"Houston, We've had a problem"

[Robert G. Smits]

It was 50 years ago today that we heard that fateful message from space.  If you were not born yet "Google"it.  My how time flies

[Guest]

True professionals, very calm during a tense situation. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apollo13-wehaveaproblem.ogg

 

 

 

 

[CarNucopia]

The BBC is doing a podcast on this event right now. Check it out at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p083wp70

[46 woodie]

Despite many people involved with the space program that wanted to skip the number 13, N.A.S.A. refused to believe in 13 as being superstitious. Apollo 13 and the accident happened on April 13th so they might have been wrong. I can't believe how calm the three astronauts remained during their ordeal. It was good old American ingenuity that got them home, including some of my wife's solution to many things, duct tape.

[Mark Wetherbee]

A good friend who lived in Damariscotta Maine, who was also a member of the Downeast chapter of the Model T Ford Club, played a very important part of this near tragic story. His name is James Sparrell, and he was one of the engineers who worked on and developed the moon rover. He was in the situation room while they brainstormed how to get the astronauts back down and develop a makeshift scrubber for the carbon dioxide. Added to this, he also held some form of a patent for a machine that tested seat belts in the early days of those. Someone who would never know how many lives were saved from defective belts kept out of production because of that unit.

 

At times I find it very sad that we don’t know a friends history until their obituary, most all of this story was learned after his passing and I would have loved to hear a first hand account even though there were very few people he told about it - he was very humble.

 

 

[padgett]

Always keep several rolls around, most gray, some red, others black. Even some blue masking tape. Don't stay home without it.

[TerryB]

The Apollo 13 movie is excellent too.

[wayne sheldon]

High school graduation was two months away. I had my '29 Reo and was well on my way to a life-long passion of collecting and preserving history. But I also had a great deal of interest in emerging technologies and the advances into space.

Although most people had somewhat lost interest (as mentioned in the movie), I was following the Apollo mission closely. I knew within minutes of the first televised announcement of trouble, and spent the next couple days virtually glued to the tv set. I have seen the movie about ten times, and enjoy it every time. I remember the first time I saw it (on cable pay-per-view), remembering almost every clip they used of the original broadcasts.  It made the movie quite real to me.

As a basically self-taught historian and philosopher, I have come to consider 1970 as the essential peak of the development of modern man. Although tremendous advances have been made since in the fields of science and medicine? Those advances are overshadowed by greed and corruption, an extremely short-sighted view in business, and the destruction of the middle class' financial well-being. The "disaster" we face today (financial repercussions from the COVID 19) is one largely of our own foolish making.

Most of my working career was in cutting edge communications technologies. Along with a million others, my fingerprints are all over the foundation of the internet. Other than a few antique automobile forums, from what I see of the internet today, and the way it is run? I have no real pride in the work I did.

It really saddens me that we aren't pushing manned space travel.

[TerryB]

I am a HS class of 1970 person.  There were so many things happening with the space program and Vietnam going on it seemed like good news from the TV was often in short supply.  One of the high points was riding along with my best friend Jack who got a new 1970 Duster 340 for graduation.  He let me drive it at times, that was great!

Edited April 11, 2020 by TerryB (see edit history)

[C Carl]

Hi Wayne, and all. Yeah, very inspiring times. My regret is that I didn't go to see a Saturn V take off with astronauts aboard bound for the moon. Manned space travel, (and so many other "frivolous societal luxuries"), had to take a back seat to cold war "imperatives". We ended up with thousands of hydrogen bombs instead, and, as you say, greed and corruption driven inordinate profit. Pretty sure 5 Star General President Eisenhower warned us about that process. In any case, with advances in robotics and micro- miniaturization, and the understanding of dangers from prolonged radiation exposure, manned space travel may just become a playground for the trillionaires of the future. (Or maybe a quarantine option). Back then I had my XK 120 and 140 Jaguars, '49 Cadillacs, and a good number of other Cadillacs too.    -   Carl 

[CarNucopia]

15 minutes ago, C Carl said:

Hi Wayne, and all. Yeah, very inspiring times. My regret is that I didn't go to see a Saturn V take off with astronauts aboard bound for the moon. Manned space travel, (and so many other "frivolous societal luxuries"), had to take a back seat to cold war "imperatives". We ended up with thousands of hydrogen bombs instead, and, as you say, greed and corruption driven inordinate profit. Pretty sure 5 Star General President Eisenhower warned us about that process. In any case, with advances in robotics and micro- miniaturization, and the understanding of dangers from prolonged radiation exposure, manned space travel may just become a playground for the trillionaires of the future. (Or maybe a quarantine option). Back then I had my XK 120 and 140 Jaguars, '49 Cadillacs, and a good number of other Cadillacs too.    -   Carl 

 

I think you're conflating unrelated issues. The last Space Shuttle mission happened nearly 22 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.