From the Earth to the Moon (1998) s01e08 Episode Script

We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard.
- Look at that.
- That's beautiful.
It's gotta be one of the most proud moments of my life.
I guarantee you.
During their flight to the moon, the crew of Apollo 13 made a live colour television broadcast back to Earth that was largely ignored.
Moments after the end of the TV show, an explosion occurred which put the lives of the crew in danger and made it impossible for any further pictures to be seen back home.
The remaining dramatic days of the flight played themselves out by only the faint radio voices of the crew, the sketchy telemetry data from the crippled spacecraft and the reports from the media that suddenly found itself as blind to the events as the rest of the world, a world which had become bored with TV shows from outer space.
One of the biggest stories of the year became one with no TV pictures, only talking heads, all waiting to see whether or not three human beings would survive a voyage from the Earth to the moon.
Out of the right window now, you can see our objective, the moon.
I'll zoom in on it and see if this brings it in better.
We see it, 1 3.
It's beginning to look bigger to us now.
I can see quite distinctly some of the features with the naked eye.
So far, though, the moon looks pretty Grey with some white spots.
Roger.
OK, Houston, for the benefit of our television viewers, we've just about completed our inspection of Aquarius and now we're proceeding back into Odyssey.
OK, Jim.
We think you ought to conclude it from there now.
Any time you want to terminate TV, we're all set to go.
It's been a great show.
Roger.
This is the crew of Apollo 13 wishing everyone there a nice evening.
Good night.
OK, 1 3, we've got a few housekeeping details for you to take care of.
Go ahead, Houston.
Press Center.
No, I can talk.
No.
Nothing.
We'd like you to roll right to 0-6-0 and null your rates.
Copy that.
0-6-0.
So, what are you doing for dinner? And we'd like you to check your C-4 thruster isolation valve.
OK, Jack.
Well, how about lunch? And we've got one more item for you, 1 3.
When you get a chance, we'd like you to stir your cryo tanks.
OK, Houston, stand by.
Yeah, we got space.
As a matter of fact, we've got a whole lot of space.
Yeah.
That's why we call it the Space Center.
Dave, who delivers good takeout? OK, Houston, I believe we have a problem here.
This is Houston.
Say again, please.
Houston, we've had a problem.
We've had a main B bus undervolt.
OK, 1 3.
Main B undervolt.
All right, Houston.
We had a pretty large bang with the caution and warnings.
- What does that mean, a bang? - Some kind of jolt.
They had a main B bus undervolt.
- They're losing power? - I don't know.
- An instrumentation problem? - It's more serious.
- Lovell said they're venting something.
- What are they venting? They could be running out of oxygen and electricity.
- It could have been a meteorite.
- Or a reindeer.
- You'll have to improvise.
- Why? - I just got McAfee out of bed.
- Emmett, you're on in 90.
- I need handbooks for the lunar modules.
- The LEM's not the problem.
They'll have to go somewhere if Odyssey loses oxygen.
- Yeah, but - Mr Seaborn.
You know Warren Moburg, vice president of the news division.
I've been a great fan of yours since radio.
They're moving to the LEM.
- Get me mission rules.
- We're on it.
Julie, check the wires.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut.
Let me introduce you to Brett Hutchins from the Chicago bureau.
It's an honour.
I'm doing a piece on the Astros, the baseball team.
He's not just a sports reporter.
Give this boy any kind of a story Excuse me.
Glad to see you're working upper management.
A mole at CBS has something about trajectory and spin.
- What about it? - I don't know.
- Transcripts.
- One minute.
- Somebody better have notes.
- I did them.
- We don't have it, son.
- CBS is saying a possible meteorite.
- It wasn't a meteorite.
- Why not? Larry, there are 48,700 electrical connections in the command module alone.
- 40.
- The chances of one of them fritzing are a lot better than being hit by a meteorite.
Here it is, but it's totally routine.
