(ORDO NEWS) — The farthest from Earth were the three Apollo 13 crew members, and this record was definitely unplanned.
Astronauts moved away from their home planet and the Moon every second for the reason that due to numerous failures in the control system, it was not possible to land or at least enter a stable orbit.
On April 11, 1970, the Apollo 13 spacecraft was successfully launched with James Lovell, John Swygert and Fred Hayes aboard. For almost two days everything was smooth, but then …
In the morning, at 047: 00: 07 flight time, the first malfunctions began to be observed in the service module, which the crew initially dealt with, strictly following instructions from the Control Center in Houston. However, gradually the solution to one problem began to lead to the emergence of two new ones. Despite the challenges and risks, the crew reported to the audience, smiling and telling that everything was going according to plan.
When Apollo 13 approached the Moon, there were already so many failures that they had to forget about landing. NASA had one task – to save people.
A headquarters for the leadership of the rescue operation was urgently created in the flight control center. The meeting was attended by flight curators, NASA executives, astronauts, engineers and designers from manufacturers.
The constant correction of the course of the spacecraft led to the fact that the crew moved 401,056 kilometers from the Earth!
Recall that the average distance between the Earth and the Moon is 384,400 kilometers.
Fortunately, the Apollo 13 crew was able to return to Earth, but this event left an unpleasant mark on the US lunar program.
By the way, many people know the phrase “Houston, we have a problem”, which has been distorted by the cinema. The original phrase, spoken by John Swigert, sounded a little different: “Houston, we just had a problem.”
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