improvised solutions, like the modified CO-2 filter, was pretty low tech. I think that it worked, partly, because APOLLO technology while sophisticated, was low enough tech to accept a low tech solution. An analogy is this: Before computer technology was built into cars, it was a lot easier to improvise when making repairs to cars.
I was watching a curious marc video on the inverters for the apollo missions and he played audio from the mission. So i decided to follow the rabbit hole and look for the audio. In so glad i found it. Great work. So glad we have another archive for this tremendous moment in history.
Another outstanding video. It's very interesting to watch this after watching your other video which has the Mission Control commentary too. To just hear Apollo 13 and CapCom gives you a better idea of what the crew went through. There were some big time gaps in the comms, for obvious reasons! An extraordinary crew and NASA were superb. It really was, along with Apollo 11, their finest hour. Thank you for the great work you did on this.
Sy Liebergot had a real good explanation of the cause. At the factory, a tank was dropped and the tubing was misaligned. Out at the cape, the tank wasn't draining properly so they tried boiling off the oxygen. Except they exceeded recommended temperatures and damaged the wiring in the process. Wiring was exposed and as soon as Swigert started the cryo stir, one spark was all it took. A fire inside O2 tank 2 built the pressure up and evidently blew the top of the tank off and led to a catastrophic failure. A quadruple failure from what Sy Liebergot said. All of a sudden it went from a lunar landing mission to a fight for survival.
Have always held a fascination for the space program. The work you have done here for us all is stellar (pardon the pun). Thank you for all the time you put into this.
I've recently learned that Fred Haise will be speaking at a local space museum this summer. I had to come back and listen to some of these tapes again. I'm so excited to even be able to hear him but if I got to meet him, well, my life would be complete. These guys, all of these astronauts, are heroes to me. Thank you, again, for making this series available to us.
It probably wasn't lost on Lovell that the tank that was "missing" (Tank #2)was the very tank that he had had a briefing on pre-flight when they could not get the O2 out after a test a few days before launch and decided to use the heaters and fans to force it out. After this flight they did away with the cryo heaters all together and I think they may have also done away with the cryo fans. Nothing like running electrical wires through pure O2 to ruin you whole day.
Zoomer30 Not true. They kept all the cryo tank heaters and fans. (required for keeping LH2 and LOX from being too sluggish) What they did do was double check every tank thermostat to make sure they were all 65 volt-rated, and ensure no shelf drops occurred when assembling the remaining SMs. (They also isolated each fuel cell with its own tanks so the post-accident venting of 13 crippling the other fuel cells would not occur again.
Thank you for posting this with the visual! It is a fantastic combination. I love hearing how calm they are - it is so surprising to hear it given their lives were in danger in the space! I still enjoy the Ron Howard drama, but prefer the real thing! Thank you!
Hi Keith - yes you saw my deliberate mistake!! As I was learning to use the simulator I didnt realise that I could change the camera settings from a fixed to a global setting. If I had then you would have seen exactly what you described. Apologies for the mistake. FYI I am planning on revisiting this part of the flight after I complete the full mission series with the air-to-ground and the Flight Directors loop synched so will ensure I get the perspectives right!
these guys are hero's. That's out of the way....between the emotions in this and watching there post press conference I am now totally convinced that these guys...were robots!!..or Vulcan's.
RECIPE FOR DISASTER: 1) Fail to replace 24 volt thermostat in LOX tank 2 with 65 volt version. 2) Drop cryo tank shelf assembly while loading it into SM, damaging critical piping. 3) Use unapproved shortcut turning tank heater on to burn off excess LOX after test fueling, fusing 24 volt thermostat, heating the tank to many hundreds of degrees and burning wiring insulation to the tank fan. 4) Switch on the tank fan when enough gaseous oxygen is exposed to the bare wire. 5) BOOM! “And there’s one whole side of that spacecraft missin’!”
The primary cause was powering up the command module systems on 65 Volts dc when it was designed from the ground up for 24 Volts dc. Why - they had a spare 65 Volt supply left over from the Gemini Program which was 65 Volts dc. The failure really flows from this. To give some perspective on arcing - most domestic swiches and relay contacts are rated for 240Vac and 24Vdc. It would be amazing if their wasn't an arc at 65V. This power supply had been installed in the tower since prior to Apollo 1, and was not discovered until after Apollo 13.
