Apollo 13 Quotes

[watching the Apollo 11 landing on TV]

Pete Conrad: Jim, you think it's too late for him to abort?

Jim Lovell: No, he still has time to get outta there, he just needs someone to wave him off.

[Jim's daughter wants to go trick-or-treating as a hippie]

Barbara Lovell: Dad, can I please wear this?

Jim Lovell: Sure.

Marilyn Lovell: Jim!

Jim Lovell: No! No, absolutely not.

Marilyn Lovell: Naturally, it's 13. Why 13?

Jim Lovell: It comes after 12, hon.

Jim Lovell: Just a little while longer Freddo. Just a little while longer, we're gonna hit that water in the South Pacific. Open up that hatch. It's 80 degrees out there.

Fred Haise, Sr.: 80 degrees.

Marilyn Lovell: Blanche, Blanche, these nice young men are going to watch the television with you. This is Neil Armstrong, and this is Buzz... Aldrin.

Neil Armstrong: Hi.

Blanche Lovell: Are you boys in the space program too?

NASA Director: This could be the worst disaster NASA's ever experienced.

Gene Kranz: With all due respect, sir, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour.

Gene Kranz: Let's look at this thing from a... um, from a standpoint of status. What do we got on the spacecraft that's good?

[pause]

Sy Liebergot: I'll get back to you, Gene.

Henry Hurt: I, uh, I have a request from the news people.

Marilyn Lovell: Uh-huh?

Henry Hurt: They're out front here. They want to put a transmitter up on the lawn.

Marilyn Lovell: Transmitter?

Henry Hurt: Kind of a tower, for live broadcast.

Marilyn Lovell: I thought they didn't care about this mission. They didn't even run Jim's show.

Henry Hurt: Well, it's more dramatic now. Suddenly people are...

Marilyn Lovell: Landing on the moon wasn't dramatic enough for them - why should NOT landing on it be?

Henry Hurt: Look, I, um, I realize how hard this is, Marilyn, but the whole world is caught up in this, it's historic-...

Marilyn Lovell: No, Henry! Those people don't put one piece of equipment on my lawn. If they have a problem with that, they can take it up with my husband. He'll be HOME... on FRIDAY!

[On the night of the Apollo 11 landing]

Jim Lovell: Christopher Columbus, Charles Lindbergh, and Neil Armstrong. Ha, ha, ha. Neil Armstrong!

CAPCOM 2: 13, we just got another request from the Flight Surgeon for you to get some sleep. Don't like these readings down here.

Jim Lovell: [Tearing off his biomeds] Let's see how he likes this. I am sick and tired of the entire western world knowing how my kidneys are functioning!

Dr. Chuck: [after Lovell's heartrate flatlines] Flight, we just lost Lovell!

CAPCOM 2: 13, Houston. Jim, we just had a bottoming out on your biomeds.

Jim Lovell: I'm not wearing my biomeds.

CAPCOM 2: [after Gene Kranz shrugs it off] Ok, Jim. Copy that.

[Jack and Fred now tear away their own biomeds]

Dr. Chuck: [after all three crew members flatline] Flight, now I lost all three of them!

Gene Kranz: It's just a little medical mutiny, Doc. I'm sure the boys are still with us. Let's cut them a little slack, ok?

Jack Swigert: [about to turn power back on in the capsule] Ken, there's an awful lot of condensation on these panels. What's the story of them shorting out?

Ken Mattingly: Umm... We'll just have to take that one at a time, Jack.

Jack Swigert: [to himself] Like trying to drive a toaster through a car wash.

[as everyone is madly trying to identify the problem from instrument readings]

Jim Lovell: Houston, we are venting something out into space. I can see it outside window one right now. It's definitely a... a gas of some sort.

[pause]

Jim Lovell: It's got to be the oxygen.

Gene Kranz: EECOM, is this an instrumentation problem, or are we looking at real power loss here?

Sy Liebergot: It's, it's reading a quadruple failure - that can't happen! It's, it's got to be instrumentation.

[US income tax returns are due in 2 days, but Swigert is 200,000 miles away]

Jack Swigert: Uh, well, if anyone from the, uh, from the IRS is watching, I... forgot to file my, my, my 1040 return. Um, I meant to do it today, but, uh...

Sy Liebergot: [back at Mission Control] That's no joke. They'll jump on him!

