Forty years after Apollo 13

Jim Lovell leads Rusty Swigert and Fred Haise, on their way toward the launch of Apollo 13, April 11, 1970 [AP].

Dewayne Bevil
Orlando Sentinel

Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex is holding events in April in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, which was coined "a successful failure" back in the day and turned into a motion picture in 1995.

On April 10, the complex will have a special "Astronaut Encounter," featuring Jim Lovell and Fred Haise, the surviving crew of Apollo 13 (Lunar Module Pilot and Apollo 9 astronaut Jack Swigert died in 1982). The astronauts will tell spaceflight stories, including their experiences aboard Apollo 13, which included an explosion en route to the moon, four days in space using the lunar module as a lifeboat and a journey around the far side of the moon on their gut-wrenching trip back to Earth. The appearance starts at 10:30 a.m.

On April 9, Charlie Duke, who was backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 13, will be signing copies of his book Moonwalker at the complex. Two years later, Duke flew to the moon on Apollo 16 and became the 10th man to walk on the moon. Books will be available for purchase at the complex's Space Shop, and the book-signing will begin at 3:30.

Both experience are included in regular admission to the attraction, which is $38 general, $28 ages 3-11. for more information, call 321-449-4444 or go to www.KennedySpaceCenter.com.

Lovell recalls ill-fated Apollo 13

Cynthia Dizikes
Chicago BreakingNews Center

"We were going to a place called Fra Mauro and it was about in the center of the moon," Lovell told the rapt teenagers. "It was going to be different than the first two landings because they landed in the (flat areas) ... but now they wanted us to land in the hills and the highlands."

Instead, NASA's third planned moon landing turned into a life-or-death struggle to return to Earth after an oxygen tank exploded and the crew lost its oxygen supply and electrical power.

"We were in sort of deep trouble," Lovell told the students, whom he encouraged Wednesday to pursue science even if it meant reaching beyond their high school classes.

As a young boy growing up in Milwaukee, Lovell said he consumed all the information he could about astronomy, physics and engineering. His wife, Marilyn, who said she met him in high school, remembered sitting with his mother on their porch watching him try to set off homemade rockets in a nearby lot.

"We would both say, 'He's crazy, this is insane,'" said Marilyn Lovell, laughing. "But, he just kept at it."

Read the full article, HERE.

Captain Lovell at Alder Planetarium

Frank Mathie
WLS-TV - Chicago

Captain Jim Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13, spoke at Adler Planetarium about the mission, which went from near disaster to unbelievable rescue.

Lovell kicked off the planetarium's month long "Shoot for the Moon" celebration. He told the story to students from the city's Air Force Academy High School.

"About 200,000 miles out as you might expect we had that explosion. And right away we didn't know what the situation was but as it turned out we had an oxygen tank that blew up," said Capt. Lovell.

The explosion lead to what many call NASA's greatest hour. The spacecraft had lost two of its three oxygen tanks and electrical power but somehow mission control had the astronauts jerry rig their command and lunar modules for a heart stopping ride home. Four days later they landed safely and the world sighed in relief.

Story & video, HERE.

Fred Haise: Ambassador of Exploration

Apollo 13 lunar module pilot Fred Haise, Jr, 76, was originally slated to become the sixth man to walk on the Moon in April 1970. Instead he considers himself fortunate to have survived that ill-fated mission, earning the distinction of having circled behind the Moon and immediately returned to Earth.

The Associated Press via the Fort Mill Times, reports from his hometown of Biloxi that Haise "will receive NASA's Ambassador of Exploration Award during a ceremony Dec. 2 at the Gorenflo Elementary School."

"Haise will then present the award, consisting of a moon rock encased in Lucite for display, to the elementary school, which he attended."

Into Space: Fred Haise lecture series in Alabama

Fred Haise, Lunar Module pilot on the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, opens a lecture series tonight. - Mary Perez - Herald-Sun.com

Fred Haise didn’t set out to be a pilot or go to space.

His first job was delivering The Daily Herald, the predecessor to the Sun Herald, on his bicycle and then on a motor scooter.

He later became a cub reporter and when he graduated from Biloxi High School at 16, he went to what is now the Perkinston campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College to become a journalist.

Rather than risk being drafted during the Korean War, he enlisted to continue his studies and became a pilot instead of a reporter — a career move that changed the course of his life and thrust him into the national spotlight.

At 36, when he was supposed to be the sixth man to walk on the moon, the world watched as he and his fellow Apollo 13 astronauts, James Lovell and John Swigert, using ingenuity and slide rules, figured how to get their ailing spacecraft safely home. Their story was made into a popular movie, “Apollo 13,” starring Bill Paxton as Haise. “I didn’t look at myself as a public figure,” said Haise, who was awarded the Presidential Medal for Freedom in 1970 and was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor.

He will talk about some of his experiences tonight during this year’s first program in the Issues + Answers Lecture Series, sponsored by USM Gulf Coast College of Science and Technology and the Sun Herald. Admission is free.

A month after his Apollo 13 mission in May 1970, Haise was welcomed home to Biloxi with one of the biggest parades in the city’s history and a ceremony to rename Church Street where he lived to Haise Street.

Three years later, he had a second brush with fate while flying a World War II airplane used in the movie “Tora, Tora, Tora.” The engine quit and on landing the plane flipped. Haise was burned over 70 percent of his body. He wouldn’t let doctors put in any metal pins or plates so he could continue to fly.

He did fly again, becoming the first to fly the space shuttle Enterprise off the back of a Boeing 747 airplane and land it safely.

“I didn’t just fly the Enterprise,” he said, but was involved in the design and development of the space shuttle.

After retiring from NASA, he was vice president of space programs at Grumman Aerospace Corporation.

“Some people look at it as I had trouble holding a job,” he joked about his career.

Haise said that it didn’t seem that incredible that a Biloxi boy was on his way to the moon. “It was just another step in that trail in my aviation experience,” he said.

Today, Haise lives in Houston with his wife, Patt, and has a second home in Gautier. He is a board member of the Infinity Science Center and a fundraising campaign — $2 Our Hero — was named in his honor to raise the $4 million that is still needed to build the center in Hancock County.

While he’s on the Coast, Haise will attend three fundraising events for Infinity and one in Hattiesburg for the Boy Scouts’ Pine Burr Council.

“As a boy, I was in the Pine Burr Council Troop 212, Dan Beard Patrol in Biloxi,” said Haise. “My scoutmaster was E.P. Wilkes, the original founder of the Biloxi/Gulfport Daily Herald.”

He never forgot where he came from and Haise anticipates he will see many people he knows in the crowd tonight.

The university invites speakers who have a unique look at different subjects, said USM spokesperson Charmaine Williams Schermund. Haise will share his vision for the nation’s space program and the impact the industry has had on the quality of American life.