Word: returning
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Dates: during 1970-1970
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Perhaps the largest audience in history watched the return, participating through TV's intimacy in every moment of the final, fiery descent. Journey's end was safe and all according to script, in sharp contrast to the crisis of mid-voyage, which had been full of unprecedented danger and breathtaking improvisation. The devastated service module, original source of the deadly hazard, peeled off properly. Aquarius, the lunar module that had served as savior instead of explorer, unzipped easily. The command unit Odyssey touched down within four miles of the U.S.S. Iwo Jima. Helicopter recovery ticked along as if automated. Soon...
...elevators, in restaurants, on the streets, the question was everywhere: "How are they doing?" A Chicago cab driver taking a fare to O'Hare Airport near the end of Apollo's ordeal suddenly turned off the expressway and drove to the nearest tavern so that he could watch the return on TV. The passenger protested, but decided to watch also...
...declared a national day of thanksgiving and prayer. At week's end he jetted off to Houston to hand out medals to NASA ground personnel, then took Mrs. Haise, Mrs. Lovell and the parents of John Swigert for a rendezvous with the Apollo crew in Hawaii. Of the safe return, Nixon said: "There is no question in my mind that for me, personally, this is the most exciting, the most meaningful day I have ever experienced...
...fuel cells, which produce the bulk of the command module's vital electrical power. It quickly became obvious that a moon landing was now out of the question; mission rules forbid a lunar landing if even one fuel cell becomes inoperative. The loss of two requires the earliest possible return to earth. Even worse, the second oxygen tank was now also rapidly spilling its precious cargo. Unless the venting could be stopped, there would soon be insufficient oxygen aboard Odyssey. Oxygen was essential not only for breathing; it would also be needed to react with hydrogen to produce power...
...small re-entry batteries, closed off its four back-up oxygen tanks, and transferred the precise alignment of the command module's "platform"?its complex of navigational gyroscopes and accelerometers?to a similar platform in the lunar lander. These last-minute maneuvers were vital to a successful return to earth. Apollo 13 could now be navigated from the lunar module, and the command module was assured of enough spare power for six hours of working life?more than enough time for the astronauts to re-enter the atmosphere and splash down in the ocean...