Q&A: an Apollo engineer
During the rescue of Apollo 13, thousands of people helped to bring the crew home. We talk to one of them who was in Houston at the time of the accident
How were you involved with Apollo 13?
I was the spacecraft alarm system engineer for the Apollo Program, the person responsible for the design and operation of the Apollo spacecraft alarm system and setting the criteria that would ring an alarm the astronauts could respond to. During the missions, I was in the mission evaluation room. The room contained 70 engineers – not just NASA engineers but contractors too – with an intimate knowledge about every system; how it’s designed, how it’s tested, and its performance parameters.
What happened during the accident?
It was 9:08pm (local time in Houston) on 13 April 1970. I had my headset on. I was watching the consoles, the same display the flight controllers were seeing, and then all at once, I watched that console flicker,
like an old TV set. It recovered itself, but then I heard in my headset, “Houston, we’ve had a problem”.
What was the problem?
The alarm that came on was a main B bus undervolt – one of the two buses that carry power around the spacecraft had a low voltage. That got my attention. When I heard the call, I thought, ‘Oh no, it’s my system, I’ve caused the problem here!’ There were five or six different alarm lights turned on. I thought
it couldn’t really be that bad, but then [Apollo 13 commander] Jim Lovell said, “We see something venting”. That’s when I knew we had a real problem and it wasn’t my system: we’d have to work to get those guys and rescue them.
What was it like at Houston during that time?
Those first few hours were crucial, because decisions were happening very quickly. [Flight director] Gene Kranz was beautiful, telling everyone, “Let’s not be guessing anything.” People were talking over one another. It was a big job and lives were in the balance so you can understand there were a lot of concerns and people were trying to understand what was really going on. It was a little confusing, but most things had previously been done in simulations. That kept things organised, since most things had been practised. There was usually a backup procedure, a plan. The exceptions were solving the carbon dioxide-filter problem and charging the depleted entry batteries. The mission evaluation room team solved those problems.
What was it like when you realised they were successful?
When I saw those three parachutes deploy, it brought tears to my eyes. Compare that to 1967 when Apollo 1 caught fire, and we lost three guys on the launch pad,
when there was such sorrow. This time it was just wonderful to know that our team was able to save the crew, that we all worked together to save those three guys’ lives. We were beyond just being grateful; there was a satisfaction and a pride in the knowledge that everything we had done was because we’d taken the time to engineer things correctly.
How has the Apollo 13 rescue been remembered?
I submit to you that everybody equals the rescue of Apollo 13 to putting a man on the Moon. It was a
wonderful thing. There’s never been a real, exciting
movie made about Apollo 11, but that movie about Apollo 13 is still being watched over and over again. When men’s lives are threatened, and you see people work together to rescue them, it’s a story that really will never be forgotten. It’s as important
as the first person walking on the Moon.
How accurate was the movie Apollo 13?
They did a real good job of showing what was going on in the mission evaluation room. That part where
they make the square filters fit into the round holes on
the lunar lander, that was the mission evaluation room guys doing that, not Mission Control or the astronauts. That’s engineers who knew what things were on board
and how to jury-rig a system to make the filters fit.
The movie also does a real good job of capturing
Gene Kranz and [flight controller] Sy Liebergot, and
all the guys who helped bring those men back alive.