They asked them to roll right at 0-6-0 and null - Null their rates? - Yeah, that's it.
- What else? - Something here about C-4 thrusters.
Check C-4 thruster valve? - Bingo! - Coming to us in 30.
- Who are you calling? - The ops centre.
They had trouble with those thrusters before.
Ten cents says something inside that ship blew up.
- There is no time.
- Larry, don't stand there.
Find out what crap they're feeding Cronkite.
It is not known yet just what happened.
Perhaps a meteoroid or an explosion.
- Anything I can do? - Get me the Astros-Cubs score.
- What do you think? - I hope it wasn't a meteorite.
Those poor guys are screwed.
No one can predict these things precisely.
There appears to be less than a 10% chance that the crew of Apollo 1 3 will make it home alive.
Rosen's predicting they won't make it back.
I just need a yes or a no.
Can you look me in the eye and say this came from outside the ship? We're on in 15.
What's he doing? I don't know what he's doing.
Sorry to intrude, Emmett, but we're on in ten.
Thank you.
You owe me a dime.
- I never took the bet.
- Is he always like this? Emmett Seaborn is following that story.
Apollo 13 is America's 23rd manned space flight, and tonight it appears that no previous mission has ever posed a greater risk to the lives of its crew.
NASA's flight controllers, having successfully guided four missions Hi.
It's Brett Hutchins.
Are you watching your TV? Come on, I'd love to be out there.
Who loves baseball more than me? I have to stay here and pitch Moburg a piece on the astronauts' families.
I know they're on the razz.
Screw NASA.
It's worth a shot, right? OK.
Great.
Yeah.
As a result, the astronauts will likely use the lunar module's engine to send them on a slingshot course around the moon and back to Earth.
But is the relatively tiny Aquarius up to the task? That, unfortunately, is a question that no one can answer.
1 3, Houston.
We're water-critical in the LEM so we'd like to use as little as possible.
We'd like to make a free-return manoeuvre of a 1 6-foot-per-second burn in 37 minutes.
OK.
Could you give us a little bit more time? We're working up a pad for it.
What do you think about doing it at that time? We'll give it a try, Houston, if that's all we've got.
Press Center.
Please hold.
They're not telling us anything.
I can't make 15 minutes.
Copy.
We've scheduled the briefing for 1 1:30.
- Is that Houston time? - Yes.
That's 15 minutes after the final.
I'm sorry.
We're doing the best we can.
- How do I get a desk? - Good luck.
Press Center.
Please hold.
- Sam.
- Not now.
- New York Times wants an exclusive.
- Tell them I'll call later.
- Hal, are the astronauts out of oxygen? - If they were, they wouldn't be breathing.
- So, they are breathing? - Yeah.
- Are they in spacesuits? - Shirt sleeves.
- Excuse me.
- I have calls from Reuters and the AP.
If we don't handle this, it will spread like kudzu.
- "Crew have suicide pills"? - Are suicide pills in the crew rations? - Are those the same little pills the CIA uses? - Guys, there are no suicide pills.
I'll cover this in detail at the press conference.
The nets want to patch into the loop.
- Cronkite wants to remote from ops.
- I'll deal with Cronkite.
Protocol is flying Jack Swigert's folks in.
We're to make sure there's no press and - And that.
- How did he get here? - Through a sewer.
- They're finally making you work.
- Why are you here? - I don't know if you heard but I'm now the vice president's press representative.
What are you doing here? You haven't forgotten Vice President Agnew's visit? Yeah, I guess it did slip my mind.
People, we'll try to move this along as quickly as possible because, obviously, we have matters to attend to in Mission Control.
I assume Deke Slayton, Chris Kraft and Colonel James McDivitt need no introduction.
- Emmett.
- The command module has never been powered down in flight before.
Are you certain you can power her back up? While it's true that we've never done it before, every time we've pushed the hardware, it's done more than we thought it would.
We're confident that this is going to work.
