Apollo13

Emma Kulick History Period 6 Extra Credit Movie Review // Apollo 13 //

 Astronaut Jim Lovell, played by Tom Hanks, desperately wants to walk on the moon, especially after seeing Neil Armstrong be the first human to do so for. It seems like his wish will be granted when he and his crew have been accepted to be the crew of Apollo 13. Lovell, Fred Haise, and Ken Mattingly now begin training for Apollo 13 instead of Apollo 14. But then the problems begin; at Cape Kennedy, only two days before launch, Lovell is informed by flight doctors that Mattingly had been exposed to measles. Lovell is forced to make the decision to bump Mattingly off the flight. He is replaced by Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert; Haise and Mattingly are not at all pleased with this. The next morning, the three astronauts are launched into orbit. All seems to be well, despite some space sickness from Haise. Then the first problem occurs; the middle engine cuts off prematurely during its intended burn, causing some concern, but the astronauts make it to orbit without any more problems and Swigert safely maneuvers the Apollo Command Module to dock with the Lunar Module //Aquarius.// On the third day of the mission, the crew broadcasts a television program to Earth from their spacecraft. They don’t realize that most of the major networks have refused to air the program, feeling the public has come to view spaceflight as "routine.” Afterwards, the crew runs a routine in-flight checkup. When Swigert is asked to stir the oxygen tanks there is an explosion in the Service Module. The crew and Mission Control are shocked and scared when they find that the oxygen tanks aboard //Odyssey// are leaking. This prompts Mission Control to call off the moon landing, and the crew begins shutting down //Odyssey// and powering up //Aquarius// to act as a “lifeboat” so the crew can get home safely. Back on Earth, Commander John Young enlists Mattingly to help prepare procedures to restart the //Odyssey// once the crew is near Earth. At the same time, the Apollo 13 crew shuts down //Odyssey//, powers up //Aquarius// and orients the spacecraft so that it passes around the dark side of the moon. To make matters worse, Haise has a high fever and the conditions inside the cabin are freezing. Despite these odds, the crew succeeds in righting their spacecraft. As the spacecraft nears Earth, Mattingly and his team struggle to find a way to power up the Command Module with what little power is left on the badly crippled spacecraft. Mattingly gets an ingenious idea and discovers a way to revive the //Odyssey// using items that are on board the spacecraft. Power-up procedures are completed, and Mattingly instructs the crew on how to revive their craft. At last the crew straps in for their descent into the atmosphere and back to Earth. When the //Odyssey// re-enters the Earth's atmosphere, they go through over four minutes of radio blackout; three minutes is normal for re-entry. But at last the crew reports that they have made it back to Earth safely. Everyone at Mission Control and in the homes of the astronauts' families celebrates. You also find out what the Apollo 13 astronauts went on to do.

I learned some interesting things about history from this film. Apollo 13 was the third manned mission by NASA. It was intended to land on the moon, but experienced a technical malfunction that forced the lunar landing to be called off. The crew was made up of Commander James A. Lovell, Command Module pilot John L. Swigert and Lunar Module pilot Fred W. Haise. Lovell never walked on the moon, but instead became President of Fisk Telephone Systems, Inc. in Houston, Texas. On January 1, 1981, he was appointed Group Vice President, Business Communications Systems, a Centel Corporation. He retired from Centel Corp as Executive Vice President and member of Board of Directors on January 1, 1991. John Swigert took a leave of absence from NASA in April 1973 to become Executive Director of the Committee on Science and Technology for the U.S. House of Representatives. He resigned from NASA and the committee in August 1977 and entered politics. In 1979 he became Vice President of B.D.M. Corporation in Golden, Colorado. He was later elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 1982 but died about a month later of bone cancer before he could be sworn in. Haise was technical assistant to the Manager of the Space Shuttle Orbiter Project from April 1973 to January 1976. He was commander of one of the two 2-man crews who piloted space shuttle approach and landing test flights during the from June through October 1977. Haise resigned from NASA in June 1979 to become Vice-President of Space Programs at Grumman Aerospace Corporation.

//Apollo 13// was face paced, funny, moving, and very suspenseful. I enjoyed it a lot. It was well acted and exciting, and I thought it was to see interesting how the events affected the families of the astronauts. The music was good and added to the tension in the movie. I also liked how realistic it was; the movie remained pretty true to the actual events that occurred. Overall, this was an action filled and patriotic movie that I thought was really worth watching!