Word: commandment
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Dates: during 1970-1970
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About 30,000 miles from earth, the astronauts began preparing for their final separation maneuver. Climbing into Odyssey, they switched on its oxygen tanks and batteries and sealed the hatch shut. Then the crew exploded the small bolts connecting the command module with the LM. Propelled by the release of air in the connecting tunnel, the Aquarius drifted rapidly away, its lifeboat function reliably and amply fulfilled. "LM jettison," reported Apollo 13. "O.K.," replied Mission Control. "Farewell, Aquarius, and we thank...
With its normal heat-producing systems shut off to conserve electricity, the Odyssey's temperature dropped to nearly 40°. Had it continued to fall, the command module's chemical propellants might have thickened to the point where control thrusters would no longer have been able to perform the critical re-entry maneuvers...
Picking up speed under the increasing pull of the earth's gravity, Apollo was now rapidly approaching its narrow re-entry slot. To make sure of a precise reentry, Lovell and Haise fired one more brief burst from Aquarius' thrusters. Swigert meanwhile took up his post in the command module pilot's seat. Looking out of the window, he commented: "That earth is whistling in like a high-speed train...
...minutes later, Apollo 13 began its novel separation procedures. Again hitting the thrusters, Lovell forced Aquarius against the command and service modules. Almost simultaneously, Swigert fired several explosive bolts, detaching the service module from Odyssey. Lovell also fired the LM's thrusters again. The "push-pull" tactic shoved the service module away from Aquarius and Odyssey, enabling the astronauts to see the disabled module for the first time. It was an incredible sight. The module had lost an entire 15-foot-long panel covering Bay 4, and a tangle of wiring and debris trailed out of the gaping hole. Using...
...JOHN L. SWIGERT JR., 38, command-module pilot, has very little in common with the man he replaced beyond the fact that both are bachelors. Ken Mattingly is serious and studious. Swigert is a not-so-secret swinger with the reputation of having a girl in every (air) port. Swigert's favorite ploy, his friends say, is to invite girls to his apartment to see what he claims are his moon rocks. For all his bachelor antics, however, Swigert is a highly skilled former Air Force flyer and civilian test pilot with degrees in mechanical engineering, aerospace science...