- The astronauts' families - Raise your hands.
Max.
Deke, any more information on what may have caused the damage to the service module? No.
Frankly, that is still a mystery.
We probably won't know anything until we jettison the service module and get a good look at the thing.
With three astronauts crowded into the LEM, isn't there a chance the CO2 levels could get dangerously high? That is something we are looking at.
We are studying ways to fit Odyssey's lithium hydroxide filters into Aquarius.
- We don't have an answer yet.
- Will the families What about the reports that the crew will run out of water and oxygen? Let me answer that.
Apollo 13 is on the non-free return trajectory it needed to reach its target at Fra Mauro.
Our first priority is to get it on a slingshot route that will use the moon's gravity to whip it around the backside and bring them back home.
We're overdue for the happy line.
Let's give them 20.
To answer Jerry's question, it will take four days for the crew to get home and we are concerned about consumables.
That's why we'll have a second speed-up burn, a PC plus two, two hours after the craft has reached the far side of the moon.
It will be about 8:00 this evening.
- If the situation remains stable - Ignition.
we'll have the thing under control and return the crew safely to Earth within three days.
- Liftoff.
- Sir! 40%.
OK, Aquarius, you're looking good.
Auto shutdown.
You're looking at 1 685 now.
You're go in the residuals.
No trim required.
No trim.
Is that right? That's affirmative.
No trim required.
Hey, Emmett.
I know we scheduled that interview with Gene tomorrow, but we'll have to postpone.
- I totally understand.
- I'll make it up to you.
When this is all over, you'll get the first exclusive.
- That's great.
I appreciate that.
- Sure.
- Can we talk about the press pool? - Emmett, don't start that.
Hal, we understand that you need to bring these men home.
We don't want to compromise that but we're in the dark.
You want pool reports from the control centre? Mission Control's across the courtyard 100 yards from here, where we aren't allowed to be.
Unless we know what you know when you know it, we'll start getting paranoid.
We'll have a press pool of two, one print, one broadcast, rotated every two hours in the visitors' gallery where they can monitor the flight director's loop.
We hear everything he hears but no taping or broadcast of the flight controller's communications.
Damn it, Hal.
You know it's the right thing to do.
- What about the families? - I'm sorry? Will NASA make them available for interviews or comments as the situation unfolds? - Well - Brett Hutchins.
Well, Brett, these individuals are private citizens.
Oh, please.
"Private citizens"? For ten years these private citizens have availed themselves of free clothes, free cars and junkets.
NASA paraded them like prize poodles.
Now when the going gets tough, the tough issue a quarantine? Interview the families when the loved ones are safely home.
- I think we all understand that.
- I think it's important Like I said, it's just not gonna be a problem.
- Appreciate that.
- Thanks, Hal.
- Mr Hutchings - Hutchins.
Call me Brett.
- What are you doing? - Just trying to get a story.
Look, son, these are ordinary people, these family members, regular folks.
Who signed up to be historic figures, courtesy of the US taxpayer.
Nobody put a gun to their head to do this.
Don't the shareholders have a right to know the real cost of the space programme? There are better ways to build a relationship with NASA.
I don't want a relationship with NASA.
Well, you do your job however you do it but keep it out of my corner.
I'm trying to get something accomplished here.
Me too.
I'm standing in front of the house of Commander Jim Lovell, the astronaut who's trapped in orbit.
brings clearance on information.
What's your name? How do you spell it? - Should we get this? - The paperboy? Why don't we just interview their dog? This is ridiculous.
It's the paperboy.
Good work, morons.
Give me a couple of minutes.
Hi, I'm Brett Hutchins.
- Are you one of the reporters? - Yeah.
I - My mom told me not to talk to reporters.
- That's fine.
I was I'm in a bind and I wanted to know if I can use your telephone.
- My mom said to keep the reporters away.
- Of course.
That's good.
I wouldn't want you to disobey your mom.
