Apollo 13 Manual: An engineering insight into how NASA saved the crew of the crippled Moon mission

Description

On 13 April 1970, Apollo 13 suffered a near-catastrophic explosion. The planned lunar landing was instantly called off and the new challenge was to get the spacecraft safely back to Earth. When the carbon dioxide in the three astronauts' exhaled breath threatened to asphyxiate them, the crew improvised a filter device, which had been tested in Mission Control, to make the air breathable. Only hours before hurtling back into the atmosphere did they power up the Apollo spacecraft again - not knowing if it had been fatally damaged in the explosion. Here is the in-depth, inside technical story of how a potential disaster became NASA's finest hour, told by a member of the team working in Mission Control during the crisis to ensure the astronauts' safety.

Dr David Baker, an Englishman, worked for NASA on the Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle programmes between 1965 and 1990, and was part of the team within Houston Mission Control throughout the Apollo 13 mission. He has written more than 80 books on spaceflight technology and this is his fourth Haynes manual, following NASA Mars Rovers Manual, International Space Station Manual and NASA Space Shuttle Manual. He lives in East Sussex.