Thanks for the great words orion and I am glad you enjoyed the video. AMSO is used during the full mission series but for this paticular video I used NASSP because someone managed to simulate the explosion with NASSP and offered me the DLL file so I could "film" it. Hope that answers your question. One of the downsides of doing the A13 series is I have been unable to show the damaged SM all the way through, because AMSO cannot show the damage etc Using the NASSP sequence you have to (continued)
Spooky how close the explosion was to the radio dish looking thing on the back of the service module. If the explosion had knocked out comms capability those men would have died slowly and alone, and we on earth would have no possible way of ever knowing what had gone wrong.
That's the S-Band Antenna dish - they also had 4x omni antennas on the side of the Service Module and some small ones used after SM jettison on the Command Module (used for the timer before atmospheric entry and splashdown. However, the explosion did mean that they couldnt use any of the SM omni antennas (they never used the S-Band at all after the accident) after the fuel cells gave out and they were using the re-entry batteries. After that they transferred power to the LM and LM antenna were used to communicate until they jettisoned the LM after powering up the CM, which was after SM jetison - if any of that makes sense!
Starting around 14:25, Houston asks for Nitrogen on Fuel Cell 1 and Oxygen on Fuel Cell 2; 13 reads back the request correctly, but then MC corrects - as if the readback was wrong - with a different request: Nitrogen on Fuel Cell 1 and Oxygen on Fuel Cell 3.
@RonRamsey The probe was the pointy metal bit that was attached to the CSM. It would fit into the Drogue on the top of the LM. When the astronauts would remove the tunnel hatch they would have to manually remove the Probe/Drogue from the tunnel. When the O2 tank blew they had no idea exactly what happened. Initially they thought a meteor hit the LM. The hatch was placed over the tunnel without the Probe/Drogue. Hope that helps.
I have often wondered if they had attempted a space walk, could they have found maybe a loose line that the oxygen from tank one was leaking and them tried to crimp that line shut and save the remaining oxygen. A good pair of vice grip pliers for the fix!
40:07 GET 56.50.02 PAO overlaps Lovell saying “And the - talkbacks...” 42:03 And overlaps Haise at GET 56.50.57 “...SECONDARY OUTLET is reading - reading 52 degrees...” 46:43-46:53 And overlapping both Lovell and Haise call ups to Houston at GET 56.56.23 and 56.56.55. 56:05 GET 57.11.39 PAO overlaps Haise reading configuration “Okay. 2-C is reading 4.1.” 56:36 And again at GET 57.12.10 as Haise reports “And 3-A is reading 4.0.”
One thing I picked up on, at 14:25 the crew are asked for readings on nitrogen on fuel cell 1 and oxygen on fuel cell 2, but when the crew asked for confirmation for O2 on cell 2 ground said "negative, oxygen on 3". Seems like something that could have made some kind of difference.
Thanks for your fantastic effort, just had a little preview and tomorrow I will have to lock the room and watch this vid undisturbed ;-) This is truly the best channel I've ever come across!
Great series of videos. Hearing all sorts of things I've never heard before. Really interesting stuff and at times pretty entertaining (XVII launch :). This mission in particular is really fascinating. Great job!
Riveting, hair raising, and epic. I was a kid and stuck to the black and white tv pretty much the whole trip. Thanks lunar for posting. Thumbs up for sure bro...
Am I correct in assuming if this happened while the LEM was on the moon, they may have been able to meet back up and use the LEM as a life boat still, but without the decent stage they would have been doomed with not being able to do the burns for coarse correction?
This, and other "what if" questions have been asked over the years. So, if the SM explosion happened while they were in lunar orbit but still attached to the LM, before landing, they would have used the LM as a lifeboat and used the Descent engine to get out of lunar orbit and back to Earth. If it had happened whilst they were on the lunar surface, I would postulate that they would have been no hope. Even if Jim and Fred had managed to liftoff and rendezvous and dock with the CSM there would not have been enough fuel in the Ascent stage left for a burn out of lunar orbit (some question in my mind whether that engine could have got them out of lunar orbit anyway, even if fully fuelled - I doubt it). And then there is the consumable issue - Getting back to the CSM - the LM has already wasted X amount of its O2 and H2O - I am guessing that if they did manage to get back up, rendezvous, dock etc they would have tried to use the SM SPS engine as a last ditch attempt at somehow getting back. To do that they would have to continue to use the reentry batteries - something that would have had to happen in the interim between them getting back to lunar orbit etc - I guess there are some scenarios that dont play out well with 13....Its always a miracle to me, that the accident happened when it did
Someone calculated the trajectory, it remained in earth orbit for 3 months before another encounter with the moon caused it to crash into the earth's atmosphere and burn up
52:45 GET 57.07 (approx.) A rare moment when the PAO feed has audio from FLIGHT, as Gene Kranz is heard getting ready to handoff to Glynn Lunney’s team. Kranz’s White Team is about to become a “Tiger Team” tasked with bringing the crew home safely. 55:52 Another controller is heard on the PAO feed, possibly EECOM Sy Liebergot.
