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![]() Swigert joins Apollo 13 crew BY REGINALD TURNILL Reporting from Cape Kennedy Retro-posted: April 10, 1970
The decision to go ahead after switching a single crew member -- never done before in the whole of America's space programme -- was made by Dr Thomas Paine, head of the space agency NASA. For three days Swigert has been sweating it out in the simulator with Apollo 13's commander, Jim Lovell, and the other crew member, Fred Haise, trying to convince critical flight controllers, as well as his fellow astronauts, that in a crisis he could work with them just as well as Mattingly would have done after two years of intensive training.
Lovell himself, earlier in the week, favoured postponing the mission. Swigert, despite being the man who wrote the astronauts' text book on what action to take in any conceivable difficulty, had a tough job persuading Lovell, veteran of three previous flights, with a total of 570 hours in space, to change his mind. But he succeeded. At Houston a new plaque is being prepared, giving the corrected names of the crew, and will be flown to the Cape so that it can be left on the moon. So lift-off of Apollo 13 is now scheduled for 1313 hours Houston time. Jim Lovell's wife, Marilyn, has been asked if this worries her, and says she's not a bit concerned.
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About the author REGINALD TURNILL, 85 next month, is the world's oldest working space correspondent. As the BBC's Aerospace Correspondent, he covered the flight of Apollo 13 from Cape Kennedy (as it was known at the time) and mission control in Houston. MORE ![]() Flight Data File Mission: Apollo 13 Flight crew: James A. Lovell, Jr. John L. Swigert, Jr. Fred W. Haise Launch vehicle: Saturn V AS-508 Launch: 1913 GMT, April 11, 1970 Lunar landing site: Fra Mauro ![]() Pre-launch briefing The rocket - A description of the Saturn V launch vehicle. ![]() The launch - A brief story about what should happen during the departure from Earth. ![]() Jim Lovell - Meet the mission commander. ![]() Jack Swigert - Meet the command module pilot. ![]() Fred Haise - Meet the lunar module pilot. ![]() ![]() NewsAlert Sign up for our NewsAlert service and have the latest news in astronomy and space e-mailed directly to your desktop (free of charge). ![]() ![]() |
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