[as they pass over the lunar surface]

Fred Haise, Sr.: Mare Tranquilitatis - Neil and Buzz's old neighborhood. Coming up on Mount Marilyn. Jim, you've got to take a look at this.

Jim Lovell: I've seen it.

Blanche Lovell: Are you scared?

[Susan nods]

Blanche Lovell: Well don't you worry, honey. If they could get a washing machine to fly, my Jimmy could land it.

Jack Swigert: I've been going over the numbers again. Have they called up with a re-entry plan yet? 'Cause we're coming in too shallow, we're coming in too damn fast.

Jim Lovell: We're working on something, Jack, just hold on.

Jack Swigert: Listen, listen, they gave us too much delta vee, they had us burn too long. At this rate, we're going to skip right out of the atmosphere and we're never going to get home.

Fred Haise, Sr.: What are you talking about? How'd you figure that?

Jack Swigert: I can add.

Jim Lovell: Jack, they've got half the Ph.D.s on the planet working on it.

Fred Haise, Sr.: Houston says we're right on the money.

Jack Swigert: And what if they had made a mistake, all right? And there was no way to reverse it, you think they would tell us? There's no reason for them to tell us!

Fred Haise, Sr.: What do you mean they're not going to tell us? That's bullshit!

Jim Lovell: All right, there's a thousand things that have to happen in order. We are on number eight. You're talking about number 692.

Jack Swigert: And in the meantime, I'm trying to tell you we're coming in too fast. I think they know it, and I think that's why we don't have a God-damned re-entry plan.

Jim Lovell: That's duly noted, thank you Jack.

Controller #1: Is it A.M. or P.M.?

Controller #2: A.M. Very, very A.M.

[Jim Lovell is told that Ken Mattingly will be too sick to fly]

Jim Lovell: I've trained for the Fra Mauro highlands... and this is FLIGHT SURGEON HORSESHIT, Deke!

Deke Slayton: Jim, if you hold out for Ken, you will not be on Apollo 13. It's your decision.

Sy Liebergot: Flight... I recommend we shut down reactant valves to the fuel cells.

Gene Kranz: What the hell good is that gonna do?

Sy Liebergot: If that's where the leak is, we can isolate it. We can save what's left in the tanks and we can run on the good cell.

Gene Kranz: You close 'em, you can't open 'em again! You can't land on the moon with one healthy fuel cell!

Sy Liebergot: Gene, the Odyssey is *dying*. From my chair here, this is the last option.

Patty: How do you go to the bathroom in space?

Jim Lovell: Well, um... I tell you it's a very complicated procedure that involves cranking down the window and looking for a gas station.

R.E.T.R.O. White: Flight, we are looking at a typhoon warning on the edge of the prime recovery zone.

Gene Kranz: Say again, RETRO?

R.E.T.R.O. White: Flight, we are looking at a typhoon warning on the edge of the prime recovery zone. Now, this is just a warning, it could miss them...

Gene Kranz: Yeah, only if their luck changes.

Jim Lovell: Uh, Houston, we are ready for the beginning of PTC, and I think once we're in that barbecue roll, Jack and I will eat.

Fred Haise, Sr.: Hey, I'm hungry.

Jim Lovell: Are you sure?

Fred Haise, Sr.: I could eat the ass out of a dead rhinoceros.

Reporter: So... the number 13 doesn't bother you?

Fred Haise, Sr.: Only if it's a Friday, Phil.

Reporter: Apollo 13 - lifting off at 1300 hours and 13 minutes, and, entering the moon's gravity on April 13th.

Jim Lovell: Uh, Ken Mattingly has been doing some... scientific experiments regarding that very phenomenon, haven't you?

Ken Mattingly: Well, uh, yes, well I uh, had a black cat walk over a broken mirror under the lunar module ladder, didn't seem to be a problem.

Fred Haise, Sr.: We also consider a real helpful letter we got from a fellow who said we ought to take a pig up with us for good luck.

[Swigert has just successfully powered up the Command Module]

Jack Swigert: Uplink completed. We got her back up, Ken. Boy, I wish you were here to see it.

Ken Mattingly: I'll bet you do.

[Several technicians dump boxes containing the same equipment and tools that the astronauts have with them onto a table]

Technician: We've got to find a way to make this

[square CSM LiOH canister]

Technician: fit into the hole for this

[round LEM canister]

Technician: ... using nothing but that.

Marilyn Lovell: Jeffrey?

Jeffrey Lovell: Why are so many people here?