But I'll be real fast.
I'll be on and off, you know.
Like a jackrabbit.
What's your name? Doris.
Doris? That's my mother's name.
At the Lovell household, the vigil continues, each passing moment bringing new hope and new terrors.
A mother comforting a young son, pointing the path of his father's prayed-for return.
- Stop.
Did you shoot this from a tree? - How did you know? How do we know they're not pointing at the clouds saying, "I see a horsey"? - It's obvious.
- If you read lips.
This is brilliant reporting.
- This is reporting? - Yes.
Houston, we're burning 40%.
Houston, copy.
100%.
Roger, Aquarius, you're looking good.
Aquarius, you were looking good at two minutes and still looking good.
Roger.
Don't forget descent rate one off.
Ten seconds to go.
This is Apollo Control at 79 hours, 28 minutes.
- The crew of Apollo 13 is currently - Roger.
Shutdown.
Are you reading our 1 640, Houston? We're reading it.
Good burn, Aquarius.
What's happening here? History.
Roger.
Now we want to power down as soon as possible.
Roger.
Understand.
Suggest you just read off the circuit breakers if you want us to power down, as you did yesterday.
We have a procedure ready to send up to you here in about two minutes.
Let us know when you're all ready to take it.
OK.
Mr Seaborn? Just going to the head, son.
I'm sorry, sir.
You can't leave the area without an escort.
If you can, just wait till the next shift.
Are you telling me I gotta wait an hour to take a piss? No, of course not.
Well, thanks.
You look as bad as I feel.
Let's not do this again sometime soon, huh? Paul.
Don't ask.
People keep forgetting how cold it is up there.
It's hard to think straight when it's that cold.
Let's talk about the nuke problem.
How do you know about the? First of all, I would not characterize it a nuke problem.
All I know is the LEM's got a nuclear reactor on board.
Technically, but it's got less than eight pounds of plutonium.
It's the battery for the lunar surface experiments.
- Instead of leaving it on the moon - It's flying home to mama.
The boys at the Atomic Energy Commission are going apeshit.
Is that what you're saying? Apparently the AEC doesn't think it makes for good public relations to bring home radioactive material.
Look, this battery is encased to survive a collision or explosion without contaminating anything.
As long as it doesn't bonk somebody on the head.
Are you gonna quote me? For Christ's sake, give me a little credit.
What's the plan? The plan is to throw a wrinkle into a mission that's already got 1 1,000 too many wrinkles in it.
It's like, "Forget about the astronauts, we got politics to worry about.
" What I'm asking you is what do they want you to do about it? We want to adjust the trajectory so we can dump the sucker in the deepest trench in the Pacific.
As if we don't have enough to worry about.
Emmett says he's got a major break.
Nuclear radiation and a trench in the LEM.
- He thinks New York should cut in.
- Your call.
Emmett.
Yeah, I know.
Maybe we should save this for the six.
I'll talk to you later.
- Aquarius, is the noise any better now? - Negative.
How do you read us now? We still have noise.
I'll tell you what we need.
Get the right procedures here before we get all balled up.
OK, Jim, we'll look at it some more.
Freddo, I'm afraid this will be the last moon mission for a long time.
Do you agree with Commander Lovell's assessment that this will be our last flight to the moon? I'm sure we've all been in situations where we've found ourselves under pressure and we make a comment that we might have phrased differently under other circumstances.
Having said that, there are a lot of questions that we need answers to Didn't Agnew cancel his visit? So what's he doing here? - Emmett's story about the AEC - Your exclusive.
- Deep background, of course.
- OK, shoot.
This administration is urging NASA to develop an unmanned probe to Neptune.
A probe to Neptune? Find some room in today's story for that.
We have these three guys who may wind up orbiting Neptune themselves, so column inches are a little tight, but I'll keep you in mind.
Your loss.
Mr Craig? Hi.
Brett Hutchins.
I enjoyed your piece on the Lovell family.
