ABOUT APOLLO 13

Ed Grace worked on the Apollo Program from 1963 to 1972 while employed at the MIT Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, MA. MIT Draper Laboratory had a contract with NASA to design and develop the Inertial Navigation System used to control both the Command and Lunar Modules during flight missions. The Inertial Navigation System included the Apollo Guidance Computer. MIT Draper also designed and developed each mission's custom software.

Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the Apollo space program and the third designated to land on the Moon. The launch occurred on April 11, 1970, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days into the mission, crippling the Service Module (SM) upon which the Command Module (CM) and astronauts were dependent for oxygen and fuel to make the round trip. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water, and the need for critical makeshift repairs to the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew returned safely to Earth on April 17, 1970.

The mission was commanded by James A. Lovell with John L. "Jack" Swigert as Command Module Pilot and Fred W. Haise as Lunar Module Pilot. Swigert was a late replacement for the original CM pilot Ken Mattingly, who was grounded by the flight surgeon three days before the mission after his exposure to German measles.

The story of the Apollo 13 mission has been dramatized multiple times, most notably in the 1995 film Apollo 13. Although the crew never made it to the moon surface, the mission captured the hearts of a worldwide audience as Mission Control Johnson Space Center personnel worked with the astronauts to develop a plan to safely return them to Earth.

Ed Grace was working at the at Johnson Space Center Houston to support NASA Mission Control Center (MCC) personnel for the duration of the Apollo 13 mission. His talks present a view of the happenings of the Apollo 13 mission from an insider's position at Mission Control Houston. Ed was a member of the Apollo 13 Mission Operations Team awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Nixon on April 17, 1969.

More information on Apollo 13 can be found on Ed's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ReachingForTheMoon