--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <-- 0:00 · it really is a great honor to present my 0:01 · next get our first guest tonight I 0:03 · suppose the word 0:05 · hero sounds corny at times but I don't 0:07 · think you have Heroes anymore and maybe 0:09 · uh some but the youngsters need Heroes 0:11 · nowadays and they probably get tired of 0:12 · that word they would consider themselves 0:14 · I suppose 0:15 · professional test pilots uh and which 0:18 · say 0:18 · all right a tremendous skill but there's 0:21 · just been over a month since uh their 0:23 · great courage and skill under 0:24 · tremendously adverse conditions uh 0:27 · made them uh Heroes of the entire world 0:30 · would you please welcome the Apollo 13 0:31 · team James Lovell Fred Hayes and Jack 0:34 · Swaggart I don't know 0:39 · [Music] 0:44 · [Applause] 1:08 · [Music] 1:10 · foreign 1:14 · [Music] 1:21 · [Music] 1:36 · since I've been doing this show in seven 1:39 · and a half years that I've seen an 1:40 · entire studio audience uh get to their 1:43 · feet and applaud and uh you've received 1:46 · a lot of that since you've come back 1:48 · it must be an emotional type of thing I 1:51 · mentioned you fellas I use the word 1:52 · Heroes which I said you I know you've 1:54 · said it before in interviews that you 1:55 · don't consider yourself for that at all 1:56 · Captain right 1:57 · well as a matter of fact uh we didn't 1:59 · know just how the world was taking it 2:01 · until we actually got back on the ground 2:03 · that's right you're really the last 2:05 · you're always trying to find out about 2:07 · it 2:08 · you know I never thought of it that way 2:09 · it was uh after meeting all the people 2:12 · and uh 2:13 · and appreciating the uh 2:15 · the feeling and the emotion that they 2:18 · had I sort of feel like maybe I missed 2:20 · something being up there 2:22 · we missed all the excitement you know 2:24 · yeah 2:26 · were you were you kind of amazed at the 2:28 · outpouring of emotion from countries all 2:30 · over the world not just the United 2:31 · States but I can't remember a time when 2:33 · there's been a circumstance where 2:35 · somebody has been in in that kind of uh 2:38 · of a situation where the entire world uh 2:40 · and foreign countries and and the the 2:42 · even the Communist Bloc in all of the 2:44 · countries of the world seem to to join 2:46 · together for a moment a real little maze 2:48 · at that reaction he got back yes I think 2:50 · this is what uh really struck us that uh 2:53 · for perhaps just an instant maybe the 2:56 · whole world was together 2:57 · it's funny they seem to get together on 2:59 · things like science don't they they were 3:01 · in a common in a common crises we all 3:04 · seem to join hands we sure do just like 3:06 · one human being helping another 3:08 · you're you're Captain right now uh Jim 3:10 · yes Johnny and uh Fred you're uh Thomas 3:13 · you're civilian and Jack also civilian I 3:16 · was sort of outnumbered uh being in the 3:18 · military yes captain in the Navy right I 3:21 · was a I was an innocent in the Navy 3:26 · you know what being an engine in the 3:28 · Navy it's like being a hood ornament on 3:29 · an Edsel 3:30 · yeah 3:32 · there's not much call for that 3:35 · you had a busy day today haven't you 3:37 · what's what's been happening since 3:38 · you've been in New York 3:39 · well we had lunch with mayor Lindsay 3:41 · today it was very nice 3:43 · and we had a press conference uh 3:48 · and your show tonight followed by a play 3:51 · you're gonna see a play and then there's 3:53 · another I think a reception later on 3:54 · tonight because 3:55 · the mayor also is or not and he told me 3:58 · that your car was double parked down 4:00 · below and the police towed it away 4:03 · our mayor would throw away your capsule 4:05 · if it landed in New York 4:09 · [Applause] 4:15 · you probably uh been asked every 4:18 · question in the book on what they call a 4:20 · debriefing and David Brinkley wants that 4:22 · on television he never understood the 4:24 · term debriefing he says why not a 4:26 · briefing when you got back what's what's 4:27 · the difference between a briefing and a 4:28 · debriefing 4:30 · anybody any fellas you would ask us 4:33 · those techniques 4:35 · France is English major well I wanted 4:38 · debriefing I think the briefing would 4:41 · constitute the preparation and the 4:43 · training we go through getting ready to 4:45 · fly the flight and debriefing is where 4:48 · we we give our comments on how each 4:51 · phase worked and how we felt maybe our 4:54 · training was deficient and what we 4:56 · should do better the next time what was 4:58 · the greatest thrill when you got back 4:59 · outside I suppose talking to your wives 5:00 · Jack is a is a bachelor and talking to 5:04 · the president well on board the ship 5:06 · they had a little Communications link up 5:08 · with us we had three phones and it was 