Chapter Text
The Finest Hour
Apollo 13 – April 11-17, 1970
Everyone said Apollo 13 was an unlucky flight, but Jim Lovell had never believed it. Even his wife Marilyn, after hearing that Jim had been selected to command the Apollo 13 mission had asked "Why that number?"
In Jim's eyes though, there was little difference between the Apollo missions, and certainly the number on the patch wouldn't pose any threat.
He was right about that. However, if the number on patch didn't pose any threat, the damaged oxygen tank certainly did.
No one at nasa had any way of knowing that the oxygen tank had begun to overheat on the ground, and in the process burned off the insulation inside the tank. Now, with damaged wires in contact with liquid oxygen, it was a bomb waiting to go off.
That bomb, along with the rest of the Apollo 13 Command/Service Module, Odyssey, the Lunar Module, Aquarius, and the crew–Commander Jim Lovell, CM Pilot Jack Swigert, and LM Pilot Fred Haise–was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 13:13 on April 11th, 1970.
The flight seemed to be going well. It was April 13th, and the crew had just finished a television broadcast where they gave a tour of the Lunar Module, (although, unknown to to them at the time, the broadcast was only shown in mission control. The television networks were becoming bored of Lunar flights and had decided not to air the show). As they put away the tv equipment and prepared for bed, they were given instructions from mission control to perform a cryo-stir – a routine procedure that would heat and stir oxygen tanks to give accurate pressure readings – and the crew obliged. About a minute and a half later, the chaos began; it was now 55 hours, 55 minutes, and 4 seconds into the mission. The audio loops in mission control as well as the air-to-ground comm immediately came to life, with the crew and ground controlers reporting seemingly endless problems.
It took a while before all the pieces began to fit together–there was a "pretty big bang" in the spacecraft, electrical problems, oxygen tanks loosing pressure, attitude control thrusters firing, it seemed like if a part of the spacecraft could malfunction, it did; mission control had never seen anything like this. It wasn't until the Commander looked out the window and saw oxygen being vented into space that everything started to make sense. When the switch was flipped for the cryo-stir it caused a spark to jump from one of the damaged wires in the oxygen tank, and, as NASA learned all too well during the Apollo 1 fire, in a pressurized pure oxygen environment a single spark will turn explosive very quickly.
When the oxygen tank exploded, it took away their ability to operate the fuel cells, which were the main source of electricity, water, and heat within the spacecraft. It was obvious that they were not going to be able to land on moon, and if they were going to make it home at all, they would have to use Aquarius as a lifeboat.
After nearly 4 days of traveling with a dead, freezing command module, solving countless problems, and coming closer to death than any American Astronaut had on a mission previously, the crew made it home. They were cold, tired, sick, and had just lost their chance to land on the moon- but they were home.
Back in Houston, those were the longest four days of Marilyn Lovell's life. She knew Jim would be devastated over loosing his chance to walk on the moon, but Marilyn also knew she couldn't handle another mission. After all, he had promised her before he left that this would be his last mission.
He had 4 kids at home who were growing up quickly. He held the record for most time spent in space by any human. Between the constant moving between military bases in the early years of their marriage, to how much time he had spent away training since they moved to Houston, Jim knew more than anyone that his family deserved for him settle down and start spending more time at home. In fact, the only reason he had even agreed to another mission after Apollo 8 was so he would be able to land on the moon.
Four days after the splashdown of Apollo 13, the crew attended a Post-Flight Press Conference, where they explained the flight to the media and answered questions. One of the first questions at the conference was directed at Jim, asking him if he was going to fly another mission–as soon as he heard the question, he realized this was the best chance he was going to get to go back. All of the top people in NASA were at that Press Conference, the same people who had given the crews of Apollo 11 & 12 the guarantee that if they couldn't land for any reason, their crew could have the next mission. Jim was never given that guarantee, however he was never told that he wouldn't get it either. Just as he was about to answer the question by explaining the guarantee to the press–in the process cornering the management so they would have to give him the mission–he looked out into the crowd, and towards the back of the room he saw a hand rise above the crowd, then give him a thumbs down. It was Marilyn, who had realized exactly how he planned to answer the question. Jim changed course with his answer as soon as he saw her, saying that there were many skilled astronauts in the organization who deserved the chance to fly, so this would still be his final mission. He was disappointed, but he knew Marilyn was right. With everything she'd been through that week it was only fair for her to say no to him trying again.