Document-Based Questions - Debra J. Housel, M.S. Ed. 2008

“Houston, We’ve Had a Problem”
True Survival Stories

Jim Lovell was 200,000 miles from Earth. But suddenly he and his two crew members, Fred Haise and John Swigert had just one hour and 52 minutes of oxygen left. Lovell knew the only way they would survive was to stay calm. It was April 1970, and he was in command of the Apollo 13 lunar mission.

Lovell had been on three prior missions. Each of those missions had gone off without a hitch. Apollo 13 had planned to land two men on the moon. But just 56 hours into the flight, an explosion rocked the service module. It caused a huge drain of oxygen and electrical power. Swigert radioed NASA and said, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”

Lovell and his men left the main ship. They got into the lunar module (LM). This tiny craft was meant to land on the moon. It was built to keep two men alive for two days. Now three men sat inside it. They were four days away from home.

Getting into the LM kept them from suffocating. Now NASA engineers had to find a way to keep the men breathing with a small supply of oxygen. At the same time, scientists went to work. They did long math calculations. They figured out when the men should fire their rockets and what course they should take.

Making the remaining oxygen last was of top importance. To do this, a filter had to be made. Luckily NASA engineers had a detailed list of what was on board. They knew every item they had to work with. A ground team designed and built the filter. They used just the things that the astronauts had. Then they radioed instructions to the crew.

The cardboard from an instruction manual formed part of the filter. Special thermal underwear was aboard with thin tubing woven into the fabric. Water would flow through these tubes to keep the men cool as they worked on the moon. Now the underwear was unneeded. But its plastic tubing was used in the filter. It took the three men one hour to make it. Lovell said later, “It wasn’t handsome, but it worked.”

The men had to circle the moon. Just before reentering Earth’s atmosphere, the crew cast off the service and lunar modules. They made a safe landing in the command module. They splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. Some people think that bringing the Apollo 13 crew home safely was NASA’s finest hour.

The Daily Star     June 27, 1995      5B

Since You Want My Opinion

My money’s on Apollo 13 being the best film this year. Don’t be surprised to see multiple Oscar nominations. I went in knowing the ending, and it still managed to keep me on the edge of my seat. The film has the feel of science fiction suspense, but it’s actually a true tale of amazing heroism and inventiveness.

Ron Howard expertly directs Apollo 13, a film documenting the near-fatal 13th mission of the Apollo space program. Tom Hanks is outstanding in the role of Jim Lovell, the commander of the mission. The rest of the cast gives great performances as well.

Many Americans already know Apollo 13’s saga. In April 1970, the Apollo 13 spacecraft blasted off with a three-man crew. They were to be the third group to walk on the moon. By then, a moon landing was so commonplace that the launch wasn’t broadcast on television. But on the way, an oxygen tank exploded. The men had to forget their moon landing. Worse, it was unlikely that they could get home. Their determined struggle to return to Earth is one of the most heart-stopping, heroic stories of modern times.

The film details what happens after the explosion. It shows the tension on the ground as Mission Control members race to design a makeshift filter and make painstakingly accurate mathematical calculations. It details the distress of the men’s wives who must deal with the fact that they may never return while the media constantly pesters them.

The real tension is felt in the scenes inside the spaceship. Howard’s use of special effects gives you the feeling that you are there. The men shut down all nonessential systems to save power. You shiver as they nearly freeze to death inside the unheated space module. You swallow hard as they cobble a carbon dioxide filter to keep from suffocating. You’re gripping the arms of your seat when you find they must make course corrections with a malfunctioning computer.

Go see Apollo 13; you’ll be glad you did. I usually don’t like sitting through movies that go over two hours. This one is 140 minutes, but I guarantee you’d need a heart of stone to get restless.

1. The astronauts first knew that they had trouble when

a. the service module blew up.

b. Houston contacted them and told them that there was a problem.

c. they started losing oxygen and electricity rapidly.

d. they began to suffocate.

2. The astronauts safely landed in the ocean in the

a. main ship.

b. service module.

c. lunar module.

d. command module.

3. How did the makeshift filter help the crew?

a. It gave them more electrical power.

b. It let them have enough oxygen

to get home.

c. It kept the spacecraft from overheating.

d. It gave them something to do so that they wouldn’t panic.

4. Teamwork saved the crew of the Apollo 13 mission. True or False? Explain.

5. List three compliments that the movie reviewer includes to encourage readers to go see Apollo 13

6. There are several books written about Apollo 13, two of them by Commander Jim Lovell. Which would help you to better understand what the astronauts went through: watching the film Apollo 13 or reading one of these books? Why?