5:10 · sort of a one-sided conversation all 5:12 · three of us were talking at one time and 5:14 · Fred and I were talking to our wives and 5:16 · Jack was talking to the entire 5:18 · Continental airline stewardess Corps 5:20 · [Music] 5:23 · Jack has flown before hasn't he 5:27 · I thought I was going to get by without 5:29 · Jim making some comment about that but 5:31 · he didn't last time we really set it up 5:32 · for me in Chicago he said that a a 5:34 · bachelor is like a new detergent that's 5:37 · uh one that works fast and leaves no 5:39 · rings 5:44 · what are you doing about 11 30 every 5:46 · night 5:49 · we have an opening on a staff gym if you 5:51 · can come up with this stuff you can come 5:53 · up with this stuff every night you know 5:54 · you probably get tired of that don't you 5:55 · jack because uh you're one of the few 5:57 · bachelors in the whole program I guess 5:59 · of NASA right yes and that they you'll 6:02 · always have to have something to say now 6:03 · they can talk about your kids and your 6:05 · wife and so forth but I remember you 6:07 · because you went in through with three 6:08 · days notice on this slide right yes and 6:11 · uh they weren't prepared for that and it 6:13 · drove the newsmen crazy because they 6:15 · weren't quite prepared to report on Jack 6:17 · swankert and they ran around I saw them 6:18 · interviewing your landlord 6:21 · you know and the landlord says yes he's 6:23 · a his nice place here he lives right 6:25 · here 6:28 · laughs 6:30 · at the time that this happened 6:32 · um 6:33 · when you first knew that you had the 6:35 · trouble that something was wrong who's 6:36 · the first to know you were the first one 6:37 · I think the radio back to Mission 6:39 · Control in Houston right no actually it 6:40 · was Jack Jack was the man who said uh I 6:43 · think we have a problem here 6:46 · so I guess I guess turned out to be the 6:49 · understatement of the century I guess 6:50 · you know the funny thing we were going 6:52 · to get a recording uh from NASA of that 6:55 · particular time when it happened 6:56 · thinking it would be very exciting you 6:58 · know and intense but the strange thing 7:00 · about it is we we listened to it 7:02 · and it sounded like you had reported 7:04 · that the uh you know you didn't get your 7:06 · dime back from the pay phone or 7:07 · something it was it wasn't exciting at 7:09 · all in the context and the way you 7:11 · handle it is that is that because of the 7:12 · tremendous training and you're ready for 7:15 · this kind of a contingency and you just 7:17 · automatically react and then the 7:19 · emotions come a little bit later 7:21 · well I think that actually we didn't 7:23 · know really how serious the situation 7:24 · was at the time and uh as it started to 7:27 · get more serious our voices got a little 7:29 · bit more tense if you listen to the 7:31 · tapes closely it took about 45 minutes 7:34 · for I guess the problem to develop in 7:36 · its fullest 7:38 · can you remember back this is probably 7:39 · terribly difficult with all the things 7:41 · that you have to do and with shutting 7:43 · down one system and been doing all the 7:45 · technical things you have to do 7:47 · but can you remember in your mind what 7:49 · your was there fear at the time I 7:52 · suppose there was thinking that this 7:54 · possibly could be a fatal uh 7:57 · thing that could happen and you would 7:58 · could be possibly stranded or that the 8:01 · whole the unit would would explode or 8:03 · something is that moment of uh 8:05 · of saying good happens this this is it 8:07 · the percentages have caught up 8:10 · well I guess everybody kind of you know 8:11 · faces that situation where they say uh 8:13 · gee any place but here anybody but me 8:16 · and uh but there's only one thing to do 8:18 · in a situation like that as we talked 8:20 · about it that is you have to just keep 8:22 · charging forward and uh you know do 8:24 · everything possible to get back home 8:25 · again and I suppose everybody go ahead 8:27 · Ben yeah there's another Point too uh we 8:30 · have uh backups for everything and we 8:32 · were we were never in a position 8:34 · to where we didn't at least have one 8:36 · more direction to go in this case the 8:38 · limb so 8:40 · if I charge them the limb and turned it 8:42 · on and found something wrong there then 8:44 · I would have maybe got a lot more 8:46 · concerned that could have been the ball 8:47 · game right there huh 8:48 · yeah that's that's fascinating I think 8:50 · it was Alan Shepard once who said they 8:52 · asked him how he felt when they made the 8:54 · first flight and he said it was a 8:55 · strange feeling traveling around the 8:57 · Earth in a vehicle 8:58 · in which you know every part was made by 9:00 · the lowest bidder 9:04 · I don't know 9:08 · affect me trigger's your joke there 9:12 · you fellas didn't have any of this uh on 9:14 · the drip you know the saying too soon 9:16 · too old too late do you agree Edward 9:19 · well a lot of people know you're never 9:22 · too old to smarten up about some things 9:24 · for example I know that if you want to 9:27 · stay on the young side you should 9:29 · exercise and you should eat sensibly one 9:31 · way is by starting the day with a good 9:33 · breakfast like Kellogg's Product 19. 