22:13 GET 56.17.03 PAO overlaps Lovell saying “Okay Jack, say again that -“ And again at 56.17.50 where Lousma says “13, Houston.” And again at 56.18.26 where Lousma says “13, Houston...”
Agreed...don't know if you seen any of the extras on the Apollo 13 DVD but they about filming in the vomit comet to be able to film actual weightlessness for a lot of the scenes....apparently cast and crew took about 600 "trips" in the KC-135 with sets and all....crazy
I have a question that I haven't been able to find an answer for. When Apollo 13 was re-entering Earth's atmosphere, the blackout period was about 1 min 27 seconds longer than expected (according to Gene Kranz) due to shallowing. Yet when they splashed down, they were about 4 miles from the recovery ship. (pretty much on target) Can anyone help me understand how this happened?
space.stackexchange.com/questions/37381/was-apollo-13-radio-blackout-on-reentry-longer-than-expected Shallow reentry might have delayed it a bit, but either way they had a carrier out there it wouldn't matter if they were off target. They delay comms was due to the vhf comms being powered down to conserve power for the shutes.
this is also because, at the time, I was new to the simulator and didnt realise there was a static view setting where everything revolves around the spacecraft CofG - hence the shots here make for interesting viewing indeed!
From what Sy Libergot had said, it would have been better if the wires had been burned COMPLETELY bare of insulation. The worst that would have happened then would that the fan and heater would of shorted out and simply not worked. Not a life threatening situation. What actually happened was that the insulation that was still on the wires ignited and burned which ruptured the tank.
Well I realise that I cant please everyone, but having recently received an email from James Lovell himself, who loves what I have done and has asked me to keep him informed of the series as it develops, I will take his reaction to it rather than your own....no offence meant or taken. Thanks for the comment.
lunarmodule5 High praise indeed, from the mission commander himself!
That is amazing to have read this---James Lovell himself wrote you personally. Great job in everything you've done! For not just youtube, but for everyone involved in this mission, the astronauts, Houston command center themselves ----their families, wives, children, and grandchildren.
lunarmodule5 that is amazing although you posted this a while ago to have Jim Lovell add his own comments is brilliant. He is one man I would love to meet. I have followed space travel most of my life these postings are brilliant thank you again 😀
Who was the Cap Com at this time?
Very, very cool!
These guys were ice cold and calm in space.. I'm sitting here on the edge of my seat decades later listening to recordings. What a crew. Thanks for creating this. Awesome.
You are welcome Art!
Jim Lovell was America’s most experienced astronaut (this his fourth and final space flight). And for the other crewmen, you couldn’t have picked two finer rookies. Fred Haise knew the LM systems inside and out. And as for the last minute bachelor replacement as CM pilot, Jack Swigert was just as competent for the CM’s systems, and actually wrote most of the emergency procedures used in simulations.
Christopher U.S. Smith, also Jack Sweigart told NASA that wanted to be a CM Pilot only. Fred Haise was originally the backup LM Pilot for Apollo 8, and would have flown on Apollo 11, but was bumped for Mike Collins (as Apollo 11 CMP; Buzz Aldrin was moved from CMP to LMP) who was originally selected to fly as Apollo 8 CMP, but was grounded due to neck surgery. Haise, for being the Marine that he was, was placed by Deke Slayton on the Apollo 11 backup crew with Lovell and Ken Mattingly.
Agree, totally difrent than in "Apollo 13" Holywood movie with Tom Hanks. However it was made in the movie for purpuse, to add some action and feel of danger.
The problem wasn't in the crew itself. The problem is unfortunately on Jim Lovell who was offered the option of replacing the tank and launching at a later date but Lovell felt the pressure from NASA and relied on the engineers
16:56 'we are venting something out in to the space' .
I can't imagine how Lovell kept his nerve while transmitting that. Truly heroic pilots.
Thank you for uploading this.
with love , respect and admiration from India.
Thanks Muvafaq for your comment and greetings... regards LM5
Especially since it could be the liquid form of the oxygen he was breathing.... and maybe the venting could not be stopped. (I'll never forget when Tom Hanks made the venting comment in the movie..)
