April 17, 2013 (Wednesday)
“Our mission was called ‘a successful failure'” – Jim Lovell
Forty-three years ago on this day in 1970, the Apollo 13 crew landed safely in the South Pacific, after a tension-filled week in space. The crew, James Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise, had cooperated with thousands of engineers, designers, ground support crew members, backup team members, and others as the world sat breathless, watching and listening as they all worked together to solve problems and bring the flight crew home safely.
An oxygen tank exploded and Swigert reported, “OK Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” A 1995 movie puts the words into Lovell’s mouth and edits them as, “Houston, we have a problem.” According to the experts, the movie basically presents the facts, with some dramatic license. The film was nominated for many awards and it successfully projected the emotions of the week onto the silver screen.
Once it became clear that the mission was in serious trouble and the lives of the crew endangered, many improvisations were made as the mission changed from moon exploration to survival of the crew. So many factors came into play that one could not possibly mention them all in a simple blog, but the web is filled with articles that describe them in detail.
Suffice it to say that on April 17, 1970, people around the world, and especially those in the U.S.A., breathed a collective sigh of relief when the astronauts were safely on board the ship that stood by to retrieve them.
Devotional Thought:
We are not astronauts whose lives are endangered, but we are the same kind of people to whom God spoke in the past: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10 NIV). Nelson Mandela said, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”