The Race To Save Apollo 13
The story about Apollo 13 by Michael Useem is very dramatic and suspenseful. It is also very interesting. The story starts on April 11, 1970. It is about Gene Kranz and his space team trying to get Apollo 13 land back to Earth safely. Apollo 13's original goal was to get to the moon but unfortunately, an accident happened. A damaged Teflon insulation made two wires to short circuit, which caused the explosion of the tank. Kranz was the flight director for Apollo 13, which makes him the responsible official, and he knew that no matter what, Apollo 13 would crash, but that didn't make him give up. This conflict has caused many people to panic and work under pressure while having 3 astronauts’ lives at stake. Kranz brought more people in and created a new team called the “Tiger Team”. The people on the team had to be experienced in doing calculations, cool under pressure, intelligent and, be able to answer fast questions. After a while, the crew jettisoned the Lunar Module Aquarius, leaving the command module odyssey and began its lone re-entry through the atmosphere. In the end, the 3 astronauts landed safely and all in one piece in the South Pacific Ocean.
The major characters in the story were Gene Kranz, George Bliss, and John Aaron. Gene Kranz was the flight director of the mission. He led the other 3 astronauts during the mission. Gene Kranz shows perseverance because even though they had many problems during the mission, he kept on going no matter what and never gave up. George Bliss was the technician during the mission. With all the technical difficulties that they had, George Bliss helped with those technical difficulties. John Aaron is the Maroon Team’s 27-year-old electrical specialist. He understood power better than anyone else. He was able to create new ideas to help with the mission.
Our group believes that the story's shows good perseverance and bravery. We think perseverance is imporant because in everything in life, you should never give up even though you think you will no succeed. It is important that you at least tried. We also feel bravery is important because if you want to succeed in life you have to be brave and try new things even if it's risky.
One of our favroite quotes was said by Jim Lovell: "Houston, we are venting something out into space. I can see it outside window one right now. It's definitely a... a gas of some sort." When we saw this quote, we thought "Oh no... Something is wrong with the spacecraft..." We became worried because there were 3 astronauts inside and they could die if something was broken. We all became tense and looked at each other when we read the quote.