Marilyn Lovell: Well, you know, your dad's flying his mission.

Jeffrey Lovell: He said he was going to get me a moon rock.

Marilyn Lovell: Right. 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 Lovell: Was it the door?

Jim Lovell: Gentlemen, what are your intentions?

[Jack Swigert and Fred Haise turn around and stare at Lovell]

Jim Lovell: I'd like to go home.

Ken Mattingly: 13, this is Houston, do you read?

Jim Lovell: Roger that, Ken. Are the flowers blooming in Houston?

Ken Mattingly: That's a negative, Jim. I do not have the measles.

[stares at the flight surgeon]

Technician: How much power have we got to work with?

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: Barely enough to run this coffee pot for nine hours.

Television Reporter: Is there a specific instance in an airplane emergency when you can recall fear?

Jim Lovell: Uh well, I'll tell ya, I remember this one time - I'm in a Banshee at night in combat conditions, so there's no running lights on the carrier. It was the Shrangri-La, and we were in the Sea of Japan and my radar had jammed, and my homing signal was gone... because somebody in Japan was actually using the same frequency. And so it was - it was leading me away from where I was supposed to be. And I'm lookin' down at a big, black ocean, so I flip on my map light, and then suddenly: zap. Everything shorts out right there in my cockpit. All my instruments are gone. My lights are gone. And I can't even tell now what my altitude is. I know I'm running out of fuel, so I'm thinking about ditching in the ocean. And I, I look down there, and then in the darkness there's this uh, there's this green trail. It's like a long carpet that's just laid out right beneath me. And it was the algae, right? It was that phosphorescent stuff that gets churned up in the wake of a big ship. And it was - it was - it was leading me home. You know? If my cockpit lights hadn't shorted out, there's no way I'd ever been able to see that. So uh, you, uh, never know... what... what events are to transpire to get you home.

Fred Haise: It hurts when I urinate.

Jim Lovell: Well, you're not getting enough water.

Fred Haise: No, I'm drinkin' my rations, same as you... I think old Swigert gave me the clap. Been pissin' in my relief tube.

Jim Lovell: Well, that'd be a hot one at the debriefing for the flight surgeons... Another first for America's spacemen.

[the crew has been "killed" in a simulator accident]

Jim Lovell: Well... if I had a dollar for every time they've killed me in this thing, I wouldn't have to work for you, Deke... Well, we have two days, we'll be ready. Let's do it again.

Jim Lovell: Freddo, how long does it take to power up the LEM?

Fred Haise, Sr.: Three hours by the checklist.

Jim Lovell: We don't have that much time.

Jerry Bostick - FIDO White: Looks like Mrs. Kranz pulled out the ol' needle and thread again...

Technician: Last one looked like he bought it off a gypsy.

Jerry Bostick - FIDO White: Well I guess you can't argue with tradition.

Technician: [Gene puts on a flight vest with an Apollo 13 patch on it, everyone begins applauding] Hey Gene, I guess we can go now!

Gene Kranz: Save it for splashdown fellas...

Marilyn Lovell: [none of the TV networks are showing Apollo 13's TV broadcast] Do they know they're not on the air?

Henry Hurt: We'll tell them when they get back.

Jack Swigert: [Swigert bumps his head on the ceiling of the crowded lunar module] Oww! Goddamn this piece of shit!

Fred Haise, Sr.: Hey! this piece of shit's going to get you home! That's 'cause that's the only thing we've got left, Jack.

Jack Swigert: Well, what are you saying, Fred?

Fred Haise, Sr.: Oh, I think you know what I'm saying...

Jack Swigert: Now wait a minute... all I did was stir those tanks...

Fred Haise, Sr.: What was that gauge reading before you hit the switch?

Jack Swigert: Hey, don't tell me how to fly the damned CM, all right? They brought me in here to do a job, they asked me to stir the damned tanks, and I stirred the tanks!

Fred Haise, Sr.: You didn't know what you were doing, do you?

Jim Lovell: Jack, quit kicking yourself in the ass.

Jack Swigert: This is NOT MY FAULT!

Jim Lovell: No one is saying it is. If I'm in the left-hand seat when the call comes up, *I* stir the tanks.

Jack Swigert: Yeah, well, tell *him* that.

Fred Haise, Sr.: I just asked you what the gauge was reading. AND YOU DON'T KNOW!

