Woodhouse 1

Kevin Woodhouse
Mrs. DeWitt
College Comp.
26/3/15
Determination The film, Apollo 13, is based on the real life crisis that occurred April 13, 1970, on board the Apollo spacecraft. After spending eight days in the freezing confinement of the Apollo 13 space capsule Jim Lovell and his crew members, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, splashed down into the Pacific Ocean. This team achieved their goals through several adverse conditions. The survival of these three is the embodiment of achieving goals through determination. Determination is expressed through each character throughout the suspenseful film. Jack Swigert had the job of docking and flying the shuttle and did not want to leave any room for error in his skills. Ken Mattingly spent hours and hours working on the flight simulator to assure a safe return. The NASA team of engineers had to work together to come up with a device to filter CO2 made from spare parts found on the shuttle. Jack Swigert was moved up from backup crew to main crew after Ken Mattingly was exposed to the measles virus and was unable to gear up for the flight. Swigert had a lot of experience but did not have the same connection to the team as Mattingly had. Swigert was determined to carry out the flight despite those who were skeptical about

Woodhouse 2 his skills. He spent endless hours perfecting the take off and flight functions and gained the trust of his crew members. Resulting in a successful launch. Despite the error free launch, a major malfunction occurred while crew approached the moon. A malfunction caused an explosion which ruptured an oxygen tank rendering it impossible for the crew to land on the moon. “Houston” back on Earth had to reroute the flights path while conserving as much energy as possible. Ken Mattingly, regardless of being replaced, was still very much a part of this mission. He rushed in the flight simulator working on a new flight sequence to make it possible of returning home. After countless failures, he finally established a pattern capable of orbiting the moon and surfacing back to Earth even with a blown oxygen tank in a few days. Sitting in the capsule for hours, the crew was going over the numbers but they did not know of the additional complications. Fred Haise figured they had enough oxygen but was only accounting for two poeple. Jack Swigert replied, “Maybe I should just hold my breath.” On top of the tension between astronauts more problems for the space crew and NASA emerged from the lack of oxygen. Rising CO2 levels was their next obstacle. The best engineering minds in the United States got together in search of seemingly impossible solution by sticking a square box in a round hole. By working together they managed to crack the code. They then had to relay each step of the process to the shuttle which they accomplished. With each emerging problem the Apollo 13 faced they all worked together and beat the odds. From the launch to the rising CO2 levels this mission could have
Woodhouse 3 been a complete disaster. By never giving up they pulled through making it a successful failure. The Apollo 13 mission represents what is possible through impeccable determination