Danger in Space by Henry M. Holden

Author:Henry M. Holden [Holden, Henry M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4645-0980-3
Publisher: Enslow Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2013-05-08T16:00:00+00:00

No one in Houston knew if the heat shield and the command module would hold up under the force of reentry. On Friday, April 17, about four hours before Apollo 13 was to reenter the atmosphere, the crew released the service module. Houston had insisted on keeping it until the last minute. No one knew what the cold in space might do to the unprotected heat shield. If it was damaged, it could not be fixed. It would mean certain death for the crew on reentry.

The astronauts watched the damaged module float away. They took photographs hoping that they might be able to help figure out what had happened eighty-two hours earlier. The explosion had been a large one. The crew could see pieces of insulation, broken wires, and a charred black hole where the oxygen tank had been. “I’m glad we weren’t able to see the SM earlier. With one whole panel missing, and wreckage hanging out, it was a sorry mess as it drifted away,” Lovell said later.3

About three hours later, the crew opened the hatch and floated from Aquarius into the command module. When the crew entered Odyssey, they found the walls, ceiling, floor, and panels all covered with droplets of water. They wondered if the water would cause electrical short circuits and perhaps a fire.

Slowly, one system at a time, they powered up the command module. There were no short circuits, and everything was working. They closed the hatch between Aquarius and Odyssey and flipped a switch. The lunar module blasted away from the command module. The fragile Aquarius, without a heat shield, would burn up in the atmosphere.

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