Jim Lovell: All right, we're not doing this, gentlemen. We are *not* going to do this. We're not going to go bouncing off the walls for ten minutes, 'cause we're just going to end up back here with the same problems! Try to figure out how to stay alive!

CAPCOM 2: Aquarius, this is Houston.

Jim Lovell: [shouting] ARE WE ON VOX?

Fred Haise, Sr.: No, we're not on VOX.

Jim Lovell: [Hits switch, calm tone] Yeah, Houston, this is Aquarius. Go ahead.

[after a dispute has broken out between Haise and Swigert]

Jim Lovell: All right, we're not doing this, gentlemen. We are *not* doing this. We're not going to go bouncing off the walls for ten minutes, 'cause we're just going to end up back here with the same problems! Try to figure out how to stay alive!

William 'Bill' Pogue, CAPCOM: [over communications mic] Aquarius, this is Houston.

Jim Lovell: [shouts] Are we on Vox?

Fred Haise, Sr.: No, we're not on Vox.

[Lovell turns on his mic]

Jim Lovell: [calmly] Yeah, Houston, this is Aquarius.

Fred Haise, Sr.: I know why my numbers were wrong. I only figured it for two people.

Jack Swigert: Maybe I should just hold my breath.

Congressman: Now Jim, people in my state keep asking why we're continuing to fund this program now that we've beaten the Russians to the moon.

Jim Lovell: Imagine if Christopher Columbus had come back from the New World and no one returned in his footsteps.

Deke Slayton: Jim, we've got a problem. I got some blood work back from the lab. Charlie Duke has the measles.

Jim Lovell: [unconcerned] So we need a new back-up.

Deke Slayton: You've all been exposed to it.

Jim Lovell: Oh, I've had the measles.

Deke Slayton: Ken Mattingly hasn't.

[last lines]

Jim Lovell: [narrating] Our mission was called "a successful failure," in that we returned safely but never made it to the moon. In the following months, it was determined that a damaged coil built inside the oxygen tank sparked during our cryo stir and caused the explosion that crippled the Odyssey. It was a minor defect that occured two years before I was even named the flight's commander. Fred Haise was going back to the moon on Apollo 18, but his mission was cancelled because of budget cuts; he never flew in space again. Nor did Jack Swigert, who left the astronaut corps and was elected to Congress from the state of Colorado. But he died of cancer before he was able to take office. Ken Mattingly orbited the moon as Command Module Pilot of Apollo 16, and flew the Space Shuttle, having never gotten the measles. Gene Kranz retired as Director of Flight Operations just not long ago. And many other members of Mission Control have gone on to other things, but some are still there. As for me, the seven extraordinary days of Apollo 13 were my last in space. I watched other men walk on the Moon, and return safely, all from the confines of Mission Control and our house in Houston. I sometimes catch myself looking up at the Moon, remembering the changes of fortune in our long voyage, thinking of the thousands of people who worked to bring the three of us home. I look up at the moon and wonder, when will we be going back, and who will that be?

Jeffrey Lovell: Dad... did you know the astronauts in the fire?

Jim Lovell: [pause] Yeah. Yeah, I did. I knew those astronauts in that fire, all of them.

Jeffrey Lovell: Could that happen again?

Jim Lovell: Well, I'll tell you something about that fire, a lot of things went wrong. The door, called the hatch? They couldn't get it open when they needed to get out. That was one thing. Well, a lot of things went wrong.

Jeffrey Lovell: Did they fix it?

Jim Lovell: Oh yes, absolutely, we fixed it. It's not a problem anymore.

Marilyn Lovell: [Barbara has locked herself in her room] Barbara!

[Knocks on the door]

Marilyn Lovell: Barbara, we're going to hear your father's broadcast!

Barbara Lovell: No! I'm never coming out! I hate Paul! None of us are ever going to play another one of their records again!

Susan Lovell: She's still going on about the stupid Beatles breaking up?

Barbara Lovell: They're not stupid, *you're* stupid!

Marilyn Lovell: [Jim is standing outside, looking up at the moon, covering and uncovering it with his thumb. Marilyn comes out with a garbage bag] You're drunk, Lovell.

Jim Lovell: Yeah, I'm not used to the champagne.

Marilyn Lovell: Me neither...

[She picks at a few glasses on a table, then drops the bag in exasperation]

Marilyn Lovell: I can't deal with cleaning up, let's sell the house.

Jim Lovell: All right, we'll sell the house.

[Still looking up at the moon]

Jim Lovell: They're back inside now. Looking up at us. Isn't that something?

