Power
Failure Imperils
Astronauts; Apollo Will
Head Back to the Earth
NO
MOON LANDING
Men
Leave Main Craft for
'Lifeboat' After an
Oxygen Leak
By
John Noble Wilford
Special
to The New York Times
Houston,
Tuesday, April 14, 1970
- The Apollo 13
Astronauts, their lives
threatened by a serious
oxygen leak, were forced
to evacuate their
command ship late last
night and use their
intended moon-landing
craft as a
"lifeboat" for
a fast return to the
earth.
In
cool and cryptic words,
they were instructed by
mission control here to
use the attached lunar
module's rocket to power
them back to an
emergency splashdown in
the Pacific Ocean at
about noon on Friday.
There
will be great risks and
little margin for error
or delay.
At a
news conference here
officials were asked if
there was enough oxygen
to get the astronauts
back to earth safely. A
space agency official
answered,
"Yes."
"I'm
glad to hear it,"
the questioner said.
The
lunar landing module has
a supply of 48 pounds of
oxygen.
Christopher
C. Kraft, deputy
director of the Manned
Spacecraft Center, said:
"I
think their chances are
excellent at the moment,
assuming their lunar
module operates all
right."
Emergency
Simulated
Houston
officials were asked if
"this abort
situation or altered
trajectory had ever been
run on simulators, in
just this way?"
"Oh
yes, many times,"
the officials said.
"We've run all
kinds of abort
situations. The Lunar
module is designed to
carry out the maneuver.
We are looking even at
the possibilities of
dropping the service
module, but that
particular type of
maneuver has not been
tested in flight and
we'd have to make
ourselves certain that
we could control the
spacecraft under that
kind of inertia
condition."
The
plan is for the three
men to keep the hatch
open between the lunar
module. One of the
astronauts will remain
in the command module.
One of the astronauts
will remain in the
command module part of
the time to monitor its
systems, and it will be
necessary to keep the
hatch open in order to
draw on the lunar
module's oxygen supply.
Because
of the space limitations
in lunar module, it is
expected that two of the
astronauts will crawl
through to the command
module to stretch out
when it is time to go to
sleep. A third astronaut
will always remain awake
in the lunar module to
watch for any possible
malfunctions.
The
lunar module is a
two-section spacecraft.
Its descent stage
contains the fuel and
rocket for lunar
landing, but cannot hold
astronauts. The ascent
stage, which is 12 feet
four inches high and 14
feet, one inch wide, is
the astronauts'
lifeboat.
Mr.
Kraft, who has served as
a flight director or
mission executive on all
of the nation's manned
spaceflights, added that
this is "as serious
a situation as we have
ever had in manned
spaceflight."
Capt.
James A. Lovell Jr. Of
the Navy, the commander,
and his two civilian
co-pilots, Fred W. Haise
Jr. and John L. Swigert
Jr., crowded into the
two-man lunar module at
about 11:40 P.M. Eastern
standard time.
Flight
controllers were still
not sure what happened
to cause the massive
oxygen leak in the
command ship. Was it a
meteoroid strike? Or
some jarring explosion
on board?
"Something
happened, and it was a
very violent
thing," James A.
McDivitt, a former
astronaut and current
spacecraft manager,
said. "But as far
as what exactly
happened, I have no
idea."
Under
questioning, Mr.
McDivitt conceded that a
meteoroid hit was a
possibility but said
that many other factors
could be involved.
Engineers are now
examining radioed data
for clues.
The
greatest concern at the
moment, however, was
getting the three
astronauts back. Only
once before has an
American-manned
spaceship been in
sufficient trouble to
require an emergency
landing. That was Gemini
8, commanded by Neil A.
Armstrong, which tumbled
out of control in 1966
because of a wild-firing
control rocket.
Flight
controllers said they
were hoping to bring
Apollo 13 down to a
Pacific splashdown,
although the recovery
site may have to be
moved somewhat to the
southwest of the
original area.
If
necessary, especially if
it is decided to rush
the astronauts' return,
the splashdown could
come in the Atlantic
Ocean off South America.
However, there is no
trained recover fleet
standing by there and
the pickup would have to
be made by, as space
agency officials said,
"ships of
opportunity."
To get
back to the earth, they
must swing around the
moon while moving on
their present course and
then use the lunar
gravity to bend them
earthward and the lunar
module's rocket to give
them power and refined
direction. It will take
less rocket energy that
way then to turn back
before reaching the
moon.
The
planned 62-hour return
trip is the shortest
possible. The lunar
module, although
designed primarily for
landing on the moon, was
said to have enough
oxygen and enough
storage-battery
electricity to see the
three men through the
emergency.
