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Why Apollo 13 was Called NASA's Most "Successful Failure."

posted by LaminatorX on Monday April 13 2015, @01:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the I'm-coming-home dept.

AnonTechie writes:

Forty-five years have passed [autoplay video] since the flight launched:

After losing oxygen and power in its unsuccessful trip to the moon, Apollo 13 still managed to do one thing well: land back on Earth.

April 11 marks the 45th anniversary of the mission's launch from Florida's Kennedy Space Center with the goal of landing on the moon. Watch the video above to learn about what's frequently called NASA's "successful failure."

Related: See a 1970 explanation of What Happened to Apollo 13.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday April 13 2015, @07:22PM

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Monday April 13 2015, @07:22PM (#169926) Homepage
    Landed Jan 4, got stuck in a loop running FSCK on Jan 21 (failure), and then once fixed went on to last >20x longer than its planned mission length (much success)?
    --
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @08:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @08:48PM (#169980)

    The interesting part of the story starts many years earlier.
    The workers at the North American Aviation[1] plant in Downey, California were a bunch of screwups.

    The sad saga started when NASA specified a 65 volt system for the oxygen tanks' heaters and the engineers and/or purchasing agents at this NASA contractor specified/bought/used 28 volt thermostats.
    It didn't help that the line workers were a bunch of clumsy oafs.
    The short version. [google.com] The big picture. [space.com]

    [1] North American was famous for the P-51. Rockwell later bought them out.
    The Rockwell plant, stretching between Lakewood Blvd and Woodruff Ave, was the biggest employer in that city when I lived in Downey in the 1980s.

    .
    My Google-fu is failing me now but I remember a political cartoon (by Paul Conrad, IIRC) after the 1967 Apollo 1 fire.
    It showed the lower body of a burly man holding a big wrench dangling by his side, labeled American workmanship.
    The wrench was dripping blood.
    The 100 percent oxygen atmosphere of the original Apollo capsule was incredibly stupid.

    -- gewg_