Marilyn Lovell: [Settles into a lawn chair] I'll bet Jenny Armstrong doesn't get a wink of sleep tonight. When you were on the far side on 8, I didn't sleep at all. I just vacuumed over and over again.

Ken Mattingly: [after another power-up simulation fails] I know this sequence works, John.

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: The sequence looks good, we're just over budget on the amperage.

Ken Mattingly: By how much?

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: Three or four amps.

Ken Mattingly: Goddamn it, John! Is it three or four?

John Young: Four.

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: Four!

Ken Mattingly: [sighs] Four more amps...

[He ponders for a moment]

Ken Mattingly: We know they have some power left in the LEM batteries, right?

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: Yeah.

Ken Mattingly: We have an umbilical that provides power from the Command Module to the LEM.

John Young: Right. It's a backup for the LEM power supply.

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: I'm listening.

Ken Mattingly: So, reverse it. Reverse the flow and see if we can draw these four amps from the LEM batteries before we cut it loose. Why can't we do that?

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: [Looks at John] We don't have a procedure for that, do we?

John Young: You're gonna lose a lot in the transfer, Ken.

Ken Mattingly: Yeah, yeah. But all we're talking about here is four amps.

William 'Bill' Pogue, CAPCOM: Aquarius, watch that middle gimbal. We don't want you tumbling off into space.

Jim Lovell: Freddo, inform Houston I'm well aware of the God-damned gimbals!

Fred Haise, Sr.: [calmly] Roger that, Houston.

Jim Lovell: I don't need to hear the obvious, I've got the frappin' 8-ball right in front of me!

INCO White: Hey, we're on VOX.

William 'Bill' Pogue, CAPCOM: Aquarius, this is Houston. We've got you both on VOX.

Fred Haise, Sr.: You want what, you want us to go to VOX?

William 'Bill' Pogue, CAPCOM: You have a hot mic, we're reading everything you say.

Fred Haise, Sr.: [sheepish] Sorry, Jim.

[Fred switches the microphones to push-to-talk]

[Lovell and Haise are trying to get control of the lunar module]

Jim Lovell: We're all out of whack. We try to pitch down but we yaw to the left. Why can't I null this out?

Fred Haise, Sr.: She wasn't designed to fly attached like this. Our center of gravity is the command module.

Jim Lovell: It's like flying with a dead elephant on our back.

Ken Mattingly: Uh, one more thing, Jim. While Jack is working on the power-up, we'd like you and Freddo to transfer some ballast over to the command module.

Jim Lovell: Say again, Houston? Ballast?

Ken Mattingly: That's affirm. We want to get the weight right, we were expecting you to be toting a couple hundred pounds of moon rocks.

Jim Lovell: [flatly] Right, Houston.

Gene Kranz: Come on, I want whatever you guys got on the power-up procedures. We've got to get something up to these guys.

Deke Slayton: Gene, they're working on it.

Gene Kranz: I don't want the want the whole damn bible, just give me a couple of chapters. We've got to give these guys something.

Deke Slayton: They're working on it now.

NASA engineer: I'll get over there and get an estimate.

Gene Kranz: Goddamnit! I don't want another estimate! I want the procedures! Now!

Jim Lovell: [pointing to a large "NO" note on the control panel] What is that?

Jack Swigert: Oh, I was getting a little punchy and I didn't want to cut the LEM loose with you guys still in it.

Jim Lovell: That's good thinking.

Jim Lovell: [Jim sits down in the pilot's seat intended for Jack Swigert] Sorry Jack, it's an old habit. Kinda used to the pilot's seat.

[gets out of the seat]

Jim Lovell: She's yours to fly.

Gene Kranz: Gentlemen, at this moment, I want you all to forget the flight plan. From this moment on, we are improvising a new mission: How do we get our people home?

[Goes to the chalkboard, draws a big circle representing Earth, another smaller circle representing the moon, then draws a line from the Earth to just short of the moon]

Gene Kranz: They are here. Do we turn them around, straight back, direct abort?

[NASA controllers instantly start arguing]

Jerry Bostick - FIDO White: No, sir! No, sir! We get them on a free-return trajectory. It's the option with the fewest question marks for safety.

Gene Kranz: I agree with Jerry. We use the moon's gravity, slingshot them around.

R.E.T.R.O. White: No, the LEM will not support three guys for that amount of time. I mean, we've got to do a direct abort. We do an about-face, we bring the guys right home, right now.