Jim Lovell is 96 now, I can’t imagine he’ll be around for much longer. Hearing him speak through such a nightmare situation with such a coolheaded demeanor is really impressive by itself. I wish I could meet him
Yeah totally. I just wrote the same thing...😅
This is one of the main reasons that NASA chose military test pilots as their astronauts. They were used to being the first to fly essentially untested craft. Their jobs were to report. A calm demeanor was a massive plus they wanted to have from their astronauts.
At 4:09 the call from Mission Control to "...stir up your cryo tanks." For those who want to witness the exact moment in history...and hear the actual sound of the explosion: 6:05. And the dreaded moment of 16:59 - "...we are venting something out into space." You're welcome.
7 years later the author still responds, amazing work LM5 I really enjoyed it
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the comments regards LM5
LM5 is just the best when it comes to community interaction for sure
One thing I have discovered since *really* spending a lot of time on RUclips is that I am an absolute junkie for listening to FC Loops from spaceflights. This particular one has proved a bit elusive to me to find in it's entirety, as mostly you can just find the 2min30sec or so that the penultimate statement of emergency ("Houston, we've had a problem...") and the immediately following status report (The Undervolts, amperage, etc) are spoken by Swigert and Lovell.
That said, I agree with the rest of the comments thanking you for posting this. People like me really appreciate it.
Thanks for the comment Cassidy - I recently put together the "As It Happened" Apollo 13 accident which includes both the air-to-ground and Flight Dir loop combined. The whole sequence of the loop is available on You Tube by another user. Hope you enjoy those too
I will definitely look it up!
This is ... extraordinary. Being fascinated by Apollo program in general and Apollo 13 mission in particular I love this audio. Huge thanks for posting this. And yes, in my book astronauts and mission control engineers were and are heroes.
andyblue99 thanks for your comments andy - regards lm5
The greatest invention of the 20th Century, was not the auto mobile, or the aeroplane or even the internet. It was the Saturn V rocket, that took men to the moon.
Thanks for the upload
+English Josh welcome!
+English Josh
sure it is
as you can see every one on the hole plant uses it every day unlike the internet
it has to be the greatest invention
no, it was the hawaii chair
English Josh I think it's a tie. The Saturn V was one of the greatest engineering achievements. But it "benefited" 14 people (the ones who got to go to the Moon) The Internet is the greatest technological achievement in human history. Back when Apollo was flying, a person on Earth wouldn't know bad weather was coming until it was practically on top of them. Now, with the Internet and a radar app, you could know HOURS before the storm gets there.
English Josh
There Saturn V is - so far - the greatest engineering marvel that humanity has ever built- in any century
To be fair to Ron Howard, he had to condense 3 or 4 days into 2-1/2 hours. The DVD has a great commentary by Jim and Marilyn Lovell and he gets into what parts had a bit of artistic license to it....HIGHLY recommended.
6:31 HOUSTON WE´VE HAD A PROBLEM!
instant chills hearing that
Lovell made it sound like this was *not* a problem. I mean he sounded so relaxed when he made that statement
The real Jim Lovell was so composed and understated when he said 'Uh, Houston, we've had a problem.' His tone of voice was what you'd expect from a person when they turn their ignition and their car didn't start.
LM, this is extraordinary! I guess I know what I'll be doing now with my entire weekend!! Thank you for the time and effort this obviously required!
EdwardVan Leppard Thanks for the comment Edward - am glad you found the channel - I guess you got a heck of a weekend trying to catch up on the full mission series - good luck and let us all know how you get on! regards - LM5
Amazing how cool and professional they are when the accident happened.
Thanks for the great videos!
I think the content you are posting are such a great historical presentation. Which will keep these events alive for many years to come. And inspire a lot of people. Young people who may one day forge ahead, and keep the memory alive.
Thak you - that comment means a lot to me
i mean, i knew the movies were dramatized but holy fuck, that's a lot of composure. balls of steel. i'd shit my astronaut suit.
@Jon Jones it was called "The Right Stuff" for a reason
@@adambowman8543 That was a different movie (also with Ed Harris)
Fascinating to listen to! I've heard it a couple of times before, and it's still riveting even now. You can hear how calm they sound, how professional they remain....but I can definitely detect extreme worry underneath it all. Those guys were terrified, as anyone would have been.
andy42878 That’s the main reason why the astronauts from the first two classes were all experienced test pilots. Group three (Chaffee’s) opened the field to other pilots of military aircraft, not just the top guns from Edwards, Nellis and Pax River.
This was particularly true when Earth could not get up the flight plan for return post the earth insertion burn quickly. Jim Lovell go pretty testy then because he knew time was short, I also think he suspected there were huge tech difficulties and the crew was not being told. The main difficulty being the power budget. ....
