Good morning,
Today’s forecast calls for a partly sunny day, with a high of sixty-four degrees.
There will be a PTO meeting at Lincoln School tonight at 6:30 p.m, and a PATT meeting at Washington School at the same time.
On this day in 1970, an explosion forced the Apollo 13 astronauts to abandon a planned moon landing. The New York Times reported on the event:
Houston, Tuesday, April 14 – The Apollo 13 Astronauts, their lives threatened by a serious oxygen leak, were forced to evacuate their command ship late last night and use their intended moon-landing craft as a “lifeboat” for a fast return to the earth.
In cool and cryptic words, they were instructed by mission control here to use the attached lunar module’s rocket to power them back to an emergency splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at about noon on Friday.
There will be great risks and little margin for error or delay.
At a news conference here officials were asked if there was enough oxygen to get the astronauts back to earth safely. A space agency official answered, “Yes.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” the questioner said.
The lunar landing module has a supply of 48 pounds of oxygen.
Christopher C. Kraft, deputy director of the Manned Spacecraft Center, said:
“I think their chances are excellent at the moment, assuming their lunar module operates all right.”
The crew returned safely to earth four days later, on April 17th.