Page 4 - My FlipBook

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EXPLOSION IN SPACE

Man must rise above the Earth, to the top of

the clouds and beyond, for only thus will he

fully understand the world in which he lives.

—Socrates, 399 BCE

n the evening of April 13, 1970, three astronauts floated
Oaround the Apollo 13 spacecraft in zero gravity. Jim
Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert were on their way to
the moon.

THE CREW
Flight commander Lovell knew from an early age that he would
make rocket science his life’s work. As a boy, he read every book
about rocketry he could find. In high school, with the help of his
chemistry teacher and two friends, he built a rocket. The teens
took it to an empty field, packed it with homemade gunpowder,
and lit the fuse. The rocket blasted 80 feet (24 m) in the air,
zigzagged a bit, wobbled, and exploded. Lovell was hooked.
After high school, Lovell studied engineering at the University
of Wisconsin. Then he transferred to the US Naval Academy at
Annapolis where he wrote his senior thesis on liquid-fuel rocketry.
After graduation, he entered the naval flight-training program and

Apollo 13 4