9:37 · it's the cereal with 100 percent of the 9:40 · minimum daily adult requirements for 9:42 · vitamins and iron a Powerhouse and 9:45 · delicious so get back on the young side 9:49 · start right now with Kellogg's Product 9:51 · like knee 9:56 · we're talking with the uh Apollo 13 9:58 · astronauts Jim you lost what 14 pounds 10:00 · on us 14. 10:03 · was that because the food is getting 10:04 · worse or getting better well the food 10:07 · was is getting better but we followed 10:09 · your instructions on your show a few 10:10 · months ago and uh we didn't know how to 10:12 · eat it they sent us some food from uh 10:16 · when they had the mock-up upstairs here 10:17 · in in the studio made H I guess and one 10:19 · night we tried it you said your wife uh 10:21 · my wife saw it she's here tonight uh yes 10:24 · where where's your wife sitting would 10:26 · you like to meet Mrs where were you Mrs 10:27 · lava because I've seen you on magazines 10:30 · how are you right 10:45 · yeah I guess what's that Winston 10:46 · Churchill said they also serve who also 10:48 · only stand and wait that's must be very 10:50 · very tough on wives and children uh to 10:54 · wait for you but the food yeah we had it 10:56 · one night and we didn't do it right or 10:57 · something we were putting you said a 10:59 · moment ago watering the things we 11:00 · shouldn't have put water in 11:03 · I don't think we should ever go on a 11:06 · trip Ed they haven't made they have not 11:09 · made the booster yet they can get you 11:14 · since I've lost all this weight are you 11:15 · still doing these heavy jokes about I 11:17 · don't know if nothing else 11:19 · uh I was asking Jim during the 11:21 · commercial break here when the next uh 11:22 · is this this is delayed somewhat the 11:25 · next uh projected flight has enough yes 11:27 · uh it was originally scheduled sometime 11:30 · in October and now probably the earliest 11:31 · weekend launches in December 11:33 · have they as of yet determined what went 11:37 · wrong with any degree of certainty that 11:40 · I know that you blew out what 11:41 · practically the whole side panel of the 11:42 · main booster right and they thought it 11:44 · was what in a battery uh well we lost of 11:47 · course uh all of our electrical power 11:49 · the three fuel cells and the two oxygen 11:51 · tanks and I'll refer to my Command 11:53 · Module expert to give you yeah Jack what 11:55 · do you think there which means that he 11:56 · can't quite technically get the answer 11:58 · to this 12:02 · that's what's known as the commander 12:05 · passing the buck uh no the uh 12:08 · the the problem laying the number two 12:10 · oxygen tank and uh we know that it was a 12:13 · right now a short uh in the wiring I 12:17 · don't think that uh that they have quite 12:19 · uh 12:21 · completely identified it out to be 12:23 · truthful I've been gone from the review 12:26 · board and I haven't followed their uh 12:28 · the progress of the review board so I 12:30 · haven't got the latest uh information on 12:34 · what exactly happened and since you did 12:35 · have the jettison that part 12:38 · um they don't really have any tangible 12:40 · evidence to lay their hands on do they 12:42 · just kind of have to go by what could 12:44 · have happened and then get rid of the 12:45 · Alternatives I suppose well it's amazing 12:47 · what they can do with just Telemetry we 12:49 · jettison of course the part that went 12:51 · wrong right but all the readouts that 12:53 · the ground had gotten from Telemetry in 12:55 · the communications during the incident 12:57 · and after uh plus their analysis allowed 13:00 · themselves to analyze the situation and 13:03 · come up with the answer 13:05 · was there any time that you thought that 13:07 · the backup system that you possibly 13:11 · it seems like a dumb question and I 13:13 · don't mean it morbidly but it crosses 13:15 · people's minds that you know you've 13:17 · probably seen the motion picture that 13:18 · made maroon where they were stranded 13:21 · that does that ever crossed your mind at 13:22 · any time when you go on one of these 13:24 · these flights and you've got more time 13:25 · uh in space than anybody else Jim that's 13:28 · saying what would I do in fact if this 13:32 · did happen I mean the possibility I 13:34 · guess always exists in any dangerous 13:36 · thing a human error mechanical air is 13:38 · there uh even with the greatest 13:40 · expertise that what would you do 13:44 · if you couldn't get back I know that 13:45 · sounds like an insipid question but I'm 13:48 · sure