After
sweeping behind the
moon, the Apollo
astronauts are to fire
up the lunar module's
10,000-pound-thrust
rocket, the one
ordinarily used for
descending to the moon.
Ordinarily,
the homeward journey
from lunar orbit is
initiated with the
rocket housed in the
rear compartment of the
command ship.
But
the lack of oxygen,
which is used to
generate electricity in
the command ship as well
as for breathing, makes
it impossible to operate
the guidance and
triggering mechanisms
for the
20,500-pound-thrust
rocket.
Under
this alternate mission
plan, the astronauts
will ride the lunar
module nearly all the
way back to earth.
Shortly before they
reach the earth's
atmosphere, which
extends about 400,000
feet up in the sky, they
must crawl back through
the connecting tunnel to
their command ship.
Only
the command ship- a
cone-shaped and heavily
shielded vehicle- is
capable of withstanding
the intense heat of the
25,000-mile-an-hour
re-entry into the
atmosphere towards
splashdown.
The
last thing the
astronauts did before
leaving their command
ship was to route their
remaining oxygen supply
into a small reserve
tank.
This
will serve as their
breathing oxygen for the
final minutes from
re-entry to splashdown.
The lunar module will
have to be jettisoned
shortly before re-entry.
Flight
controllers were
reasonably confident
that the lunar module's
propulsion system and
its life-support system
would be sufficient for
the flight to a
splashdown in the
planned recovery area.
The aircraft carrier Iwo
Jima is standing by
there.
Under
the new plan, Apollo 13
should swing around the
moon tonight. That is
the time they were to
have rocketed into lunar
orbit- but that is not
to be.
The
trouble came up
suddenly. The three
astronauts had just
completed a routine
telecast from inside
their spacecraft, so
routine that no
commercial television
networks bothered to
broadcast it.
All
systems appeared to be
"go" for man's
third lunar landing
attempt.
Then
Mr. Haise radioed the
ominous words:
"We've got a
problem."
At
first, it seemed to be
only an electrical
problem. Two of three
fuel cells, which
generate electricity
through a chemical
reaction between liquid
hydrogen and liquid
oxygen, went awry. This
occurred at about 10
P.M.
Apollo
13, which was launched
from Cape Kennedy, Fla.,
on Saturday, was more
than 203,000 miles from
the earth, approaching
its target on the moon's
ancient hills of Fra
Mauro.
For
nearly an hour, flight
controllers worked with
the astronauts by radio
before it was finally
determined there was no
chance of continuing
with the mission as
planned. One look
outside the spacecraft
window was indicative.
"We're
venting something out
into space,"
Captain Lovell, the
Apollo 13 commander,
reported. "It's a
gas of some sort."
This
was the first serious,
cliff-hanging
development in any of
the nation's five
flights to the vicinity
of the moon, including
three lunar landing
attempts.
A few
hours before, Gerald
Griffin, one of the
flight directors, was
describing Apollo 13 as
"a nice, easy
flight so far."
There
was some concern even
earlier over the landing
craft's propellant
pressurization system.
The super-cold helium
used to force the flow
of propellant into the
descent rocket ran some
abnormally high
pressures early in the
countdown preparations
at Cape Kennedy, Fla.
But, after a day of
testing, the helium tank
was held acceptable for
launching.
Captain
Lovell and Mr. Haise
crawled through the
connecting tunnel into
the lunar module at 8:40
P.M. to inspect the
vehicle's systems, as
planned. They were
instructed by flight
controllers to make a
special check of helium
pressures.
Based
on calculations by
mission control, the
pressure in the helium
tank should have risen
since launching to about
710 pounds a square
inch, which would be
acceptable. But if it
were found to be running
between 770 and 800, the
astronauts would be
asked to make an
additional check early
tomorrow.
Some
build-up of pressure is
normal during a flight.
Although the
basketball-size tank is
double-walled like
thermos bottle, some
heat leaks in and causes
the super-cold liquid to
expand.
But
Captain Lovell reported
after turning on the
power in the lunar
module that the helium
pressures were running
between 710 and 720.
"That's
the number we were
looking for,"
mission control told
Apollo 13.
At the
time, Apollo 13 was
201,395 miles from
earth, traveling at
2,260 miles an hour.
The
crew had one momentary
scare early today while
they were still
sleeping. The
"master-alarm"
buzzer went off in the
cockpit, alerting them
to a slightly low
pressure in one of the
hydrogen tanks supplying
fuel for the
spacecraft's
electricity-generating
plant.
Although
the problem was quickly
corrected by turning on
a heater in the tank
system, Captain Lovell
later told Mission
Control, "We were
all over the cockpit
like a wet noodle."
|