The Astronauts were my heroes as a kid. I followed every mission. Fred Haise who is from Biloxi MS, did a slide presentation of the mission at Fernwood Jr in front of the student body. I'll never forget it.
Still get nervous when I hear the request to stir the tanks...
Thanks for providing this. Obviously for the film they had to make things more dramatic. But it is awesome that these guys were calm although I'm sure they probably scared big time.
Many thanks,Lunar Module 5,for this video.This shows just how cool and calm the astronauts were in such a dangerous situation.Had I heard the news reports about this,I would have stayed up all night watching the coverage.I found out just how serious their situation was the next morning.Without any sleep,I would have had to call in sick that day.This brings back a lot of memories.
You are welcome Garland - thanks for the comment
50 Years yesterday the stir that triggered the Successful Failure! Thank God they made it back home!
Thanks for posting this. I was to young to fully understand when it actually happened. A lot of this happened late at night and overnight which I didn’t see, couldn’t see. I had to get up for school in the morning and back then there were no VCR's or DVR to record it, so thanks.
Thank you for this. Keeping the history alive!!
You are most welcome crin
after re-watching the film I wondered if it possible anyone posted the actual transmission ? but of course you did ! thanks for your hard work.
Thank you man, really. This is like the biggest present for all the space exploration admirers
My pleasure!
Alan Bean once said he thought his crew of Apollo 12 could probably have flown any other mission as well as anyone else. Except for 13. What a crew and what a team on the ground, to bring them out of the jaws of certain death and back home again. The right stuff on all levels.
I actually saw all the apollo missions as they happened and would like to say that you have done a fantastic job in re-creating this historic and factual mission and hope it puts an end to all the people that say we never left the earth. Thank you for the memories.
How cool these guys were with all this - just working through the problems. This has to be one of the greatest Space flights of all with the crew, Mission control and the engineers all working to get the capsule safely back to earth.
Great post! many thanks for this.
sir - all the audio is available for download on the nasa audio collection. Just google it and you will be able to navigate to the bits you want. make sure you clear it with NASA if you are adding it to a commercial use - like to music etc.
As Gene Kranz once said 'let's work the problem, let's not make it any worse by guessing'
Fairly sound advice in any crisis.
I cannot believe how calm they sounded with everything crashing all around them.
The silence at the end of previous was very stunning, knowing what is coming. This is all amazing. Thank you LM.
welcome!
"..... and if I remember Main B had an amp spike before"
Clearly there was a short on a previous stir that did not cause any problems with the tank. As accidents go, it could not have happened at a better time. Had this happened with Haise and Lovell on the Moon (and Swigert in orbit) it would have been a fatal outcome. No way they could get back to orbit and dock quick enough.
I have often wondered about that, thinking "this couldn't have been the first stir". Given the massive damage that was done...what would the outcome have been if the explosion happened sooner in the mission? They may have not had enough life support for the type of abort they did. So except if it happened in LEO, it couldn't have happened at a better time.
Even if they ascended and docked quickly enough they still wouldn't have been able to get home, the lunar module ascent stage could only fire once and they would have used up its oxygen during their stay on the moon
Yeah, and Sy Libergot said during an interview that had the accident happened after they were on the Moon, even if they couldn't get back, consumables would have been a serious issue because they would not have all the stuff in the descent stage.
Then, obviously, if it happens on the trip home, it's fatal. No LEM = No lifeboat.
I've been thinking:
APOLLO 13 improvised solutions, like the modified CO-2 filter, was pretty low tech. I think that it worked, partly, because APOLLO technology while sophisticated, was low enough tech to accept a low tech solution.
An analogy is this:
Before computer technology was built into cars, it was a lot easier to improvise when making repairs to cars.
I was watching a curious marc video on the inverters for the apollo missions and he played audio from the mission. So i decided to follow the rabbit hole and look for the audio. In so glad i found it. Great work. So glad we have another archive for this tremendous moment in history.
Another outstanding video. It's very interesting to watch this after watching your other video which has the Mission Control commentary too. To just hear Apollo 13 and CapCom gives you a better idea of what the crew went through. There were some big time gaps in the comms, for obvious reasons! An extraordinary crew and NASA were superb. It really was, along with Apollo 11, their finest hour. Thank you for the great work you did on this.
Welcome Mark
I totally agree - thank you so much for your efforts on this, all of us space freaks and moon buffs appreciate this.
