THE ULTIMATE
Today is the 50th Anniversary of the return to Earth of the sticken NASA spacecraft mission Apollo 13.
The crew of Apollo 13 - Lovell, Swigert and Haise - experienced an explosion in their Supply Module's oxygen tanks as they headed to orbit the moon, and reported to Mission Control - 'Houston we've had a problem'. The three astronauts were left in space, reducing their energy consumption and preventing their carbon dioxide levels climbing too high, whilst NASA officials in Houston tried to figure out ways to get offset the problem and return the astronauts to Earth - by only using what the astronauts had on board. Whilst the astronauts hung in space, their fate uncertain the world united below praying for their safe return. NASA worked out how the astronauts could create a do-it-yourself carbon dioxide filtration unit, by ripping up manuals and other equipment and using tape. This was one of only a series of problems the crew faced as their moon landing was cancelled and they readied for re-entry into the Eart's atmosphere - and the splashdown in the ocean. The mission events were turned into a major film in the 1990s directed by Ron Howard, with film stars Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon - the film altered the report of the explosion to Mission Control to the now poularly quoted 'Houston We Have a Problem', and created the phrase 'Failure is not an Option', which Gene Kranz the Nasa Flight Director for both Apollo X1 and XIII used as the title for his biography in 2000 - though he didn't use the phrase at the time, it did sum up what the atmosphere of the NASA teams.
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