Apollo 13 - Fifty Years Ago

Power of the slide rule.

As I recall, they McGyver engineered the CO₂ scrubbing system...

Well, I was in grade school, and they let us watch the recently. And as I recall, they had a small window to enter the earth atmosphere, too shallow, it would bounce off into space,... to steep and it would burn up. It had to be just (baby bear ) right.

that aspect was in the movie too.

Simple fix...

When running duct work we used to do this all the time....

That's a very powerful scene.

I'm skeptical. Viewership of the launch was surpassed by "I Love Lucy". People were losing interest in the space program. I think they needed something to regain public interest (and tax dollars).

The chances of it being "just a stunt" to raise television viewing figures are incredibly low!

However, the suggestion does raise interesting questions as to the collective state of mind of television viewers of the time.

your starting conspiracy theories?...

To launch a rocket was always high risk...

By the time Apollo 13, it was well known people were losing interest in moon landings,... why?,... because it become routine. And when the explosion happened,... that drew attention, why?,... because it was no longer routine.

Here’s a thought to your conspiracies...

All very true, And still we can't have nice things at twice the price.

https://www.space.com/28411-spacex-boeing-nasa-space-race.html

Jan 30, 2015 · SpaceX will receive $2.6 billion of the $6.8 billion total in the contract, and Boeing will get $4.2 billion.

Looks good for May to June so far.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/04/13/bridenstine...

1 day ago · NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are training for the Crew Dragon test flight, which will be the first mission to launch astronauts into Earth orbit from U.S. soil since the retirement...

And still we can't have nice things at twice the price

I don’t really know what you mean by that...

Its a continuation of your thought brought up to date with current events. Boeing was given twice as much money to build ONLY the capsule. They still haven't had a successful test let alone actual flight.

Space X is building the capsule, (flight proven) the launch vehicle (designed and built specifically for manned spaceflight) and the launch complex (because, well we don't actually have one any more) for half of the price paid to Boeing which has yet failed to demonstrate the money was well spent.

Sometimes the lowest bidder is the best deal, when that bidder is not part of a corrupt government system.

That's all.

That is the problem with defense contractors... complacency...

On going on that same line of thought,... it was brought up that we could use the same technology we did 50 years ago to go to the moon.

that was shot down, because all the as built drawings, information were lost... none no longer existed... what NASA had or from the contractors.

I just can't fathom that. We lost the plans to the Saturn V? That's taking incompetence to a whole new level. "Man's greatest achievement" lost due to a filing error. LOL

I shouldn’t have simplified it as much, because its more complicated than that... and understandable so. But yes, in essence, the resources were lost.

Forbes has a good article on the reasons why.

Well take heart my friend. We are going back to space. We have a date!

https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-nasa-astronauts-demo-2-launch-date.html

I’m all for it...