#1 Apollo 13 fiftieth anniversary...
Posted: Sun, 12 Apr 20, 20:09 pm
Well, sitting in lockdown this Easter Sunday due to coronavirus, I have plenty of time to watch the Apollo 13 offerings on YouTube. Currently watching a 1:50 minute video of Walter Kronkite and Wally Schirra covering the launch... It was a CBS special coverage event, including interviews with the astronauts, an interesting discussion of the replacement of Ken Mattingly with Jack Swigert due to exposure to German measles... And the interesting tidbit that there was a German measles outbreak in the Houston area at that time, and the impact of the then recently released Rubella vaccine, including the unwanted side effects some adult women had gotten from the vaccine, namely, developing arthritis... Interesting to see the genesis of some of the things we still deal with today, from anti-vaxxing to dealing with outbreaks.
There's also a really interesting interview with Ken Mattingly, where he discusses some if the things that happened to him to get him where he was... He joined the Navy wanting to fly jets and "make things go boom", but ended up assigned to fly Skyraiders (called "Sandy's" in Vietnam) and felt really disappointed to be flying "a prop job", but the experience he gained got j him into a different squadron (probably a jet attack squadron), which kept him out of the rotation to get into the Navy Test Pilot School at "Pax River" (Patuxent River) but ultimately put him in a position to get into the Air Force Test Pilot program at Edwards, which put him on the fast track to NASA... Then of course the "bad luck" of being exposed to measles and getting bumped off Apollo 13, which again turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as he swapped seats with Jack Swigert, and ended up flying on one of the most successful Apollo missions, Apollo 16.
Just goes to show, even when things don't work out as planned, just do your best with the situation and keep going, because the experience and skills you get may well put you in a perfect position for something even better in the future.
Anyway, hope all of you are well and have some time to check out some of the historical content regarding Apollo 13, and maybe enjoy the movie as well...
Later! OL J R
There's also a really interesting interview with Ken Mattingly, where he discusses some if the things that happened to him to get him where he was... He joined the Navy wanting to fly jets and "make things go boom", but ended up assigned to fly Skyraiders (called "Sandy's" in Vietnam) and felt really disappointed to be flying "a prop job", but the experience he gained got j him into a different squadron (probably a jet attack squadron), which kept him out of the rotation to get into the Navy Test Pilot School at "Pax River" (Patuxent River) but ultimately put him in a position to get into the Air Force Test Pilot program at Edwards, which put him on the fast track to NASA... Then of course the "bad luck" of being exposed to measles and getting bumped off Apollo 13, which again turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as he swapped seats with Jack Swigert, and ended up flying on one of the most successful Apollo missions, Apollo 16.
Just goes to show, even when things don't work out as planned, just do your best with the situation and keep going, because the experience and skills you get may well put you in a perfect position for something even better in the future.
Anyway, hope all of you are well and have some time to check out some of the historical content regarding Apollo 13, and maybe enjoy the movie as well...
Later! OL J R