Booster White: Get them back soon, absolutely.

Jerry Bostick - FIDO White: Look, we don't even know if the Odyssey's engine's even working. If there's been serious damage to this spacecraft...

GUIDO White: They blow up and they die!

R.E.T.R.O. White: That is not the argument! We're talking about time!

[Controllers argue again]

Gene Kranz: Okay, hold it. Let's hold it down. The only engine we got with enough power for a direct abort is the SPS on the service module. From what Lovell has told us, that could have been damaged in an explosion, so let's consider that engine dead. We light that thing up, it could blow the whole works. It's just too risky. We're not going to take that chance. About the only thing the command module is good for is reentry, so that leaves us with the LEM, which means free-return trajectory. Once we get the guys around the moon, we'll fire the LEM engine, make a long burn, pick up some speed, and get them home as quickly as we can.

Ken Mattingly: Here's the order of what I want to do. I want to power up Guidance, E.C.S., Communications, warm up the pyros for the parachutes, and the command module thrusters.

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: The thrusters are gonna put you over budget on amps, Ken.

Ken Mattingly: Well, they've been sitting at 200 below for four days, John. They've got to be heated.

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: Fine. Then trade off the parachutes, something.

Ken Mattingly: Well, if the chutes don't open, what's the point?

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: Ken, you're telling me what you need. I'm telling you what we have to work with at this point. I'm not making this stuff up.

Ken Mattingly: They're gonna need all these systems, John.

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: We do not have the power, Ken. We just don't have it.

Ken Mattingly: Okay. I'm gonna go back and re-organize the sequencing again and find more power. Let's start from scratch. Clear the board.

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: [covering his mic, to John Young] I don't know where the hell we're gonna find it.

Jim Lovell: [Jack has just killed himself, Jim and Fred in the NASA simulator during a failed attempt at reentry] So what happened?

Jack Swigert: [morosely] Came in too steep. We're dead.

Fred Haise, Sr.: [even more morose] No shit.

Fred Haise, Sr.: [NASA need the crew to fabricate an air filter to clear the excess CO2 from the LEM with nothing but odds and ends] They want you to rip the cover off the flightplan.

Jack Swigert: With pleasure.

Fred Haise, Sr.: [after faultlessly performing numerous crucial operations that it was never designed for, thereby saving the astronauts' lives, the crew must jettison their Lunar Excursion Module, "Aquarius". Fred watches through the window as it drifts off into space] She sure was a good ship.

Jack Swigert: Farewell, Aquarius, and we thank you.

Henry Hurt: Hey Marylin.

Marilyn Lovell: Where's their broadcast?

Henry Hurt: All the networks dumped us. One of them said we made going to the moon as exciting as taking a trip to Pittsburgh.

[Jack Swigert has just failed a simulated re-entry]

Jim Lovell: How ya feelin', Freddo?

Fred Haise, Sr.: Char-broiled.

Jim Lovell: So what happened?

Jack Swigert: Came in too steep. We're dead.

Jim Lovell: [after hearing the explosion] What did you do?

Jack Swigert: Nothing. I stirred the tanks.

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: Power is everything.

Gene Kranz: What do you mean?

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: Without it, they don't talk to us, they don't correct their trajectory, they don't turn the heat shield around. We gotta turn everything off, now. They're not gonna make it to re-entry.

Gene Kranz: What do you mean "everything"?

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: With everything on, the LEM draws 60 amps. At that rate, in 16 hours, the batteries are dead, not 45. And so is the crew. We gotta get them down to twelve amps.

Jim Lovell: Okay, uh, good evening, America, and welcome aboard Apollo 13. I'm Jim Lovell, and we're broadcasting to you tonight from an altitude of almost 200,000 miles away from the... the face of the Earth, and we have a pretty good show in store for you tonight. We are going to show you just what, uh, life is like for the three of us in the vast expanse of outer space.

[a controller at Houston glances at a TV and sees a baseball game is on instead]

Jim Lovell: Okay, one of the first things we'd like to do is provide you with the appropriate background music. So, uh, hit it there, Freddo.

Fred Haise: [playing Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky"] Hello, world!

Jim Lovell: That, uh, was supposed to be the theme to "2001", in honor of our command module Odyssey, but there seems to have been a last-minute change in the program.

William 'Bill' Pogue, CAPCOM: Odyssey, this is Houston. We need you to power down immediately. And you're gonna have to power up the LEM at the same time, so you better get somebody over there.

