Apollo 13 | A Flight Director Remembers | 6

Against The Odds

Wondery

Cassie De Pecol, History, Society & Culture, Dolby, Mike Corey, Dolby Atmos, Atmos

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2023

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert went through the ordeal of their lives on the Apollo 13 Mission. But the people manning Houston’s Mission Control faced their own challenges as they figured out how to bring the astronauts home safe. Former NASA Flight Director Gerry Griffin was in that room, more than 50 years ago. He joins Host Mike Corey to share his experiences steering the mission from the ground, and what it was like to advise director Ron Howard on the movie, Apollo 13.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From Wondery, I'm Mike Corey, and this is Against The Odds.
0:21.4	Over the last five episodes, we've told the story of Apollo 13.
0:26.2	The astronauts' gym level, Fred Hayes and Jack Swigard, were 56 hours into their mission
0:32.2	when an oxygen tank exploded during a routine stir.
0:36.1	The accident ended their dreams of landing on the moon and threatened the lives of the
0:41.0	three men.
0:42.8	In the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges, NASA worked together with the astronauts to
0:48.5	bring them home safely.
0:50.5	My guest today was one of the people in Houston's mission control who helped get the Apollo
0:55.6	13 astronauts back home.
0:58.6	Jerry Griffin worked as a flight director during NASA's Apollo program.
1:03.2	He was on duty for all of the lunar landings and served as lead flight director for the
1:08.6	Apollo 12, 15, and 17 missions.
1:12.2	He also advised director Ron Howard on the movie Apollo 13, starring Tom Hanks.
1:17.8	Jerry Griffin, welcome to Against The Odds.
1:21.2	Let's bring it back to April 11, 1970, with the launch of Apollo 13 from the Kennedy Space
1:28.7	Center in Cape Canaveral.
1:31.2	What do you remember about that day?
1:34.2	You know, we'd already been out to the moon on 8, 10, 11, and 12, and I remember thinking
1:41.4	that we weren't cocky at all, but we felt ready.
1:45.9	We were ready to do this because we had finally gotten pretty comfortable with the way the
1:50.5	hardware worked, the software worked, and all that.
	...

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