Fifty years ago this month, one of humanity's greatest tragedies was narrowly averted by the ingenuity of NASA scientists. Astronauts Lovell, Swigert and Haise were marooned in space during transit to the moon, when an explosion on the Odyssey Service Module rendered the craft inoperable. Using the engines on the Aquarius Lunar Module, they were able to manouvre the Command Module back to Earth orbit.
Very few clear images exist from the mission, but a technician from the uk has managed to compile some stunning stills of the event, using the 16mm movie footage captured by the crew. Saunders took over 1000 frames from a section of film, adjusted each and sharpened them individually, before stacking them together to create these amazingly clear images.
Its now possible to see the full extent of the damage to the Odyssey Service Module after a damaged wire vented the oxygen tanks and rendered most of the systems, including life support inoperable. More of Andy Saunders remarkable work can be seen on his Twitter feed.
https://twitter.com/AndySaunders_1
Those images are superb. I remember the mission and the news reports very clearly (I was 8). The Ron Howard movie of the story is one of my favourite films.
ReplyDeleteI was ten, but I do not really remember anything from the time itself, only what I saw and read later. Amazing that they got back. They found a way - there is a solution to every problem, you just have to find it.
ReplyDeleteHistorically, I was always disappointed with the nasa footage, especially from the moon landing. But having seen the original footage, rather than the televised versions, it is much more rewarding. These photos are amazing, especially the damaged capsule, which was shot with a cine camera rather than the usual Hasselbad still camera.
ReplyDeletestunning pictures. what a fantastic use of modern photo tech. its amazing that the crew solved the problem with such limited technology back then. i am generally super-impressed with the sixties NASA generation. they did so much with so little. a lesson for today's administrations in our own crisis.
ReplyDeleteI have James Lovell's autograph hanging above my desk at work. My sister worked with his sister and when he came to town (Milwaukee, WI) for his father's funeral in '67 he signed his name on the casket company's note paper. P.S.: He and I are graduates of the same high school (him in the 1950s, me in '71)
ReplyDeleteSo his autograpoh is on casket company letterhead Ed? Great connections.
DeleteYup!
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