Whoever made this did an amazing job....Thank you for it!
thanks Fedup - glad you enjoyed it
Sy Liebergot had a real good explanation of the cause. At the factory, a tank was dropped and the tubing was misaligned. Out at the cape, the tank wasn't draining properly so they tried boiling off the oxygen. Except they exceeded recommended temperatures and damaged the wiring in the process. Wiring was exposed and as soon as Swigert started the cryo stir, one spark was all it took. A fire inside O2 tank 2 built the pressure up and evidently blew the top of the tank off and led to a catastrophic failure. A quadruple failure from what Sy Liebergot said. All of a sudden it went from a lunar landing mission to a fight for survival.
Have always held a fascination for the space program. The work you have done here for us all is stellar (pardon the pun). Thank you for all the time you put into this.
William R Thanks William - Apollo 8 Full Mission starts this Sunday - hope you can come along for the ride!
I've recently learned that Fred Haise will be speaking at a local space museum this summer. I had to come back and listen to some of these tapes again. I'm so excited to even be able to hear him but if I got to meet him, well, my life would be complete. These guys, all of these astronauts, are heroes to me. Thank you, again, for making this series available to us.
Welcome laser ..say hello to Fred if you meet him.. regards LM5
so awesome how in this age i can play this interesting record!!
Thanks for putting all this work and making the fantastic result available to all.
You are more than welcome JustMe - regards LM5
It probably wasn't lost on Lovell that the tank that was "missing" (Tank #2)was the very tank that he had had a briefing on pre-flight when they could not get the O2 out after a test a few days before launch and decided to use the heaters and fans to force it out.
After this flight they did away with the cryo heaters all together and I think they may have also done away with the cryo fans. Nothing like running electrical wires through pure O2 to ruin you whole day.
Zoomer30 Not true. They kept all the cryo tank heaters and fans. (required for keeping LH2 and LOX from being too sluggish) What they did do was double check every tank thermostat to make sure they were all 65 volt-rated, and ensure no shelf drops occurred when assembling the remaining SMs. (They also isolated each fuel cell with its own tanks so the post-accident venting of 13 crippling the other fuel cells would not occur again.
This is fantastic. I listen to at least one Apollo 13 episode each night.
Well, thats good news to me - you have 33 episodes to go! Enjoy!
I think that the decision to turn fuel cell 3 off is a key moment. It's the "we aren't going to the moon" moment
Thank you for posting this with the visual! It is a fantastic combination. I love hearing how calm they are - it is so surprising to hear it given their lives were in danger in the space! I still enjoy the Ron Howard drama, but prefer the real thing! Thank you!
Welcome Myra!
Hi Keith - yes you saw my deliberate mistake!! As I was learning to use the simulator I didnt realise that I could change the camera settings from a fixed to a global setting. If I had then you would have seen exactly what you described. Apologies for the mistake. FYI I am planning on revisiting this part of the flight after I complete the full mission series with the air-to-ground and the Flight Directors loop synched so will ensure I get the perspectives right!
these guys are hero's.
That's out of the way....between the emotions in this and watching there post press conference I am now totally convinced that these guys...were robots!!..or Vulcan's.
that's why early astronauts were exclusively test pilot. They have nerves of steel
Def brave
Thanks for creating and posting this.
You are welcome Bob
RECIPE FOR DISASTER: 1) Fail to replace 24 volt thermostat in LOX tank 2 with 65 volt version. 2) Drop cryo tank shelf assembly while loading it into SM, damaging critical piping. 3) Use unapproved shortcut turning tank heater on to burn off excess LOX after test fueling, fusing 24 volt thermostat, heating the tank to many hundreds of degrees and burning wiring insulation to the tank fan. 4) Switch on the tank fan when enough gaseous oxygen is exposed to the bare wire. 5) BOOM! “And there’s one whole side of that spacecraft missin’!”
The primary cause was powering up the command module systems on 65 Volts dc when it was designed from the ground up for 24 Volts dc. Why - they had a spare 65 Volt supply left over from the Gemini Program which was 65 Volts dc. The failure really flows from this.
To give some perspective on arcing - most domestic swiches and relay contacts are rated for 240Vac and 24Vdc. It would be amazing if their wasn't an arc at 65V.
This power supply had been installed in the tower since prior to Apollo 1, and was not discovered until after Apollo 13.
+lunarmodule5 Before I forget to say it, great work putting all of these together. A definite labor of love. :)
Man, those kerbals are screwed. Why don't they just revert back to launch?
mrbibs350 I bet, at the time, the crew wished that they were in a Sim!
***** Yeah, but you have to respect guys who play in Career mode.
mrbibs350 lol I know right?
