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50 Years Ago: Apollo 13 and German Measles
From https://www.nasa.gov/feature/50-years-ago-apollo-13-and-german-measles
50 Years Ago: Apollo 13 and German Measles
Or how a 3-year-old boy changed NASA’s plans for Apollo 13
NASA History
April 2, 2020
The last few days before launch Apollo crews typically finished up any last minute training and also found time to get a little rest before the big day. Not so much with Apollo 13, scheduled to lift off on April 11, 1970. As the prime crew of Commander James A. Lovell, Command Module Pilot (CMP) Thomas K. “Ken” Mattingly, and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Fred W. Haise and backups John W. Young, John L. “Jack” Swigert, and Charles M. Duke finished training, one astronaut’s illness exposed the rest to an infectious disease resulting in an unprecedented change of crewmembers two days before launch. Meanwhile, at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), on April 5 engineers began the extended countdown for the launch of Apollo 13, with the terminal countdown beginning April 10, preparing the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo spacecraft for the launch and trip to the Moon. Initial steps included loading kerosene fuel into the rocket’s first stage and activating the Command and Service Module to begin the checkout of the spacecraft’s systems.
Left [above]: Original Apollo 13 crew (left to right) Haise, Lovell and Mattingly pose
in front of their Saturn V rocket. Right [not shown]: The Apollo 13 Saturn V on the
eve of the launch.
After participating in the Countdown Demonstration Test (CDDT) on March 26, the astronauts resumed their training in the final two weeks before launch. Lovell, Haise, Young and Duke finished their final training for the lunar surface Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVAs), Young completed his last training flights in the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV), and all spent time in the Command Module (CM) and Lunar Module (LM) simulators and reviewing procedures and the overall flight plan. They also maintained their flying skills during flights aboard T-38 Talon jets. The orderly sequence of events was disturbed when Duke fell ill on Sunday April 5, just six days before the planned liftoff.
[...]
Or how a 3-year-old boy changed NASA’s plans for Apollo 13
NASA History
April 2, 2020
The last few days before launch Apollo crews typically finished up any last minute training and also found time to get a little rest before the big day. Not so much with Apollo 13, scheduled to lift off on April 11, 1970. As the prime crew of Commander James A. Lovell, Command Module Pilot (CMP) Thomas K. “Ken” Mattingly, and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Fred W. Haise and backups John W. Young, John L. “Jack” Swigert, and Charles M. Duke finished training, one astronaut’s illness exposed the rest to an infectious disease resulting in an unprecedented change of crewmembers two days before launch. Meanwhile, at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), on April 5 engineers began the extended countdown for the launch of Apollo 13, with the terminal countdown beginning April 10, preparing the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo spacecraft for the launch and trip to the Moon. Initial steps included loading kerosene fuel into the rocket’s first stage and activating the Command and Service Module to begin the checkout of the spacecraft’s systems.
Left [above]: Original Apollo 13 crew (left to right) Haise, Lovell and Mattingly pose
in front of their Saturn V rocket. Right [not shown]: The Apollo 13 Saturn V on the
eve of the launch.
After participating in the Countdown Demonstration Test (CDDT) on March 26, the astronauts resumed their training in the final two weeks before launch. Lovell, Haise, Young and Duke finished their final training for the lunar surface Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVAs), Young completed his last training flights in the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV), and all spent time in the Command Module (CM) and Lunar Module (LM) simulators and reviewing procedures and the overall flight plan. They also maintained their flying skills during flights aboard T-38 Talon jets. The orderly sequence of events was disturbed when Duke fell ill on Sunday April 5, just six days before the planned liftoff.
[...]