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Analysis of the Movie Apollo 13

Josh Floisand

History 1700
Prof. Hansen
4-19-16

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Since the beginning of time man has dreamed of exploring beyond their world. From
exploring other parts of our own world to moving to areas outside of this place we call earth, we
have always ventured off to explore the unknown. In the 20th century we began space
explorations which began with sending satellites into orbit around the earth to eventually the
Russians sending the first person into space in April of 1961.1 Since Americans had essentially
been beaten in the race to space, they decided to take it one step further and put a man on the
moon. It was the goal of then president Kennedy to land a man on the moon and return him
safely back to earth within one decade of announcing this goal. In July of 1969 this goal was
made a reality with the giant leap for mankind as Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of
the moon in the Apollo 11 mission. Soon after, we were again able to land a second mission on
the moon during the Apollo 12 mission. Which brings us to what is known to be one of
Americas greatest successful failures, the Apollo 13 mission. In this essay I will be analyzing
the differences and similarities between this major event in the history of our country and the
film which was made several years later about the event titled Apollo 13 directed by Ron
Howard.
In the beginning of the film, we watch as Commander Jim Lovell, Module Pilot Thomas K.
Mattingly, and Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise are selected to be the crew of Apollo 13 which is
to land on the moon. They begin training and preparation for the mission and work together in
many simulators and medical examinations. Director Ron Howard made it a very firm goal to
make sure he depicted the events as accurately as possible. Many of the simulators and models
used in the film were replicas built specifically for the film to be close, if not exact, models of all
the original aircrafts and simulators used by the astronauts. Howard filmed zero-gravity scenes
1 Aerospace. http://www.aerospace.org/education/stem-outreach/space-primer/a-brief-historyof-space-exploration/. Accessed April 15,2016.

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on the same KC-135 airplane NASA used to train astronauts. The plane (sometimes known
informally as the Vomit Comet) flies in steep parabolas, creating a sensation of weightlessness
at certain points in the flight path. Altogether, the cast and crew spent nearly four hours
weightless.2 On one occasion shortly after the film premiered Commander Jim Lovell was
interviewed by the New York Times and said Its really amazing Everything. The instrument
panels, the console switches. Thats exactly what it looks like inside.3
As the the day of the launch of Apollo 13 approaches there is a change in the crew as
Thomas K. Mattingly was exposed to German measles. Although later in the film his role is
somewhat altered, this actually did happen. He was diagnosed just 72 hours before Apollo 13
was scheduled to take off from the Kennedy Space Center.4 Mattingly had never had the
measles, so he faced the risk of developing the disease during the middle of the flight. Delaying
Apollo13 was not an option, but replacing Mattingly was. In the end, he was never actually sick,
but the exposure ultimately cost him his spot with the Apollo 13 crew. John Swigert replaced
Mattingly on the crew shortly before the day of the launch.5
As the launch of Apollo 13 draws closer there is a scene where the crew members get a
chance to say goodbye to their loved ones outside but you notice they never touch each other or
even get close to each other at all. It looks a little awkward but this is actually very accurate as
well. In the short time leading up to the launch of any space mission, the crew members are not
2 World Science Festival. Palmer, Roxxane.
http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2014/04/cinema_peer_review_how_accu
rate_was_apollo_13/. Accessed April 11, 2016.
3 World Science Festival. Palmer, Roxxane.
http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2014/04/cinema_peer_review_how_accu
rate_was_apollo_13/. Accessed April 11, 2016.
4 NASA. Thomas K. Mattingly Biography.
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/mattingly-tk.html. Accessed April 18,
2016.
5 Moon Connection. http://www.moonconnection.com/apollo_13.phtml Updated 2016. Accessed April 18, 2016.

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to interact with any of the public to prevent any possible contamination of any diseases. This is
partially because the human immune system is essentially weakened because of the gravity
change when in space. This still remains part of the preflight procedure of space travel today.6
During the launch, everything seemed to be going pretty smoothly and as planned.
However, in the movie there is a scene where one of the main thrusters shuts off too early. It was
the 5th, or the center engine of the vessel. This is another true fact about the mission. During
launch, the engine shut off too early but the other four were able to provide the needed thrust to
get into space by simply running a few seconds longer than planned. The issue was deemed a
problem but something not of much significance and the crew continued on as normal. However,
this event was actually an interesting occurrence of the events of that day. It was later discovered
that this event during the launch could have actually caused a complete destruction of the vessel
and everyone onboard. The Saturn 5 rocket used in the Apollo 13 mission had five J-2 engines,
each producing 200,000 pounds of thrust, together creating the 1 million pounds of thrust needed
for a mission to the Moon. The Saturn 5 rocket experienced dangerous so-called pogo thrust
oscillations, a problem NASA knew about. While a fix had been planned for Apollo 14, time did
not permit its implementation on Apollo 13s Saturn 5. On previous Saturn flights, these pogo
oscillations had occurred during launch. The phenomenon occurred as the fuel lines and structure
of the rocket resonated at a common frequency. The resonance tended to amplify in force and
potential destruction with each bounce of the pogo mechanism.
The pogo oscillations were so powerful that on the Apollo 6 mission an entire outer panel
of the Saturn 5 ejected into space. Fortunately, this rocket was unmanned. While the explosion of
the oxygen tank on Apollo 13 was definitely an accident waiting to happen, this problem with the
6 NASA. http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/living/factsheets/microstow2.html. Last
updated April 7, 2002. Accessed April 12, 2016.