Real life only works in Hardcore Mode.
lunarmodule5 In fact, a few hours later Lousma called up to the crew, "How do you like this sim?"
Thanks for the great words orion and I am glad you enjoyed the video. AMSO is used during the full mission series but for this paticular video I used NASSP because someone managed to simulate the explosion with NASSP and offered me the DLL file so I could "film" it. Hope that answers your question. One of the downsides of doing the A13 series is I have been unable to show the damaged SM all the way through, because AMSO cannot show the damage etc Using the NASSP sequence you have to (continued)
Spooky how close the explosion was to the radio dish looking thing on the back of the service module. If the explosion had knocked out comms capability those men would have died slowly and alone, and we on earth would have no possible way of ever knowing what had gone wrong.
That's the S-Band Antenna dish - they also had 4x omni antennas on the side of the Service Module and some small ones used after SM jettison on the Command Module (used for the timer before atmospheric entry and splashdown. However, the explosion did mean that they couldnt use any of the SM omni antennas (they never used the S-Band at all after the accident) after the fuel cells gave out and they were using the re-entry batteries. After that they transferred power to the LM and LM antenna were used to communicate until they jettisoned the LM after powering up the CM, which was after SM jetison - if any of that makes sense!
@@lunarmodule5 perfect sense actually. Thank you for that information!
Amazing how calm the crew was when the tanks blew. Not many people would be that calm. That's real professionalisim there.
Truly amazing work, thank you so much for this!
Starting around 14:25, Houston asks for Nitrogen on Fuel Cell 1 and Oxygen on Fuel Cell 2; 13 reads back the request correctly, but then MC corrects - as if the readback was wrong - with a different request: Nitrogen on Fuel Cell 1 and Oxygen on Fuel Cell 3.
I got to sit in the flight director seat where this happened.....so cool.
@RonRamsey The probe was the pointy metal bit that was attached to the CSM. It would fit into the Drogue on the top of the LM. When the astronauts would remove the tunnel hatch they would have to manually remove the Probe/Drogue from the tunnel. When the O2 tank blew they had no idea exactly what happened. Initially they thought a meteor hit the LM. The hatch was placed over the tunnel without the Probe/Drogue. Hope that helps.
Thanks, to the men of Apollo. Great work! 👍
I have often wondered if they had attempted a space walk, could they have found maybe a loose line that the oxygen from tank one was leaking and them tried to crimp that line shut and save the remaining oxygen.
A good pair of vice grip pliers for the fix!
40:07 GET 56.50.02 PAO overlaps Lovell saying “And the - talkbacks...” 42:03 And overlaps Haise at GET 56.50.57 “...SECONDARY OUTLET is reading - reading 52 degrees...” 46:43-46:53 And overlapping both Lovell and Haise call ups to Houston at GET 56.56.23 and 56.56.55. 56:05 GET 57.11.39 PAO overlaps Haise reading configuration “Okay. 2-C is reading 4.1.” 56:36 And again at GET 57.12.10 as Haise reports “And 3-A is reading 4.0.”
Amazing to hear this in real time! Thanks for your efforts, LM5!
I've watched parts of all of them and all of some of them. This is excellent work you're doing.
17:00 : "We are venting something out into space"
Without a doubt....you have done a fantastic job with this....not just blowing smoke either....really top notch effort here!
One thing I picked up on, at 14:25 the crew are asked for readings on nitrogen on fuel cell 1 and oxygen on fuel cell 2, but when the crew asked for confirmation for O2 on cell 2 ground said "negative, oxygen on 3".
Seems like something that could have made some kind of difference.
Thanks The - Appreciiate the kind words
Thanks for your fantastic effort, just had a little preview and tomorrow I will have to lock the room and watch this vid undisturbed ;-) This is truly the best channel I've ever come across!
I'm surprised at how calm and collective they are in this situation.
Great series of videos. Hearing all sorts of things I've never heard before. Really interesting stuff and at times pretty entertaining (XVII launch :). This mission in particular is really fascinating. Great job!
Very well put together sir well done
Thanks
Like your Europa Conference League final 😁
That was nerve-wracking! Way to stay calm, fellas. *raises glass*
The best RUclips channel
I really enjoy what you have done here and with your other video. Thank you so much for your effort!
I like how it the animation shows the command console as well as what was happening outside of the module
How I did it in the old days!! lol
Riveting, hair raising, and epic. I was a kid and stuck to the black and white tv pretty much the whole trip. Thanks lunar for posting. Thumbs up for sure bro...
I like the video. I guess after watching the movie about this I had to check this out.
Awesome idea! Thanks for putting this together.
