Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 16, 1994 TAG: 9407190023
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The three astronauts on board, Newsweek reported, "faced a death no man had ever died before - death in space, cold and alone, outward bound into the blackness of the void."
The story of the mission and its miraculous ending is told in the 90-minute special, "Apollo 13: To the Edge and Back," airing Wednesday on PBS (at 9 p.m. on WBRA-Channel 15).
Mission commander James Lovell remembers the miraculousness of his return with fellow astronauts Fred Haise and Jack Swigert.
"The explosion couldn't have happened at a better time," he said, "three-quarters of the way to the moon. If it had blown earlier, we wouldn't have had enough electrical power in the lunar module to get around the moon and back home again. If it had happened later, after we had landed on the moon or on the way back, we would not have had enough fuel in the lunar module to get home.
"The funny thing is that when it happened, I said to the guys: `This couldn't have happened at a worse time.'''
Faulty wiring had caused an oxygen tank to rupture, cutting off much of the astronauts' air, power and water. The cool strategies of the three men and their advisers at Houston's Mission Control managed to guide Apollo 13 to a successful splashdown.
After 24 years, Apollo 13 is finally getting its due. The mission has been neglected over the years, Lovell theorized, "because we like to forget our failures."
As an illustration, he points to the den in his home at Horseshoe Bay, Texas, which features numerous awards and trophies for his first three space flights - two Geminis and Apollo 8. The only recognition of Apollo 13 is a letter of congratulations from Charles A. Lindbergh.
During those four days of jeopardy in 1970, Lovell, Haise and Swigert faced the real possibility that they would die in their capsule.
"We all prayed in our own way," Lovell recalled. "I believed that God helped those who help themselves. We were so busy trying to help ourselves that I figured that was the best thing we could do.
"Fortunately, we never got into the position where we had no options. It was like playing solitaire: You always turned up a card that you could play someplace."
Lovell was interviewed while in Los Angeles to confer with filmmaker Ron Howard about an upcoming film based on the astronaut's book "Lost Moon," due from Houghton Mifflin on Oct. 20. Tom Hanks will play Lovell in the movie, with Bill Paxton as Haise and Kevin Bacon as Swigert.
After their retirements as astronauts, Lovell became a telephone executive, Swigert joined the Grumman Co., and Haise served in Congress until his death.
The three men had talked about writing a book together after their flight, but nothing came of it. But when Lovell retired in 1991, he began tinkering with one.
He joined with a writer, Jeffrey Kluger, and the book and movie deals were made on the basis of a chapter and outline.
Lovell, who will serve as technical adviser, is naturally delighted with the choice of Hanks to portray him.
"Hanks came down to my house in Horseshoe Bay for about four days," he said. "He came down to sort of get in the mold of the part he's going to play.
"I have an airplane, so I picked him up in Austin and flew him in the daytime. I don't think he's done much small-plane flying. I wanted him to get the feeling of what it's like to be a test pilot and an aviator and an astronaut, so I let him fly the airplane.
"That evening I said, `Don't have anything to drink.' We had dinner at home, then at 10 o'clock I took him to the airfield at Horsehoe Bay. We took off and I told him, `Tom, the space capsule is in darkness all the time. You see the sun, but there's no atmosphere to have nice blue skies. Essentially, you're going to be in the dark, except for stars occasionally.'
"I took him out west where there are no lights. We flew around, and I showed him the constellations and the stars that are used to navigate when we got on the back side of the moon and the sun wasn't there. I let him control the airplane, because it's a little bit like a spacecraft. He liked it a lot.''
by CNB