Apollo 13: The drama that gripped the world

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2020

⏱️ 52 minutes

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Summary

50 years since the Apollo 13 mission, how millions of TV viewers followed the famous rescue of the three NASA astronauts. Also, the women who led the way in America’s space programme by spending two weeks under water and what happened when Skylab crashed to Earth in 1979. Plus, a collision on board the Mir space station in 1997 and the last men on the Moon.

PHOTO: The crew of Apollo 13 after their rescue (Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the History Hour Podcast from the BBC World Service with me
0:08.7	Max Pearson where this week we're marking 50 years since the near disaster on board the Apollo 13 mission to the
0:14.9	Moon by looking back at some of the most striking stories from our past in space.
0:20.0	Beyond Apollo 13, we'll look at the role of women in space in the 1970s.
0:24.0	Some of the NASA guys really did not want a woman's mission.
0:27.0	They did not think we were capable of doing the work.
0:30.0	Another near disaster on the mere space station.
0:33.0	You know, I know, I realize we've had a collision.
0:35.0	This may be my last breath.
0:37.0	And the moment Skylab came crashing back to Earth.
0:40.0	Skylab has impacted at 42 degrees 87 minutes south 105 degrees 0.97 minutes east which puts
0:48.8	it off the southwest corner of Australia.
0:51.5	Wrong it actually hit Australia but let's start with Apollo 13 in 1970
0:57.2	hundreds of millions of viewers around the world tuned into TV coverage of the drama
1:01.2	which unfolded as it attempted to return safely to Earth after a devastating
1:05.8	on-board explosion.
1:07.3	The event revitalised interest in the NASA space program, which had been dwindling after
1:11.9	the first lunar landing just a year earlier.
1:15.0	Simon Watts has been speaking to David Schumishir, former space correspondent for America's CBS news,
1:21.0	and to the former CBS producer Mark Kramer about the TV coverage of that nail-biting
1:26.4	time.
1:27.4	14, 13, 12, 11.
	...

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