Apollo 13
April 15, 1970
The temperature inside Apollo 13 is down to 38 degrees Fahrenheit. The crew cannot sleep properly. They're dehydrated — rationing water. They're running on fumes and determination and the people at Mission Control who will not give up on them. One more day.
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Apollo 13
April 14, 1970
Mission Control engineers spent hours designing a way to make square carbon dioxide scrubber cartridges fit round holes, using only materials available on the spacecraft: cardboard, plastic bags, and tape. They called it the "mailbox." It worked. This is what saves people's lives: someone who knows enough to improvise.
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Apollo 13
April 14, 1970
The crew of Apollo 13 has moved into the Lunar Module Aquarius. It's a lifeboat. Designed for two men, two days. Three men, four days. Mission Control is rewriting every procedure in real time. I called in sick to work. I cannot leave the radio.
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Apollo 13
April 13, 1970
Something went very wrong on Apollo 13 tonight. An oxygen tank exploded 200,000 miles from Earth. Two of the three fuel cells are dead. The service module is venting into space. Three men are in a crippled spacecraft on the way to the Moon and nobody knows yet if they…
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Apollo 13
April 11, 1970
Apollo 13 launched today and the newspapers barely mentioned it. "Routine Moon mission," one headline said. Routine! I watched from home and felt obscurely offended on behalf of the crew. Three men are riding a Saturn V to another world. Nothing about this is routine. We've forgotten how hard this…
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Apollo 12
November 24, 1969
Apollo 12 splashed down safely yesterday. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean walked the Moon twice, visited Surveyor 3, and brought home 75 pounds of samples. Dick Gordon flew solo in orbit. Six men have now walked on the Moon. I keep saying this to myself: six men have walked on…
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Apollo 12
November 19, 1969
Pete Conrad landed the LM within 200 meters of Surveyor 3 — a precision landing NASA could barely believe. Then he stepped onto the Moon and said exactly what he'd bet a journalist he would say. "Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but it's a…
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Apollo 12
November 14, 1969
Apollo 12 launched today into a stormy sky. Thirty-six seconds after liftoff, lightning struck the Saturn V. Twice. The spacecraft lost power to most of its systems. Mission Control nearly called an abort. One flight controller — twenty-six-year-old John Aaron — knew exactly which switch to throw. They continued to…
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Apollo 11
July 25, 1969
Apollo 11 splashed down safely on Thursday. Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins are home. But last night I walked outside and looked up at the Moon, and it was different. It looked different. Not because anything had changed about the Moon. Because something had changed about me. About us. It's not…
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Apollo 11
July 21, 1969
Neil Armstrong descended the ladder of the Eagle at 10:56 PM Eastern and stepped onto the Moon. His first words: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Buzz Aldrin followed twenty minutes later. I watched on television, the picture grainy and miraculous, and I kept thinking:…
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