Episode 28: Apollo 13

On this day 40 years ago the crew of Apollo 11 fulfilled one of
mankind’s longest held dreams and walked on the surface of the
Moon. One of them Buzz Aldrin in episode 12 of ATUK, recalled a
little of that experience. Today’s episode is a short recording
with Fred Haise when he visited Pontefract as arranged by Ken
Willoughby. Incidentally, Jim Lovell is also visiting Pontefract in
Yorkshire on October the 2nd 2009. If you are close to northern
England on that date consider stopping by. Of the twelve men who
walked on the Moon only nine remain. Apollo 13 astronauts Fred
Haise along with Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert were arguably the
subject of the 20th century’s most dramatic events and the subject
of the film Apollo 13. Fred Haise never made it to the surface of
the Moon. He served on the back-up crew for the Apollo 8, Apollo
11, Apollo 16 moon missions and was also scheduled as commander for
the cancelled Apollo 19 mission. As a backup he could have been on
the first mission to the moon (Apollo 8), first moon landing
(Apollo 11) and of course commanded his own mission on Apollo 19
but the Apollo program was cancelled after Apollo 17. Remember the
first Shuttle – Enterprise, on the back of a modified 747? Between
February and October of 1977 it flew 16 times to perform the
approach and landing test of what would become the Shuttle
Transport System which is due to conclude next year 2010. Fred
Haise was involved in 5 of those. Three of which involved the
Enterprise in free flight. When I spoke to Fred during the dinner
on the day before this recording, he came across as an ordinary guy
who did not consider himself to be “special” but just around in the
right place at the right time. During the course of the evening he
spoke to many who were present but most of the evening had gone by
and I had not had a chance to say hello. Then suddenly he
approached from a corner of the room and said “Hello, I’m Fred
Haise, I don’t think we’ve met”. In the short conversation that
followed he indicated that fishing was his primary hobby and
although his trip aboard Apollo 13 was dramatic he had an eventful
life before and after it too. Sure, it is impossible to have a deep
insight from a couple of short meetings. Perhaps, it was the ease
with which he used my first name (which some people find heavy
going) and conversed as if I had always known him. There was
something special about the ordinary way he conducted himself. He
had accepted the extreme high and low experiences in his life as
nothing more than an occupational hazard. Apollo 13 as the only
space flight he ever made. ====================================
This week’s quote is from Carl Sagan There are many worlds we have
never seen before. Only one generation in the history of the human
species is privileged to live during the time those great
discoveries are first made; that generation is ours.