MISSION MOON
Gift from appreciative Apollo 13 crew honors 1970 rescue effort
Our special anniversary coverage of the July 20, 1969, moon landing continues today as we look at the story behind the mirror hanging in Mission Control.
The eligibility requirements to become a NASA astronaut always have been high, demanding applicants possess advanced degrees in science or engineering as well as extensive experience flying jet aircraft.
Spelling is not so high on the list.
The inscription on a mirror that once flew aboard one of Apollo 13’s lunar modules proves as much. Almost a halfcentury later, a spelling error — made in appreciation — still hangs on a wall at the Johnson Space Center’s Mission Control.
“This mirror flown on Aquarius, LM-7, to the moon April 11-17 1970,” it reads. “Returned by a
(emphasis added) Apollo 13 crew to ‘reflect the image’ of the people in Mission Control who got us back.”
Below it are the names of the three Apollo 13 astronauts: James Lovell, John Swigert and Fred Haise.
The mirror was a testament to the astronauts’ appreciation for the “heroes” in Mission Control who got them back to Earth safely after a debilitating problem on board.
“They wanted to show their gratitude,” said Robert Pearlman, a space historian and founder of collectSPACE, a website dedicated to space history.
“They wanted to show that while they were in peril in space it was the team here in Houston — and elsewhere — that made sure that they were able to come back,” he said.
‘We’ve had a problem’
Jokes have always been a part of NASA’s culture.
Pearlman recalled anecdotes of engineers using P-tubes — the vacuum-sealed transport systems now used at banks worldwide — to deliver sandwiches or, one time, a live frog across the Johnson Space Center.
After most missions, Pearlman said, the crew and control room would gather at a local bar for a “splashdown,” and celebrate the success with gag gifts and lighthearted ribbing. Apollo 13 was different. Barely 56 hours in space, the oxygen tanks aboard Apollo 13 exploded, crippling equipment and giving birth to a now-cliched phrase — often misquoted — that is synonymous with disaster and the Bayou City.
“OK, Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” Swigert said in a transmission to Mission Control.
They had seconds to act, relying on technology that was state-of-the-art at the time but commonplace nowadays.
“They knew that the only way they were going to solve this was to work with their teams, work through the problem and follow the chain of command,” Pearlman said. “This was a serious problem. There wasn’t really a moment when they could sit back and relax.”
Six days later, the Apollo 13 crew was back on Earth, their lives spared by a “tiger team” of flight controllers below in Houston.
The aftermath was different, too. NASA officials for a long time were reticent to discuss Apollo 13, which was described as a “successful failure.” Unlike most missions, the spacecraft’s parts were disassembled and shipped off to museums after it landed.
“While internally items like that mirror reminded the workforce of that mission, externally NASA sort of pushed Apollo 13’s story to the side,” Pearlman said.
It was not until years later, when the blockbuster movie “Apollo 13” was released in 1995, that the role of Mission Control finally was lionized, he said.
The gratitude from astronauts never wavered, however.
“Apollo 13 stood as an example, I think, to demonstrate dramatically what the team could do,” Haise said during a 2015 panel at Rice University.
Many of those on the ground, he said, never went home, opting instead to take brief naps in the hallway to “get their minds straight” before rejoining their colleagues as they steered the spacecraft back to safety.
‘An incredible effort’
Nowadays, Haise can joke about the mission.
“In truth, there were problems on every flight,” he said. “If you exclude the two missions that only had one spacecraft … Apollo 13 had the second least number of anomalies.”
But, he added with a smile, “It had a big one.”
That problem would have been fatal had it not been for the quick thinking and measured action at Mission Control.
The plaque, he said, was meant to honor an “incredible effort.”
“It was obviously an appreciation for that effort that was made during our flight to get us home,” he said.
As for the misspelling? “We were all engineers, so ...”