Due to a shallower re-entry path, Apollo 13's blackout was calculated to last about 4.5 minutes. Flight director Gene Kranz's logs show that it took about 6 minutes to re-establish contact with Apollo 13. Telemetry was usually the first signal received after the blackout.
Because they were a little shallow on their re-entry angle, so took a longer flight path into the atmosphere.
For the Apollo 13 mission, the blackout was much longer than normal because the flight path of the spacecraft was unexpectedly at a much shallower angle than normal.
Apollo 13 was NASA's third moon-landing mission, but the astronauts never made it to the lunar surface. During the mission's dramatic series of events, an oxygen tank explosion almost 56 hours into the flight forced the crew to abandon all thoughts of reaching the moon.
As the Apollo 13 crew re-entered the Earth's atmosphere there was a blackout period where they couldn't communicate with mission control. The blackout period was supposed to last three minutes, but it lasted 90 seconds longer, leaving those at mission control unaware if the crew were going to make it home safely.
At the outset of the program, NASA had formally established the target probability of overall success for each Apollo mission—a landing and return—at 90 percent. Overall crew safety was estimated at 99.9 percent.
From the Apollo 13 Mission Report ( 8 Mb ), "The crew reported sleeping well the first 2 days of the mission. They all slept about 5-1/2 hours during the first sleep period. During the second period, the Commander, Command Module Pilot, and Lunar Module Pilot slept 5, 6, and 9 hours, respectively.
With the electrical systems turned off, the temperature approached about 34 degrees Fahrenheit prior to entering the atmosphere.
To get around the problem, the ships were specifically designed to radiate heat away very quickly to compensate. Just in case this cooling happened too quickly, for instance when not in direct sunlight helping to heat things up, the ship was also equipped with heaters to keep the astronauts comfortable.
An curved arrow pointing right. There was no bathroom on the Apollo missions. Instead, NASA astronauts peed into a roll-on cuff, and pooped in bags that they kneaded, rolled up tight, and took back to Earth.
The Apollo 13 malfunction was caused by an explosion and rupture of oxygen tank no. 2 in the service module. The explosion ruptured a line or damaged a valve in the no. 1 oxygen tank, causing it to lose oxygen rapidly.
The command module of Apollo 13 entered Earth's atmosphere and splashed down on target on April 17 at 1:07 PM Eastern Standard Time. The mission has been referred to as a successful failure, in that all the crew members survived a catastrophic accident.
When a spacecraft travels through the atmosphere at speeds much faster than the speed of sound – say, during reentry – the friction between its surface and the surrounding air forms a plasma sheath, leading to a communication blackout lasting up to 10 minutes.
As part of the Apollo 13 mission, Jim Lovell and Fred Haise were scheduled to walk on the Moon, but the lunar landing had to be aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later. The Apollo 13 mission did set a record as the farthest humans have ever travelled from Earth.
Using only material available on the spacecraft, Mission Control workers began devising a mechanism that would provide more carbon dioxide buffering. The ultimate solution involved using a piece of cardboard, a plastic bag, a hose from a pressure suit, duct tape and a sock to connect the command module scrubbers.
Many missions were failures at launch. In addition, several uncrewed landing missions achieved the Lunar surface but were unsuccessful, including: Luna 15, Luna 18, and Luna 23 all crashed on landing; and the U.S. Surveyor 4 lost all radio contact only moments before its landing.
Of the 109 lunar missions during the period, 61 were successful and 48 had failed, it stated.
Apollo 13 has been called a “successful failure,” because the crew never landed on the Moon, but they made it home safely after an explosion crippled their ship. A switch and insulation, which should have been modified during an upgrade to one oxygen tank, were damaged during a test of that tank during construction.
The command module was dying, quickly. But the lunar lander, docked to the command module, was intact. Under the direction of Glynn Lunney, the flight director whose shift followed Mr. Kranz's, the Apollo 13 astronauts scrambled into the lunar module, which served as their lifeboat.
How did Apollo astronauts sleep? The astronauts slept in 'sleep restraints', which were sleeping bags tied to the command module's cabin to stop them floating about. Restraints were tied under the left and right seats, and also above the right seat. They could be rolled up and stored when not in use.
The lack of gravity astronauts encounter during spaceflight makes returning to the force of Earth's gravity a little disorienting. And when they return to Earth, they faint. A new study published Friday in Circulation, the American Heart Association's journal, has identified a way to avoid that.
Their menu, however, was limited to rather unpalatable gelatin-coated food cubes, freeze-dried items, and paste squeezed from tubes. By Gemini, scientists had improved space food substantially in taste and texture, but it was still freeze-dried or dehydrated, there wasn't great diversity in options.
For Apollo 13, there will be seedless rye, toasting white and a specially formulated cheese bread. All three were baked at the Norwalk, Conn., headquarters of Pepperidge Farm in lidded pans to give a uniform crust as insurance against loose crumbs.
On any given day, crew members can watch movies, play music, read books, play cards and talk to their families. They have an exercise bike, a treadmill and various other equipment to help keep their bodies in shape. During their off time, they certainly take time out to play games and generally have a good time.