You are welcome tarros
Am I correct in assuming if this happened while the LEM was on the moon, they may have been able to meet back up and use the LEM as a life boat still, but without the decent stage they would have been doomed with not being able to do the burns for coarse correction?
This, and other "what if" questions have been asked over the years. So, if the SM explosion happened while they were in lunar orbit but still attached to the LM, before landing, they would have used the LM as a lifeboat and used the Descent engine to get out of lunar orbit and back to Earth. If it had happened whilst they were on the lunar surface, I would postulate that they would have been no hope. Even if Jim and Fred had managed to liftoff and rendezvous and dock with the CSM there would not have been enough fuel in the Ascent stage left for a burn out of lunar orbit (some question in my mind whether that engine could have got them out of lunar orbit anyway, even if fully fuelled - I doubt it). And then there is the consumable issue - Getting back to the CSM - the LM has already wasted X amount of its O2 and H2O - I am guessing that if they did manage to get back up, rendezvous, dock etc they would have tried to use the SM SPS engine as a last ditch attempt at somehow getting back. To do that they would have to continue to use the reentry batteries - something that would have had to happen in the interim between them getting back to lunar orbit etc - I guess there are some scenarios that dont play out well with 13....Its always a miracle to me, that the accident happened when it did
@@lunarmodule5 glad the what if happened as it did. Luck definitely played a role in an unlucky incident!
And somewhere out in space the outer door of the Apollo 13 Service Module is flying though space (unless it hit the Moon)
"Buh bye, door...."
Someone calculated the trajectory, it remained in earth orbit for 3 months before another encounter with the moon caused it to crash into the earth's atmosphere and burn up
Amazing. Thank you so much for doing this
Welcome!
52:45 GET 57.07 (approx.) A rare moment when the PAO feed has audio from FLIGHT, as Gene Kranz is heard getting ready to handoff to Glynn Lunney’s team. Kranz’s White Team is about to become a “Tiger Team” tasked with bringing the crew home safely.
55:52 Another controller is heard on the PAO feed, possibly EECOM Sy Liebergot.
Actually, Gene Kranz was accidentally transmitting himself on the NET 1 LOOOP which is the Air To Ground
Wow. It all looks so peaceful even after the side panel blows off, then you realise that the ship is spiralling out of control...
You owe me no apologies!!! The fact that you put your effort into doing this is at all COOL enough! It's fantastic already, my friend.
At least they use the Lunar Module as a life boat.
These are excellent. Thanks for your hard work on these.
6:06
6:32
6:41
16:52
22:13 GET 56.17.03 PAO overlaps Lovell saying “Okay Jack, say again that -“ And again at 56.17.50 where Lousma says “13, Houston.” And again at 56.18.26 where Lousma says “13, Houston...”
Thanks Kaiser - appreciated
06:45 Houston, We've Had A Problem ....historic moment
this is awesome its really cool to hear the events for myself rather than in a movie
55:54:53
The moment in which one could build mansions from the massive amounts of bricks shiat during the apollo 13 flight.
Agreed...don't know if you seen any of the extras on the Apollo 13 DVD but they about filming in the vomit comet to be able to film actual weightlessness for a lot of the scenes....apparently cast and crew took about 600 "trips" in the KC-135 with sets and all....crazy
I have a question that I haven't been able to find an answer for. When Apollo 13 was re-entering Earth's atmosphere, the blackout period was about 1 min 27 seconds longer than expected (according to Gene Kranz) due to shallowing. Yet when they splashed down, they were about 4 miles from the recovery ship. (pretty much on target) Can anyone help me understand how this happened?
space.stackexchange.com/questions/37381/was-apollo-13-radio-blackout-on-reentry-longer-than-expected Shallow reentry might have delayed it a bit, but either way they had a carrier out there it wouldn't matter if they were off target. They delay comms was due to the vhf comms being powered down to conserve power for the shutes.
UR most welcome Grant - glad you liked it
Notice the Earth and the moon are going around as the ship was spinning uncontrollably, the RCS system was going nuts.
this is also because, at the time, I was new to the simulator and didnt realise there was a static view setting where everything revolves around the spacecraft CofG - hence the shots here make for interesting viewing indeed!
its lovely to listen this voyages to the sky space up
From what Sy Libergot had said, it would have been better if the wires had been burned COMPLETELY bare of insulation. The worst that would have happened then would that the fan and heater would of shorted out and simply not worked. Not a life threatening situation.
What actually happened was that the insulation that was still on the wires ignited and burned which ruptured the tank.
At 6.09 you can actually hear the explosion