Minute 066: Was it the Door?

Apollo 13 Minute Podcast

In her living room, Marilyn watches ABC News on TV. Science Editor Jules Bergman describes “the terseness of Kraft, and the grim lines of Jim McDivitt. This has been a very close call, and we’re not out of the wood yet. Not by a long shot.”

Marilyn gets up to check on her youngest son, Jeff.

Jeff is inside a desk fort made of bedsheets. The bedsheets are decorated with galaxies, planets, and starts. He shines a flashlight around the bedsheets in his darkened bedroom.

“Jeffrey?” calls Marilyn, entering the dark room. Jeffrey shines the flashlight at his mother.

“Why are there so many people here?” asks Jeffrey.

“Oh,” says Marilyn, “well, your dad’s flying his mission.”

“He said he was going to get me a Moon rock,” says Jeffrey, climbing out from his desk fort.

“Right,” says Marilyn, smiling. “Well – – something broke on your daddy’s spaceship – – and he’s going to have to turn around before he even gets to the Moon.”

Jeffrey ponders this new information. “Was it the door?” he asks.

180,000 miles away from Houston, Jim Lovell struggles to keep Aquarius’s attitude straight.

“Thirteen, Houston,” says CapCom. “We show that venting has pushed you around. How are you doing?”

“Houston, Aquarius,” replies Lovell,” We’ve had to learn how to –”

IN THIS MINUTE:

Jim Lovell: Tom Hanks
CapCom: Brett Cullen
Fred Haise: Bill Paxton
Marilyn Lovell : Kathleen Quinlan
Jeff Lovell: Miko Hughes