Word: swigert
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...module, original source of the deadly hazard, peeled off properly. Aquarius, the lunar module that had served as savior instead of explorer, unzipped easily. The command unit Odyssey touched down within four miles of the U.S.S. Iwo Jima. Helicopter recovery ticked along as if automated. Soon Lovell, Haise and Swigert were on the carrier's flight deck, hearing Rear Admiral Donald Davis say, "We're glad you made it, boys." The ship's chaplain said a prayer of thanksgiving, and the three astronauts joined him. In Houston, Marilyn Lovell touched the universal mood when she said: "It was beautiful...
Apollo 13's failure ended that. The exploding oxygen tank that could easily have cost the lives of Lovell, Haise and Swigert was a cruel but perhaps necessary reminder of the fallibility of man and his machines. The cause of the malfunction will have to be established by a painstaking inquiry. Meanwhile space exploration was humanized again, as it had been during the pioneer flights and on the night when Neil Armstrong made man's first footprint in moon dust. No longer was it an issue of U.S. technocracy, or how many billions the space program costs, or what...
...until this week. After splashdown, Nixon lighted up a victory cigar, then declared a national day of thanksgiving and prayer. At week's end he jetted off to Houston to hand out medals to NASA ground personnel, then took Mrs. Haise, Mrs. Lovell and the parents of John Swigert for a rendezvous with the Apollo crew in Hawaii. Of the safe return, Nixon said: "There is no question in my mind that for me, personally, this is the most exciting, the most meaningful day I have ever experienced...
...This is the crew of Apollo 13 wishing everyone there a nice evening," he said. "We're just about ready to close out our inspection of Aquarius and get back for a pleasant evening in Odyssey." Minutes later, the almost idyllic journey of Astronauts Lovell, Fred Haise and John Swigert turned into a heart-pounding nightmare...
Interrupting a 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...