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rocket should have destroyed the entire rocket. The Apollo 6 mission carried a mock lunar lander
of a smaller size than the full-up lander which Apollo 13 carried to orbit. With the added mass
for Apollo 13, the pogo forces were suddenly a magnitude greater in intensity. A mission report
said that the engine experienced 68g vibrations at 16 hertz, flexing the thrust frame by 3 inches
(76 mm).

Jerry Woodfill, an Apollo engineer, said that if the center engine had continued running a
few more seconds, the oscillations may have destroyed the vehicle. That engine was pounding
horizontally up and down, a quarter foot, at the rate of 16 times a second, he said. The engine
had become a two-ton sledge hammer, a deadly pogo stick of destruction, putting enormous
forces on the supporting structures.7
The engine problem could have been fatal but it wasnt, and that brings us to another
point of the film. One of the most famous lines in American films was Tom Hanks line Houston,
we have a problem. In the movie, Lovell delivers the tagline after one of the oxygen tanks
explodes in route to the moon. Surprisingly, for how popular this line became in American
culture, it is actually somewhat false. Transcripts of the audio recordings from the actual mission
show that shortly after the explosion, Haise started to say Okay, Houston and Swigert
interrupted with: I believe weve had a problem here. Ground control asked the astronauts to
repeat, and Lovell then said Houston, weve had a problem.8 So, in a sense, yes the words
were said, but not in the exact way the popular line was depicted in the movie. For the film,
7 Universe Today. Atkinson, Nancy. http://www.universetoday.com/62672/13things-that-saved-apollo-13-part-5-unexplained-shutdown-of-the-saturn-vcenter-engine/. Last updated April 14, 2010. Accessed April 16, 2016.
8 World Science Festival. Palmer, Roxxane.
http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2014/04/cinema_peer_review_how_accu
rate_was_apollo_13/. Accessed April 11, 2016.

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Hanks reportedly suggested slightly altering the phrase to get the immediate urgency of the
situation across.
Overall, Apollo 13 is actually honored for being very accurate in telling the story of what
happened during the frightening mission. Of the few inaccuracies the film does have, most of
them are related to the role of Thomas Mattingly and some of the problems the crew faced and
how they were solved. As the problem with the oxygen tank was realized there is a scene where
Thomas Mattingly is drinking in his room and then takes the phone of the hook, turns off the
television, and goes in to his bed and goes to sleep. While he was indeed very upset about being
taken out of the crew for the mission there is some parts of his role in the movie that have been
altered and may not be so accurate. In an interview with Rebecca Wright, Mattingly, speaking of
his role in the movie, said the movie of Apollo 13, its a pretty good movie. The book is
pretty good. I think The Race to the Moon books description is probably a little better. And they
all fall way short.9
He later went on to talk about what he was actually doing when he found out about the
problem with Apollo 13. I remember sitting on the steps next to the CapCom console, just
sitting on the floor because the visitors room is full of visitors. So I was just sitting there. I really
was feeling very down, very sorry for myself. He explained that he wanted to be there in case
Swiger had any questions about piloting the equipment he was assigned to work with on the
mission. He didnt have much of a way to stand by and witness everything going so speaking of
what he had to do he said,
the only way I was going to get to see this, they were going to do this TV show when
they activated the LM and checked it out. So the only way to see that was to go over to
9 Johnson Space Center. NASA. Mattingly, Thomas K. Interviewed by Rebecca
Wright.
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/MattinglyTK/MattinglyTK_11-601.htm. Interview date November 2001, Accessed April 18 2016.