Good to hear it.
I understand you're looking to plant a story about a probe to Neptune.
As a matter of fact, I am.
I know a way I can make it worth your while.
- Mrs Swigert.
Dr Swigert.
- Yes.
- And you're? - Jeff Jordy.
From NASA Office of Protocol.
Welcome to Houston.
I'm sorry about the circumstances.
I hope you had a pleasant flight.
I just hope we didn't miss them.
Come on! - Just go! Excuse us! Let's go! - I can't go.
There are the Swigerts right now.
Come on! Go! Go! Thank you, Stanley Craig.
Hi, Dr and Mrs Swigert.
Brett Hutchins, NTC.
How do you do? Get in OK? Administration officials say they remain committed to space exploration.
This aired just after the press conference.
to endorse an unmanned mission to Neptune sometime in the near future.
Why is Brett Hutchins shilling for Stanley Craig? Sam, Jeff Jordy for you on line two.
Thanks, Cheryl.
Langfitt.
Oh, no.
Hold on.
Guess who ambushed Jack Swigert's folks at the airport.
At Mission Control, I'm Brett Hutchins.
I know Jack's doing what he loves most and I know he's in the best of hands.
God's hands.
Don't you think they've been through enough? - Get him out of there.
- He gives it drama.
Lose it, please.
Come on.
Brett, they want you on remote in 23 minutes.
Yes.
OK.
We're leaving.
Now.
I can finish this.
Trust me.
Go ahead.
Edit three.
Hold on.
It's Emmett Seaborn for you.
He's not here.
Right.
There's a story that remains untold, of the excruciating toll on the families of these three brave men.
Thank you.
The untold story of the excruciating toll on the families This afternoon I had an exclusive interview with the parents of Jack Swigert.
They're coming to us in 90.
There's a story that remains untold.
This afternoon I had an exclusive interview with the parents of Jack Swigert.
- Sarah.
- How's my level? - I need a favour, son.
- We're on in 60.
I need you to pull this story.
Excuse me? - We're both in this for the long haul.
- What's going on? Hell if I know.
- What are you talking about? - Son, you don't want to burn bridges.
Thank you for the advice, but To ambush a defenceless old couple like that is beneath the dignity of our profession.
I'd love to debate ethics in journalism but I have a job to do.
We're on top of it.
Get him out of there.
Tell Larry we're pulling the Swigerts footage.
- What? - What? - We're just gonna rewrite your lead.
- Damn it! I'm just trying to help you, son.
- Nobody wants to see a mother in pain.
- They do if it's news! That's not news! It's invasion of privacy! America wants to know about PC burns and thermal rolls? That's not news, man! That is Sominex! Now, please, leave me alone and just let me do my job, OK? Please.
Ten Five, four, three, two A few hundred yards from where I'm standing, over 1,000 journalists from 83 countries are monitoring every beat and tick of this star-crossed mission.
But the untold story remains, the excruciating toll the last few days have had on the families of these three very brave men.
I believe in the space programme.
I believe it's worthy.
I believe this country needs heroes.
But I think it's not just the astronauts, it's all the men at NASA.
They're all heroes.
And I know that Jack would That's a great piece of film.
It's been said that Apollo represents the greatest engineering achievement in history.
This, we're told, is the pride of our civilization, - the triumph of technology over nature.
- Hit us while we're down, huh? But Apollo 13 teaches us that the price of technology is measured not in dollars but in a mother's love for her son.
At Mission Control, I'm Brett Hutchins.
Kid can't even write in English, for God's sake.
Listen to this - "The price of technology is measured not in dollars "but in a mother's love for her son.
" If he keeps this up, they'll shut us out.
- In ten.
- I gotta go.
From our Houston bureau where Emmett Seaborn is following that story.
The astronauts of Apollo 13 face new uncertainties as they prepare for tomorrow's descent through the Earth's atmosphere.
