Apollo 13 Character Analysis

Following the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union which ended with Apollo 11 successfully landing two people on the moon, NASA furthered space exploration by sending out Apollo 12 and 13. Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission to the moon, which carried Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise. After weeks of preparation, the mission was launched on April 11, 1970 and had appeared to be going successfully up until the oxygen tank in the service module rupture. For the next days leading up to the astronauts arriving back on earth, mission control and the crew (protagonist) have to fight the malfunctions of the module (antagonist) in order to keep the crew alive. Through trial and error, Ken Mattingly discovers a procedure

Ken Mattingly was one of the astronauts that was suppose to go on the Apollo 13 mission, but two days before they were suppose to launch Ken’s blood work came back and they thought once he got into space, he would get the measles. The group's commander Jim Lovell had the decision to cut Ken from Apollo 13 mission and have Jack Swigert instead or wait until the next mission and have the backup crew go. And so Jim chose to cut Ken from the mission and bring Jack. This impacted the whole team because with a new member it sets off the whole balance between knowing each members every move.

Apollo was the NASA space program that resulted in the first moon landing. The program's mission was the goal of the President John F. Kennedy who said, "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." The program had a total of eleven space flights beginning in 1968 and ending in 1972. Four flights were used to test equipment and the rest were used to land onto the moon. However, only six out of those seven actually made it to the moon. The third manned mission to the moon, Apollo 13, never made it. The mission was supposed to land in the Fra Mauro area on the moon's surface. However, oxygen tank No.2 exploded causing oxygen tank No.1 tank to fail leaving the command module 200,000 miles away from Earth without

Everything was going smoothly until about two days into the flight. “Houston, we have a problem said Jim Lovell” At first their intention was to land on the moon, but that was all about to change. When the Apollo 13 ship’s oxygen tank ruptured the crew had to find a way to survive.

During a live video broadcast the oxygen levels drop. Mission Control (led by Gene Kranz) springs into action, attempting to find some way to stop the leak. It is discovered that if they want to live, they will not reach the moon.

One reason why it was a successful mission is because they stayed alive throughout all of the many life threatening challenges they faced. They lost all other oxygen and power in their original spacecraft, so they had to move to a “back up”. A New York Times article that was written during the disaster says, “The Apollo 13 Astronauts, their lives threatened by a serious oxygen leak, were forced to evacuate their command ship late last night and use their intended moon-landing craft as a “lifeboat” for a fast return to the earth.” In their moon-landing craft they had to come up with creative solutions to fix the air

It got their immediate attention and, during the next few minutes as they and the ground controllers made a rapid assessment of the condition of the spacecraft, it became apparent that two of the three fuel cells in the Service Module had gone dead. At the moment, no one knew what had happened, but it became obvious that the crew was in serious trouble.3 If they were going to survive, they would need enough power, oxygen, and water for a four-day trip around the Moon and home to Earth. These requirements were beginning to be very hard to acquire because of the unhealthy Service Module. Power, oxygen, and water relied on the Service Module and without it they were going to be in terribly short supply of these

NASA employees were already under a ridiculous amount of pressure to complete the expedition to the moon before 1970, and the situation only became more dire on January 27, 1967 during a pre-flight test. With the first flight of the Apollo that would be controlled by the crew only a month away, this test was crucial to the success of the entire mission. During the test, however, the command module (the detachable control portion of a manned spacecraft) caught fire and the three astronaut crew members, Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee, were killed. After this tragedy, a mandatory federal investigation of the command module forced NASA to delay crewed send-offs. In the final product of the Apollo project, a lunar module (a small craft used for travelling between the moon’s surface) was utilized as opposed to a command module in order to prevent further incidents. Once investigations were complete on the accident, Dr. George E. Mueller, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, declared that the failed launch that had been meant for the astronauts who lost their lives in the fire was to be known as Apollo

In an instant, the Apollo 13 spacecraft pivoted from a moon-bound landing unit to a crippled vessel. While the spaceflight stands today as a demonstration of NASA innovation saving lives on the fly, Apollo 13 vividly illustrated the dangers of people working in space. First-time flyer Jack Swigert, 38, was initially the backup command module pilot. He joined the crew officially just 48 hours before the launch on April 11, 1970, after prime crew member Ken Mattingly was unwittingly exposed to the German measles. Since Mattingly had no immunity, NASA doctors yanked him from the mission over commander Jim Lovell 's protests. Lovell, 42, was the world 's most traveled astronaut. He had three missions and 572 spaceflight hours of experience. Lovell participated in Apollo 8, the first mission to circle the moon, and flew two Gemini missions including a 14-day endurance run. Rounding out the crew was Fred Haise, 36, who previously was a backup crewmember on Apollo 8 and 11. In the you tube video John F. Kennedy said “"No nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space...We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Kranz knew that every problem has a solution, or at least the damage could be managed. But you have to be

We were missing potable water, we had very limited power and we were losing cabin heat rapidly. Another rocket wouldn’t have been fast enough to get to us in time before we froze or died of dehydration. Before this expedition, I thought this was going to be one of the most amazing moments

Gene was trying to use the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) to save the astronauts by circling the moon to gain speed then redirecting the LEM towards earth. The LEM would be used to provide propulsion as well as life support for all three astronauts because their Command and Service Module (CSM) had been disabled due to the oxygen tank explosion. The LEM was supposed to be used to carry a crew of two (only) from the moons orbit to the surface of the moon and back not as a main space craft.

A leader is someone that puts everyone before themselves and tries their problems like Malcolm x or like martin Luther king a leader is what we need to get what we want in life the reason why I say this is because nowadays some people are misguided and end up going with white people.

The decision making process that was observed in this film was the captain of the team taking a stand and becoming the leader of the group to help everything run smoothly. He took over and made sure everyone who needs help was helped. He also got everyone together to search for any surviving passengers and to start looking

A leader is someone who should not only strive to teach others, but to learn from others as well. My friend, named Rose, is someone I'd consider a leader. I met her in ninth grade when she invited me to sit with her group for a Physics class since I was alone, showing that she is someone who's passionate about helping others.

Have you ever dreamed of going to space, or walking on the moon? Commander Jim Lovell and officers Fred Haise and Jack Swigert did that exact thing. They were the astronauts that went on a moon landing mission aboard Apollo 13. Many people believe that Apollo 13 was a failed mission, since the spacecraft had an explosion and they had to go straight home. Although, many other people believe that it was one of NASA’s greatest successes. Apollo 13 was truly one of NASA’s greatest successes.