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Aviation History
1970
1970 - 0716.PDF
650 FLIGHT International, 23 April 1970 Apollo 13's near-disaster The crew of Apollo 13 successfully splashed down in the Pacific at 7.07 p.m. BST on April 17 after the first deep- space accident in the history of manned spaceflight. As a result of severe damage to the service module, the element of the spacecraft which contains the main fuel and propulsion system for the flight to the Moon and back, the voyage was completed by means of the considerably smaller power of the main engine of the Moon-landing vehicle. The incident occurred on April 14, long after the spacecraft had been committed to a voyage round the Moon. For the three astronauts James Lovell, commander, Fred Haise and last-minute substitute John Swigert, it was extremely fortunate that the incident occurred before the landing was made; with the descent stage on the Moon and the ascent stage abandoned after return to the spacecraft there would have been no "life-boat" for the crew and the flight would certainly have ended on a tragic note. The crew was able to observe the damage after they had undocked from the service module some hours before re-entry on Friday, April 17. They reported that a complete panel, running the length of the craft, had been torn away. These visual observations will be of the greatest value in determining the cause of the accident, and may make the difference between a lengthy and exten sive investigation programme, and a rela tively quick modification. The most likely cause of the incident appears to be an explosion in one of the propulsion tanks. The service module is a 22ft-long cylinder with a diameter of about 12ft, and is divided longitudinally into six bays containing the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks (two of each), three fuel cells and much of the "housekeeping" equipment. All are necessarily mounted in close proximity to one another, so that violent damage in one location (rupture of a tank, for example) could affect neighbouring areas. Apollo 13 is the 23rd American manned space flight; Russia has made 15. Only one life has been lost during a flight (that of Vladimir Komarov. flying the Soviet Soyuz 1. The parachute of his spacecraft failed to open during the last stages of his flight on April 23, 1967). A report of the flight begins on page 707. Taildog Makes Its Bow A first photograph of the new British air-to-air missile. Taildog, is published in Flight this week (Defence, page 704). Hawker Siddeley Dynamics has now completed a feasibility study of this light-weight, low-cost missile, so far funded jointly by the Ministry of Technology and the company. The next stage would be a M in tech development contract placed with the company. The two missiles shown in the photo graph are HSD mock-ups; they convey the simplicity of design, derived from the high-reaction velocity of a missile fired at short range to engage a highly manoeuvrable target. From the photo graph the length of Taildog appears to be about 7ft. Bulldog: One Contender Now One major bidder for the Bulldog- building side of Beagle now remains. Of the three involved last week (Flight, April 16, page 610), the American con cern has withdrawn and Miles Aviation and Transport Ltd has apparently been forced out by the lack of a firm future for Shoreham airfield. The value of the Miles offer was well under £400,000 and covered the Bulldog and subcontract ing side. In a statement issued this week, Mr Kenneth Cork, the receiver, said that one of the conditions which applied to Back from the Deep Above, three happy astronauts: Left to right, Mr Fred W. Haise, Captain James A. Lovell and Mr John L. Swigert emerge from the now-traditional Recovery Helicopter 66. Left, the cause of it all. The cylindrical service module with a complete section of I in-thick aluminium honeycomb panel torn away, and equipment which has been partially ejected from the module. The nozzle of the service engine was reported to be severely damaged. The rectangular pro jection at the right-hand edge is not part of the service module
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