The first big test will come early tomorrow when the crew brings the electrical systems - What do I say to him? - Just tell him it's the assignment.
- I don't think it's gonna wash.
- Don't worry about it.
have survived their power-saving slumber of the past three days.
- When do you think we'll know that? - We should know that in a few hours.
Thanks, Emmett.
- And we're clear.
- And we're out.
Emmett, New York would like you to stay in the studio tomorrow.
- Here? - Yeah.
They think it would be better if you stayed and if Brett or somebody fed the descent reports in to you from Mission Control.
Feeds them to me? Who's on air? - You both are, but - Then he feeds them to New York.
That's where the show originates, Larry.
What am I doing? Providing perspective.
You could take it up with New York.
I shouldn't have to beg.
Aquarius, Houston.
Go ahead.
OK, here's the big story.
Your attitude looks good except in rolls, so we'd like you to do the following.
In minimal impulse pings, we'd like you to trim to zero pitch, which is about where you are now, to 008 degrees in roll, which is about 1 6 degrees from your present roll attitude, and to zero degrees in yaw, which is about where you are now.
We'd like you to do the body-access align 400 plus 5-400 Could you help me? I'm not sure - How does that sound? Over.
- Are you saying I'm rolled the wrong way? That's right, Jim.
I'm sorry.
Apollo 1 3 is 45,000 miles from Earth and moving at 7,000 miles an hour, its course now adjusted, so we should see it land in the Pacific some five hours from now.
The helicopter carrier lwo Jima is on station there.
The weather, which has been on again-off again is now on again.
Some of the spacecraft's most critical moments are approaching.
In about 20 minutes, at 7:23 Houston time, the astronauts will jettison their crippled service module.
At 1 0:53 they will cast off the lunar lander that has been their lifeboat ever since the power failed on the main ship some 82 hours ago.
What we don't know in the final hours of this extraordinary mission is how the damaged spacecraft will stand up to the trauma of re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
How do we tell whether the heat shield's damaged? Drop it through the atmosphere and see if they survive.
Were Odyssey's heat shields damaged by the explosion? Will the pyrotechnics that deploy the parachutes needed to slow the capsule from a fatal 300 miles an hour to a gentle 20 for splashdown function properly? We're getting word from Brett Hutchins that they are about to jettison the service module.
- Yes, Howard.
That procedure - Let's go to Brett, get it from the source.
Thank you.
In just a few minutes, the astronauts aboard the crippled Apollo 13 will jettison their service module, which was mysteriously damaged two days into the mission, forcing them to abandon all hopes of a lunar landing.
The crew may get a view of the damaged service module to determine what may have caused the malfunction.
- Are we icing Brett Hutchins? - You bet.
Don't.
We have rules.
We can't reward someone for breaking them.
We can't afford to alienate a network.
This is Apollo Control Houston at 1 40 hours, 15 minutes into the mission.
Apollo 13 presently 34,350 nautical miles out from the Earth, travelling at a speed of 12,846 miles per hour.
Meanwhile, in the Mission Control viewing room, the crowd is increasing.
Already here are Senator Phil Hart of Michigan, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, George Miller, Chairman of the House Space Committee For the press conference the senator will make the opening statement.
The congressman's been more closely identified with the programme.
- You have absolutely no shame, Fred.
- Gentlemen.
Sorry, boys.
Administrator Paine should make the opening Gentlemen.
If they don't make it through re-entry, who wants to go first? OK, Houston.
Do we have a go for pyro arm? Stand by for a go on pyro arm and LEM jettison.
The astronauts are about to jettison the lifeboat that has served them so well.
Are there any dangers in this manoeuvre? This is a moment of suspense for the astronauts, their families and everyone on the ground at Mission Control.
Just answer the goddamn question! thrusters to back them away from the LEM.
They've wanted to hold on to their LEM lifeboat for as long as possible.
The SCC's logic is on.
Just copied that.
You are go for pyro arm, go for LEM jettison.
