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Apollo 13: 50th Anniversary
We take you back to yesteryear...50 years of yesteryears, to 2:13pm eastern time, April 11, 1970, to the launch of Apollo 13.
I was about to finish my second grade of elementary school at Tara Elementary, south of downtown Atlanta near Morrow, Georgia when Apollo 13 launched that spring day. I don’t recall a great many details about the flight itself from back then, but I do remember us watching coverage in the classroom of the splashdown. Lovell and Haise still survive, with Lovell having clocked over to 92 years of age just a couple weeks ago. Haise is now 86. Swigert passed in December, 1982 of cancer at age 51. The crewmember that Swigert replaced at the last minute due to a measles exposure issue, Ken Mattingly, has recently turned 84. Mattingly later flew as Command Module Pilot on Apollo 16 and also commanded a later shuttle mission. The ensuing oxygen tank explosion would occur two days later on April 13. Here’s the CBS coverage of that launch 50 years ago as of 2:13pm tomorrow afternoon. Link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7C3NAj4jCb0 Earl
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Earl L. Cagle, Jr. NAR# 29523 TRA# 962 SAM# 73 Owner/Producer Point 39 Productions Rocket-Brained Since 1970 |
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I remember it so well. I was a senior in high school. Ready to head off in the Fall to college to study Aerospace Engineering. When the Apollo Program was cancelled early, I was crushed. I decided to transfer my junior year to Electrical Engineering, figuring potential NASA and space program jobs were unlikely.
I was fortunate, I did go on to work on Sidewinder and Shrike missile systems at the Naval Weapons Center in China Lake, CA. I worked with a few older engineers that had lost their jobs with Apollo contractors stretching from Huntsville to Houston to Southern California.
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Lee Reep NAR 55948 Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold! Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp |
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I was a sophomore in high school. I remember in class one of my teachers was discussing it with some of us on a break. She mentioned that maybe they should have skipped Apollo 13 and gone straight from 12 to 14. I had seen the movie "Marooned" around that time, I think a few days earlier. Movie was about an American crew trapped in space because their deorbit burn didn't fire. Russians mount a rescue attempt. I thought what an eerie coincidence.
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I like the unusual, the off beat, the avant-garde. No 3/4 FNC for me! |
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Accident anniversary itself is at about 10:08pm eastern tonight.
Earl
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Earl L. Cagle, Jr. NAR# 29523 TRA# 962 SAM# 73 Owner/Producer Point 39 Productions Rocket-Brained Since 1970 |
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In honor of the Apollo 13 launch 50th anniversary, on 4-11 I flew my 1:200 Estes SV RTF on a C12-4, and 1:100 on a D12-3 + 2x C6-0 + 2x C12-4. The 1:100 upper half lost its escape tower during deployment, and the lower half came down under just 1 of 2 chutes, cracking a fin loose.
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Paul If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane - Jimmy Buffett NAR #87246 www.wooshrocketry.org |
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No anniversary flights for me. It's been raining all day. I even have the rocket retrieving cows on my launch range. They were disappointed.
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I love sanding. |
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Quote:
I bet your 1/100 was really cookin' on that cluster combo. What altitude to you guesstimate you hit with it? Earl
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Earl L. Cagle, Jr. NAR# 29523 TRA# 962 SAM# 73 Owner/Producer Point 39 Productions Rocket-Brained Since 1970 |
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Quote:
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Paul If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane - Jimmy Buffett NAR #87246 www.wooshrocketry.org |
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If Mattingly hadn’t been grounded they may have not gotten back.
Whenever I’m in Wichita I try to make time to visit the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson to revisit the actual Apollo 13 CM and the actual Liberty Bell 7 capsule. The last time I was there the Liberty Bell 7 was absent. Perhaps it was on loan(?). The display of Virgil Grissom’s personal items from the capsule are just as interesting.
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Never trust an atom. They make up everything. 4 out of 3 people struggle with math. Chemically, alcohol IS a solution. NAR# 94042 SAM# 0078 |
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