The heroes were silent in the Apollo 13 disaster

Two days after departing for an expedition to the moon, the disaster struck Apollo 13. A new movie that exploited this theme and astronaut Jim Lovell recounted his incredible efforts to bring the crew back. about.

On April 14, 1970, Apollo 13 spacecraft crew, including Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise - were on the second flight day, "sailing smoothly" on the journey to the moon. That early morning, at the control center located in Houston, in charge of communications (Capcom) of the ship - Joe Kerwin reported that the ship "was in good condition" and joked with the crew: "Here we are I'm tired of being bored ".

In fact, NASA's third moon mission did not attract public attention at the time. Sharing with BBC Future, Lovell (apparently younger than twenty years old compared to his 89-year-old age) said: "People are bored. The information about Apollo 13's flight can be found on the weather page. of the newspaper.

At the time of 55 hours 46 minutes of the journey, the crew ended the live broadcast with the earth. They led viewers to visit the control module (the command module) and the moon lander. There are no broadcast channels for the program.

Jim Lovell (left) said the public was no longer interested in American space programs.(Photo: NASA).

Sy Liebergot, who sits at the control panel of the Electrical and Media (Eecom) panel, said: "No one in the media was at the control center. They found the public not to be excited about them. I go to or land on the moon ".

Having just graduated from university, Liebergot is one of dozens of young people - most of them in their 20s - being recruited into the control center. Liebergot is responsible for the status of the Life Support System on the Apollo spacecraft. He participated in a new documentary: Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo (Temporarily translated: Apollo's unsung heroes).

The idea of ​​monitoring flights into space with manned space from a room with a series of orders is clearly Chris Kraft. He said the flight monitoring system was like an orchestra, a collection of separate parts and controlled by a "conductor" - the flying director.

All orders are made during the flight and notified to the crew via a Capcom - usually an astronaut. Liebergot said: "We are on the ground but understand the ship and its operation more than the crew. Handling the problem - that's our mantra."

Everything can be done to eliminate inappropriate errors or decisions.

Before the crew took a rest that night, in charge of contact Jack Lousma asked: "(Apollo) 13, we want you to do another thing, which is to stir cryo-compartments".

Apollo 13 should have been the third time to set up the moon.(Photo: NASA).

The cryo chambers belong to the spacecraft service module run by Liebergot, which contains oxygen and hydrogen gas. These gases will be converted into electricity and water in three fuel tanks for spacecraft and drinking water for astronauts. Enabling the stirring of cryo chambers to ensure the fluid in the chambers is mixed well, helps the meter give accurate results.

Swigert turned on the power to turn off the stirring fan. 2 minutes later, an explosion sounded and the alarm sounded.

At the ground monitoring center, Liebergot is only one hour away from his 8-hour shift, and is also the first to witness the incident."The indexes went crazy, there were a lot of changes in the room at the time. We didn't know what we were seeing," Liebergot said.

The last 8 hours of singing ends after 3 days.

Lovell told the monitoring center: "Houston, we have a problem. Looks like, look at the door, we're discharging something. We're discharging something into space."

The crew drifted on the moon landing ship.(Photo: NASA).

Lovell said: "When the explosion rang out, we did not know what happened. When we saw oxygen leaked and watched on the dashboard, we lost all the oxygen in a container. It happened so fast and I realized we were in serious trouble. "

TV stations scrambled to report, suspending other programs to turn the control center. Flight CEO - Gene Kranz urged his group to focus on "dealing with the problem". Everyone in the room is instructed to talk through headphones, call the support team and determine what is happening.

Liebergot said: "We always thought we had to bring the crew back safely. That's the philosophy of flight supervisors."

Flight monitoring team races with time to bring the ship back.(Photo: Nasa).

Lovell, not 200,000 miles from Earth (322,000km), does not calm down."We do not have any solution to be able to come back, nor do we know exactly what to do. That is probably the worst thing in the flight when thinking about not knowing if I can return. Earth or not ".

Responsible for the faulty system, Liebergot's task now is to try to save as much oxygen as possible to power the damaged ship. His plan is to apply the emergency cycle in the case of fuel tank errors to reduce consumption with the remaining fuel tank.

Liebergot said: "This is to keep the fuel chamber in the control module maintained long enough for astronauts to enter the moon landing vessel and operate the systems there. follow a tight crisis handling process to keep the fuel compartment active ".

In space, the crew cannot be suspended to wait for instructions. They began moving to the lunar lander although Lovell soon realized it would not be pleasant at all.

Whether or not it works, this is the solution to being able to return to earth.

"The lunar lander is quite limited. It is designed to support only two people during a 2-day period. Our crew has 3 people and it is expected to take 4 days to return" , Lovell said.

"Eventually we had to accept that we could not land on the moon, that mission was over. The decision is now to circle the moon to return to Earth , " Liebergot said.

The next few days, the flight supervisors worked around the clock, taking a few minutes of sleep under the desk to try to bring Apollo 13 crew home. There are many problems to "handle" . They plan to burn the propulsion to continue the journey, calculating to ensure the astronauts' safety by using plastic shields, old socks and adhesive tape to install the CO ₂ treatment squares that are taken from the control module to the circular processing tank holes of the moon lander.

"It was a combination of the two groups. One group sat in a pleasant room, had hot coffee and cigars, trying to think of how to get the astronauts back. The other group was in a cold spaceship, Wet and trying to follow the instructions given, " Lovell said.

The joy of successfully rescuing the crew.

Even if Liebergot's team Eecom succeeded in securing the ship's energy to safety, there was no guarantee the crew could survive. To save fuel, the control center is forced to use electricity to keep the system warm.

Lovell said: "If the cannon fired despite not succeeding, we could still go but it would be too fast to land."

Only on April 17, when television viewers around the world watched the Apollo 13 launch out of the clouds with three parachute plunges into the Pacific Ocean, the flight control officers knew they were successful. The crew became international heroes. After the cigar "party" in the executive room, Liebergot and team Eecom went to sleep. A few days later, they returned to work, planning the next task.

The rescue of three astronauts makes the space program return to the front page in newspapers.(Photo: Getty Images).

Today, you can see women or men behind the control panel of the control center. However, the principle created by Chris Kraft in the 1960s is still maintained. Each flight - or mission, mission - is a team effort. Behind each astronaut are hundreds of people trying their best to make sure they return safely to earth.

Saying Lovell, the Apollo 13 mission lies in its "glorious" moments. Recalling after many years, Apollo 13's explosion is probably the best thing that can happen to the space program , " Lovell said.