Real fine.
Ten seconds.
Five.
- LEM jettisoned.
- OK, that was the LEM.
- At 1 41:30 ground elapsed time.
- Copy that.
Farewell, Aquarius 10:43am.
Yeah.
"Farewell, Aquarius, and we thank you.
" Yeah.
This is Apollo Control at 1 42 hours, 30 minutes.
Apollo 13 is presently 6,000 miles from Earth, travelling at a speed of 25,000 miles per hour.
Re-entry expected to begin in ten minutes.
In four minutes, the leading edge of the command module will bite into the atmosphere.
And, as the accelerating ship encounters the thickening air, friction will begin to build, generating temperatures of 4,000 degrees across the face of the heat shield.
If this energy generated by the infernal descent were converted to electricity, it would equal 86,000 kilowatt hours, enough to light up the city of Los Angeles for a minute and a half.
If it were converted to kinetic energy, it could lift every man, woman and child ten inches off the ground.
For the craft, it will have but one effect.
As temperatures rise, a dense cloud of ionized gas will surround the ship, reducing communication to a hash of static for about three minutes.
If radio contact is restored at the end of this time, controllers will know that the heat shield is intact and the spacecraft did survive.
If not, they will know that the crew was consumed in flames.
Odyssey, Houston.
We just had one last time around the room and everybody says you're looking great.
I know all of us want to thank all you guys down there for the very fine job you did.
That's the nicest thing anybody's ever said.
LOS in about a minute or a minute and a half.
In entry attitude, we'd like Omni Charlie.
And welcome home.
Thank you.
Apollo 13 is re-entering the atmosphere.
We are awaiting reacquisition of signal in approximately three minutes.
Odyssey, Houston.
Standing by.
Over.
Odyssey, Houston.
Standing by.
Over.
Odyssey, Houston.
Standing by.
Over.
Odyssey, Houston.
Standing by.
- OK, Joe.
- OK, we read you, Jack.
We're looking at the weather on TV.
It looks just as advertised, real good.
A remarkable end to a four-day ordeal as the astronauts streak homeward We still have to wait for the drogue chutes and the main parachutes.
They could have been damaged by exposure to low temperatures when the heating elements were powered down.
I guess it's not over till it's over.
The Soviets learned that almost three years ago when the parachute of their Soyuz 1 capsule failed to open and cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed on impact.
Jesus.
Anything make him happy? He's just filling air.
We've got a couple of good drogues.
There go the mains.
Emmett, it looks good from here.
What do you think? I think it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
Houston, this is Odyssey.
We're in stable one, the ship is secure and our buoyancy's holding.
What did we learn? Perhaps the limits of technology, at least when it comes to protecting us from our own hubris.
But those are issues for another day.
What matters now is that three great men are safely aboard the USS lwo Jima and steaming for home.
In Houston, this is Emmett Seaborn.
- Thank you, Emmett.
- We're clear.
I'm getting too old for this.
- Good job, Emmett.
- Thanks.
Emmett, that was a hell of a job.
Could we talk I've been promised the first post-mission interview with Gene Kranz.
If I was at Mission Control instead of here, I'd be doing it right now instead of a half hour from now.
You get it? I get it, all right.
- Where the hell were you? - At our downtown spa.
- Mr Seaborn.
- Where is he? - Who? - Gene to me, Mr Kranz to you.
- We're setting up in a VIP room - OK.
Let's go.
Mr Seaborn Sorry.
Hey, Emmett.
You getting too big for me now? - Congratulations, Gene.
Hell of a job.
- Thank you, sir.
Emmett, what are you doing here? Yeah, they told me you were staying downtown.
Who told you that, Hal? Heck, you're here.
Why not let the A team take over? Mr Kranz.
Excuse me, gentlemen.
Look, Emmett, if it's a problem, you can do the interview.
I don't mind.
No.
No, it's OK.
I I got work to do.