Jim Lovell: We already have Freddo in the LEM, Houston.

William 'Bill' Pogue, CAPCOM: We've got serious time pressure here, Jim. You've gotta get the guidance program transferred, and you've gotta do it before you're out of power in the command module, or you're not gonna be able to navigate up there.

Jim Lovell: How much time? Can you give me a number?

William 'Bill' Pogue, CAPCOM: Well, we're looking at less than fifteen minutes of life support in the Odyssey.

Jim Lovell: [sharing a look with Jack, then joining Fred] We've got fifteen minutes, Freddo. It's worse than I thought.

Gene Kranz: Now, if Jack can't get that guidance computer data transferred before they go dead in there...

Glynn Lunney: They won't even know which way they're pointed.

Gene Kranz: That's right.

Glynn Lunney: That's a bad way to fly.

INCO White: Gene, I-I'm wondering what the... what the Grumman guys think about this.

Grumman Rep: We can't make any guarantees. We designed the LEM to land on the moon, not fire the engine out there for course corrections.

Gene Kranz: Well, unfortunately, we're not landing on the moon, are we?

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: We have to turn off the radars, cabin heater, instrument displays, the guidance computer, the whole smash.

Jerry Bostick - FIDO White: Whoa! Guidance computer. What... what if they need to do another burn? Gene, they won't even know which way they're pointed.

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: The more time we talk down here, the more juice they waste up there. I've been looking at the data for the past hour.

Gene Kranz: That's the deal?

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: That's the deal.

NASA Director: He specifically wanted a quote from a flight director.

Gene Kranz: Who wanted a quote?

Deke Slayton: The president.

Gene Kranz: The president?

Glynn Lunney: Nixon. He wants odds.

Gene Kranz: We are not losing the crew.

NASA Director: Gene, I gotta give him odds. Five to one against? Three to one?

Glynn Lunney: I don't think they're that good.

Gene Kranz: [firmly] We are not losing those men!

Gene Kranz: So you're telling me you can only give our guys 45 hours? That brings them down to about here.

[drawing a line from the moon to about halfway to Earth, then emphasizing the difference]

Gene Kranz: Gentlemen, that's not acceptable.

Gene Kranz: [agreeing to shut off the LEM's power] Now, in the meantime, we're gonna have a frozen command module up there. In a couple days, we're gonna have to power it up using nothing but the re-entry batteries.

GNC White: That's never been tried before.

R.E.T.R.O. White: Hell, we've never even simulated it before, Gene.

Gene Kranz: Well, we're gonna have to figure it out. I want people in our simulators working re-entry scenarios. I want you guys to find every engineer who designed every switch, every circuit, every transistor, and every light bulb that's up there. Then I want you to talk to the guy on the assembly line who actually built the thing. Find out how to squeeze every amp out of both of these god damn machines.

[going to the chalkboard and drawing a dotted line from where the crew currently is down to Earth]

Gene Kranz: I want this mark all the way back to Earth with time to spare.

John Young: There's been an explosion. Oxygen tanks are gone. Two fuel cells gone. Command module shut down.

Ken Mattingly: What about the crew?

John Young: Crew's fine so far. Trying to keep 'em alive in the LEM. We're gonna have to shut that down pretty soon, too. We got a lot of people working the numbers on this one, Ken. Nobody's too sure how much power we're gonna have when we hit re-entry. The command module's gonna be frozen up pretty good by then.

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: Ken, glad you're here. You know what's going on?

Ken Mattingly: Uh, John's brought me up to speed. What do we have left in the batteries?

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: We don't really know.

Ken Mattingly: Well, we gotta get started on some shortcuts for power-up.

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: Yeah. You know how short?

Ken Mattingly: Well, it's all in the sequencing, John. If we can skip what we don't absolutely need and turn things on in the right order, maybe...

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: I agree.

Ken Mattingly: You started on a procedure?

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: Well, the engineers have tried, but, I mean, it's your ship. We gotta get you in there.

Ken Mattingly: Okay. Frank, I need the sim cold and dark. Give me the exact same conditions they've got in there now. And I need, uh, present status of every instrument.

Frank Borman: You got it.

Ken Mattingly: I need a flashlight.

[one is offered]

Ken Mattingly: That's not what they have up there. Don't give me anything they don't have on board.

Fred Haise, Sr.: Oh, Christ.

