Apollo 13 (1995)

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Overview:

A 1995 film that follows the true events of Apollo 13, a mission to the moon that turned into a mission to save the brave astronauts who volunteer to push the boundaries of what's possible. Directed by Ron Howard and based on the book partially written by astronaut Jim Lovell, commander during the Apollo 13 mission, Apollo 13 balanced a story based on fact with drama of a captivating story in space.

Plot Summary

In 1961 the Soviets were winning the "space race" after finally launching a human successfully into space. President Kennedy challenged the United States to push the limits of knowledge in order to be the first to land a man on the moon. The path wasn't easy and after an early disaster with Apollo 1 in which three astronauts were killed during a launch pad drill. But on July 20th, 1969, Jim Lovell is throwing a party at his house with his friends, family, and coworkers, all astronauts themselves. Lovell had already been up in Apollo 8 and with his family watched in awe as Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the moon.

Days later Lovell is at the vehicle assembly building giving a tour when the director of flight crew operations, Deke Slayton pulls Jim aside. Lovell and his crew have been pushed up a mission and will now go up on Apollo 13. Jim and his crew, Ken Mattingly and Fred Haise, begin their training. After months of getting to know how each other will react and getting the motions of the mission down the doctors at NASA threaten to pull the plug. It turns out Mattingly has contracted the measles and will have to be replaced by a member of the backup crew, Jack Swigert. As the days for the launch approach their training renews to get used to the new member.

On April 11, 1970 the crew is ready and prepared for launch. Gene Kranz is in Houston at NASA mission control is go for launch. The launch goes off without a hitch and its only until the crew is reaching Earth orbit one of the five engines cut out, after getting confirmation that the Saturn V rocket has enough power to continue on so does Apollo 13. They move on to detaching and docking with Aquarius the lunar module, the vehicle that will allow the actual moon landing.

About three days into the mission a scheduled broadcast begins from in Odyssey, the command module, with what Lovell and the crew believe to be a national broadcast. But as Lovell's wife, Marilyn, and the other family of the crew realize is that the networks weren't broadcasting the footage. They believed most Americans found space travel and moon landings to be routine and boring.

With the broadcast and antics over the Apollo 13 crew go back to daily operations. Swigert is asked to stir liquid oxygen tanks on the lunar module, Aquarius. Due to what is now believed to be faulty wiring, one of the tanks explodes. In the ensuing panic the ship is sent careening off course and begins leaking oxygen from the remaining tank. With the Aquarius seemingly crippled NASA decides a full abort of the moon landing and to begin to bring the crew home.

The first step is to power up Aquarius and shut down Odyssey so Odyssey has enough power to reenter the atmosphere. Mission control begins the debate on how to return the astronauts safely and the plan comes down to slingshotting the crew around the moon, using the moon's gravity for propulsion. As the crew travel around the dark side of the moon, mission control finds Mattingly to draft him into finding a power up procedure for Odyssey when the time comes.

Realizing power is a scant resource the crew must power down most of Aquarius, including the heaters, allowing the cold of space in. NASA discovers another problem, the carbon dioxide levels inside the modules is increasing. The filters in Aquarius were never made to handle more than two people, expecting Swigert to be piloting Odyssey as Lovell and Haise were on the moon. The NASA engineers come up with a new filter literally fitting the Odyssey's square filters into a round hole just in time as the carbon dioxide reaches dangerous levels.

Another problem is the course Apollo 13 is on but with the guidance computer down, and can't be turned on due to power restraints, the crew must make a limited course correction to ensure they reenter the Earth's atmosphere at the right angle. Mattingly, on the other hand, is tackling yet another problem, the start up procedure for the Odyssey. With only limited power the Odyssey can only have a handful of systems turned on and in the right order for the batteries to last until reentry is complete. After hours of running simulations, Mattingly finally gets the exact procedure down and rushes to mission control.

With Odyssey's heatshield possibly damaged in the initial explosion nothing is for sure as the crew detach from Aquarius, and view the damage done. During the reentry radio silence, which lasts an unusual long time, everyone waits with bated breath. Finally Odyssey is seen floating down and splashing into the Pacific ocean safely.