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the MOCR and sit in the viewing room. So I went back and was sitting in the viewing
room to watch the TV show, and Mr. [George W. S.] Abbey came in. Then when the
video was over, he says, You look like you need a drink. I said, You got that right.
He said, Okay. Let me go get my briefcase and well go over to the Singing Wheel.10
He didnt get back. Right after that is when Jim called down and said that theyd had this
event. It didnt take an awful long time for me to get rid of my hostility for doctors. They have
done me a really good favor. 11
So Mattingly was actually paying more attention to the progress of the mission than the
image the movie gives us. In the same interview he explained it far outweighed anything in
Apollo 8 or 11. It was a different kind of story, but it was really remarkable.
As soon as this happened, I thought, What did he say? I went down to the control
center inside and said, What was that?
They said, I dont know. He said something about hes got a problem and we got this
telemetry data thats all messed up.12
Along with this scene there was more of Mattinglys role that was somewhat altered. The
movie shows him spending most of his time stuck in a simulator, helping to save the three men
on board the spacecraft. For one thing, Mattingly had no assigned role in the rescue as he was a
backup crew member. He ended up working in a lot of teams rather than a single project or two.
In the movie, Mattingly spends hours in a simulator putting together the procedures for
starting up the cold, dead command module in time to bring the astronauts safely back to Earth.
While that is a good way of conveying the missions aim to the public, the simulation runs were
more of a verification of already written procedures. In another scene in the movie, mission
10
11 Johnson Space Center. NASA. Mattingly, Thomas K. Interviewed by Rebecca Wright.
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/MattinglyTK/MattinglyTK_11-6-01.htm.
Interview date November 2001, Accessed April 18 2016
12 Johnson Space Center. NASA. Mattingly, Thomas K. Interviewed by Rebecca Wright.
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/MattinglyTK/MattinglyTK_11-6-01.htm.
Interview date November 2001, Accessed April 18 2016

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controllers huddle in a side room and try to figure out how to stretch the resources of the lunar
module which was designed to carry only two men for a couple of days into a four-day lifeboat
for all three. While this is somewhat true, NASA already had a preliminary lifeboat procedure
simulated. Mattingly pointed out in the interview with Rebecca Wright that the movie made it
appear as though, we invented a lot of stuff.13
As time goes on in the movie, the crew faces a deadly buildup of carbon dioxide. Then, a
team in mission control builds a new system on the spot that adapts an originally incompatible
filter. They gather uncommon materials found on the ship that they would need to use to put
together to make the filter. The carbon dioxide problem really was an issue and they really did
have to build a filter from scratch. However, Hollywood exaggerated this a little bit in the film.
There was actually a simulation for the Apollo 8 mission where a cabin fan was jammed due to a
loose screw. The idea for the filter was simply taken from the astronauts who thought of it for
their simulation and it worked very well.14
One of the final issues in the film, before Apollo 13 reenters the Earths atmosphere,
Mission Control tells the crew their course towards Earth is shallower than it should be, because
they hadnt collected hundreds of pounds of moon rocks as expected. While the real spacecraft
was coming in at a shallower angle than usual, this wasnt a weight issue. What actually
happened was that Apollo 13 was carrying an unexpected piece of baggage on its return flight.
The lunar module was supposed to be left on the moon and the cooling system of the lunar
module turned out to be sending water vapor out behind the craft, creating an unexpected force
13 Universe today. http://www.universetoday.com/101531/ken-mattinglyexplains-how-the-apollo-13-movie-differed-from-real-life/. Accessed April 18,
2016.
14 Universe today. http://www.universetoday.com/101531/ken-mattinglyexplains-how-the-apollo-13-movie-differed-from-real-life/. Accessed April 18,
2016.

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that knocked Apollo 13 a little bit off course, requiring another engine burn to correct the
course.15
Overall, as I mentioned before, the movie is actually pretty accurate as far as what
actually happened during the Apollo 13 mission. Director Ron Howard devoted a considerable
amount of energy into recreating the setting and events as accurately as possible. Robert F., a
critic of the movie and someone who actually had personal experience with some of what was
shown in the movie stated,
I could probably make a list of 50 inaccuracies in the film, but most of them are minor.
Apollo 13 is the most accurate cinematic depiction of a NASA mission I've seen. It is a
great film, and much loved at NASA. They did their research and were attentive to
details. I've spent a lot of time in the old Apollo FCR and they built an amazing copy of
it. A lot of the dialogue is straight from the mission loop recordings16
America has since done amazing things in space exploration since the Apollo 13 mission
and with missions like these, we become smarter and smarter and truly learn from our mistakes.
As someone who inherited a particular interest in the mysteries of space from my dad, I really
enjoyed the movie. I really appreciate how accurate Ron Howard was in making the film, as this
is something that is rarely seen in Hollywood these days. I am grateful for the opportunity of
being able to analyze the film and would recommend it to anyone who has not yet seen it.

15 Universe today. http://www.universetoday.com/101531/ken-mattinglyexplains-how-the-apollo-13-movie-differed-from-real-life/. Accessed April 18,

2016.
16 Quora. Frost, Robert. https://www.quora.com/How-accurate-is-the-Apollo13-movie. Updated August 8, 2013. Accessed April 18, 2016.