Word: odyssey
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...conversation between Swigert and a ground controller at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Lovell suddenly said in a laconic voice: "I believe we've had a problem here." It was the understatement of the space age. Apollo 13 had been rocked by "a pretty large bang" from Odyssey's service module, which houses the spacecraft's main engine as well as most of its life-giving power and environmental systems. Almost immediately, the command module's instruments recorded a surge of electrical current followed by an alarming drop. On Odyssey's instrument panels, red and yellow warning lights flashed...
...forbid a lunar landing if even one fuel cell becomes inoperative. The loss of two requires the earliest possible return to earth. Even worse, the second oxygen tank was now also rapidly spilling its precious cargo. Unless the venting could be stopped, there would soon be insufficient oxygen aboard Odyssey. Oxygen was essential not only for breathing; it would also be needed to react with hydrogen to produce power in the remaining?and apparently undamaged?fuel cell...
While Lovell and Haise powered up the lunar lander, Swigert battened down Odyssey. Using the service module's last few gasps of oxygen and electrical power, he charged up Odyssey's small re-entry batteries, closed off its four back-up oxygen tanks, and transferred the precise alignment of the command module's "platform"?its complex of navigational gyroscopes and accelerometers?to a similar platform in the lunar lander. These last-minute maneuvers were vital to a successful return to earth. Apollo 13 could now be navigated from the lunar module, and the command module was assured of enough...
...been discarded?the astronauts would have been doomed. The lunar module, lacking a heat shield to withstand the awesome temperatures of reentry, could not carry the crew back to the earth's surface. But its oxygen, electrical power and descent engine were vital to the safe return of Odyssey...
...best bring the distressed spacecraft home as quickly as possible but with a minimum of risk? A "deep-space abort"?turning the spacecraft around before it reached the moon and sending it back to earth?was obviously beyond the power of the lunar module's small descent engine. Odyssey's big propulsion engine, in the service module, was powerful enough to turn Apollo in midflight, but Houston was reluctant to try using it. Controllers were concerned that the engine might have been damaged by the accident. If it didn't work, Apollo's limited electrical power would be wasted...