Jack Swigert: What's up?

Jim Lovell: No more waste dumps. We're just gonna have to store it.

Jim Lovell: Oh, it's too bad we can't demonstrate this on TV.

Fred Haise, Sr.: What a shame.

Jim Lovell: Okay. Overboard dump coming up.

Fred Haise, Sr.: [looking out the window] Here it comes, the constellation ur-ine.

[watching as the urine is vented into space]

Fred Haise, Sr.: Now, that's a beautiful sight.

Ken Mattingly: Okay, spacecraft control to computer.

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: [seeing it go over budget on amperage] Damn!

Ken Mattingly: Damn. We overloaded. We used way too much power there. There must be a sneak circuit someplace between step seven and ten.

John Aaron, EECOM Arthur: All right, which one has the leak?

Ken Mattingly: Don't know that yet, John. The sequence was wrong. We just have to go back and try 'em one at a time.

John Young: [poking his head into the sim] You need a break, Ken?

Ken Mattingly: If they don't get one, I don't get one.

Grumman Rep: Gene, I want you to understand we've never tried this before: burn, cold soak, burn, cold soak, burn, manual control.

Gene Kranz: Look, it will ignite, will it not?

Grumman Rep: I just want you to know the engine's never been tried like this. That's all I'm trying to tell you.

Gene Kranz: Look, I know what you're trying to do. I guarantee you, I won't hold you personally responsible. If it lights, it lights. Let Lovell do the rest.

Jim Lovell: Houston, uh, we... we sure could use the re-entry procedure up here. When can we expect that?

William 'Bill' Pogue, CAPCOM: Uh, that's coming real soon, Aquarius.

Jim Lovell: Uh, Houston, we... we... we just can't just throw this together at the last minute. So here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna get the procedure up to us, whatever it is, and we're gonna go over it step by step so that there's no foul-ups. I don't have to tell you we're all a little tired up here. The world's getting awfully big in the window.

Deke Slayton: Jim, we're gonna get that power-up procedure to you. We're gonna get it as soon as we possibly can. Ken Mattingly's in the simulator right now.

Jim Lovell: [hopeful] Ken's working on it?

EECOM Gold: Gene, we have a situation brewing with the carbon dioxide.

INCO Gold: We got a CO2 filter problem on the lunar module.

EECOM Gold: Five filters on the LEM.

INCO Gold: Which was meant for two guys for a day and a half. So I told the doc...

Dr. Chuck: We're already up to 8 on the gauges. Anything over 15, and you get impaired judgment, blackouts, the beginnings of brain asphyxia.

Gene Kranz: What about the scrubbers on the command module?

INCO Gold: They take square cartridges.

EECOM Gold: And the ones on the LEM are round.

Gene Kranz: [pinching the bridge of his nose] Tell me this isn't a government operation.

EECOM Gold: This just isn't a contingency we've remotely looked at.

Dr. Chuck: Those CO2 levels are gonna be getting toxic.

Gene Kranz: Well, I suggest you gentlemen invent a way to put a square peg in a round hole. Rapidly.

Dr. Chuck: Haise is running a temperature, and none of 'em have slept.

Deke Slayton: I can't order these guys to go to sleep. Could you sleep up there?

CAPCOM 2: Uh, Jim, we've got another course correction for you.

Jack Swigert: What's up?

Fred Haise, Sr.: Something about another course correction.

Jim Lovell: Uh, we copy, uh, Houston. Be advised, it's gonna take Freddo and I a while to power up the computer for the, uh, alignment platform if we have to fire the engine.

CAPCOM 2: Uh, negative on that, Jim. We can't, uh, spare power for the computer.

Fred Haise, Sr.: We gotta do this blind?

Jerry Bostick - FIDO White: Flight, we're still shallowing up a bit in the re-entry corridor. It's almost like they're underweight.

Gene Kranz: Now, how could they be underweight?

R.E.T.R.O. White: We didn't land on the moon.

Gene Kranz: Rocks?

R.E.T.R.O. White: That's affirm.

Henry Hurt: Let me put it this way. Trajectory may be off. Their thrusters may be frozen. Their guidance system might be malfunctioning. Their heat shield could be cracked. And their parachutes might be three blocks of ice. Clearly, we have some obstacles to overcome.

Reporter: Yeah, okay, but now I'm asking you, when will we know?

Henry Hurt: Blackout lasts for three minutes. If they're not back in four, we'll know.