April 13, 1970
Trouble in Outer Space
After a normal day of traveling in outer space, something unthinkable occurred aboard Apollo 13 at 9pm eastern standard time.
The astronauts received an alert of a power failure in one of the ship’s power cells. The failure was caused by an explosion caused by a serious oxygen leak.
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- The Tribune – April 13, 1970
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- The Scranton Times – April 13, 1970
John Swigert radioed mission control and said “okay Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” To which Ground Controller Jack Lousma responded “this is Houston. Say it again please.” To which James Lovell responded “Houston we’ve had a problem. We’ve had a main B bus undervolt.”
Mission control and the astronauts immediately got to work on a solution to get the trio home.
Moon Rocks big hit
As Apollo 13 is heading back to the Moon, over 10,000 people filed through the Everhart Museum on the final day, April 12, to see the lunar samples that were returned to Earth just a year ago with the Apollo 11 mission.
Museum director William Speare reported that since the lunar rock exhibit opening, April 7, over 27,000 people have visited the exhibit.
Thousands of area residents lined up at Everhart Museum – some two, three, four and five abreast – Sunday, April 12, 1970 to see a moon rock taken from the Sea of Tranquility on the Apollo 11 mission.
It is interesting to note that before the last person in this line, which extends back to the parking lot, reached the front door of the museum, the Apollo 13 astronauts had soared about 20,000 miles closer to the moon. About 8,000 people passed through the museum’s doors on Sunday and between 25,000 to 30,000 during the last week. Times-Tribune Archives
Shopping List
Ground beef was 69 cents per pound, DelMonico steaks were $1.89 per pound, a pound of carrots were 10 cents, a pound package of margarine was 47 cents and a roll of Scott bathroom tissue was 10 cents (limit 3 per customer).
Related Material –
Apollo 13 In Real Time – a website that uses data, images, sound and video to recreate the mission – https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/
Apollo 13 video collection – collection of videos dealing with the mission – https://archive.org/details/jsc-pao-video-collection?and[]=Apollo+13+Resource+Reel&sin=&sort=-publicdate
Houston We Have A Podcast – a collection of Apollo related podcasts from the Johnson Space Center – https://www.nasa.gov/johnson/HWHAP/apollo50th
Apollo 13 Images of the Moon in 4k – https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13537
Old Forge Native looks back on mission control job during moon landing – Caitlin Heaney West – July 15, 2019
To The Moon and Chappaquiddick – Episode One of the Historically Hip podcast featuring Brian Fulton and Caitlin Heaney West – July 11, 2019
Brian Fulton has been the librarian at The Times-Tribune for the past 15 years. On his blog, Historically Hip, he writes about the great concerts, plays/musicals and celebrity happenings that have taken place throughout NEPA. He is also the co-host of the local history podcast, Historically Hip. He competed and was crowned grand champion on an episode of NPR quiz show “Ask Me Another.” Contact: bfulton@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9140; or @TTPagesPast