that you must have thought about it 13:50 · philosophically some someplace well I 13:52 · think everybody in in the program has 13:54 · that thought that feeling we of course 13:57 · look at it from the fact that we make 14:00 · things so reliable and so redundant that 14:02 · it's only a remote possibility and 14:05 · really we just put it out of our minds 14:06 · we have to otherwise we'd never make a 14:08 · flight you could never really function 14:09 · could you as a Professional Engineers 14:12 · under those circumstances 14:13 · I was wondering if it was planned 14:15 · beforehand that if something like this 14:17 · went wrong was the lamb supposed to be 14:18 · used as this way was that planned in the 14:21 · program or is that a surprise thing that 14:23 · just developed because you had no other 14:24 · choice let me let Fred answer that he's 14:26 · our limb expert 14:29 · they had had some procedures uh way back 14:32 · in the back room somewhere where a long 14:35 · time ago someone had envisioned using 14:37 · the lamb as a Lifeboat they were pretty 14:40 · dusty 14:41 · the only thing we had planned to use the 14:43 · land for in that regard was we had a 14:45 · procedure written in case the main 14:48 · engine on the Command Module failed 14:50 · burning in the lunar orbit part way 14:53 · you then would Scurry into the limb and 14:55 · fire it up and use this engine to get 14:57 · you headed back home 14:59 · and uh I bet they've done an update on 15:01 · that haven't they on how to use that 15:03 · again but we never really envisioned 15:05 · powering down the Command Module we 15:07 · always had the Command Module electrical 15:10 · system and oxygen system as a life 15:13 · support system one of the great problems 15:15 · was the was the cold wasn't it it got 15:17 · down to what 38 38 degrees 38 degrees 15:20 · and one of you of course had to stay up 15:23 · at all times to monitor the and do the 15:26 · readouts I suppose on the systems we 15:28 · have a short piece of film here I think 15:30 · you did this on the way back right 15:32 · after all this problem still not really 15:35 · even knowing I guess to whether you got 15:37 · into the right window as they say to 15:38 · re-enter so watch the monitor here in 15:40 · the studio and gentlemen if he'll tell 15:43 · us what the you're doing it at the time 15:45 · uh Bobby you want to roll the tape 15:47 · please here we are 15:50 · what you're looking at now is the 15:51 · Command Module it's down to about 38 15:53 · degrees uh very cold and it's completely 15:56 · dead nothing's working and you just saw 15:58 · the hash that was oh that's up through 16:00 · the tunnel as they say that's right 16:01 · right into the through the tunnel and 16:02 · back into uh the Aquarius the lunar 16:05 · module and 16:06 · Jack the interesting thing is that when 16:08 · you're right side up in the Command 16:09 · Module and you come down the tunnel 16:11 · you're upside down in the limbs so it 16:12 · takes a while to to get reoriented 16:15 · do you have any sense of direction uh 16:20 · here at all whether you're upside down 16:21 · or not since there's no Direction really 16:23 · such in space is there only visual uh 16:26 · you have no balance of course isn't your 16:28 · weight loss I mean up or down is 16:31 · relative right there's our little tape 16:33 · recorder which we played the theme from 16:34 · 2001. 16:38 · after all of this trouble you got you 16:40 · listen to a radio show 16:42 · and Jack's asleep back there near the 16:45 · hatch he was trying to get a little shut 16:47 · eye at the time 16:48 · the thing about our photography is we 16:50 · had to take it just when the light came 16:51 · around because we didn't want to use any 16:52 · interior lights because it'd use power 16:54 · oh I see so we had to shut down 16:56 · everything that wasn't necessary to save 16:58 · power are you turning at this time yes 17:00 · we are turning and there's Fred with his 17:02 · hand in his uh shirt there uh going 17:05 · sound asleep trying to get a little 17:06 · shutout keeps your hands from floating 17:08 · floating up bother you when you're 17:09 · sleeping I never thought of that 17:13 · there's a gym or is that yeah we had 17:15 · just one person who had the watch he 17:17 · wore the Hat with the communications and 17:19 · the rest of people were I know you're 17:21 · having dinner there yep there's Jack 17:22 · eating right now and it's amazing we can 17:24 · actually use a spoon and in zero gravity 17:27 · if there's enough viscosity in the fluid 17:31 · I think this is uh right prior to entry 17:34 · uh Jim and I were going up or uh through 17:36 · the entry procedures they required a lot 17:39 · of close cooperation with Jim and the 17:40 · lamb and myself in the Command Module 17:42 · you see Jim uh rubbing his hands there 17:45 · and that's because it was just that cool 17:49 · of course there was a time just before 17:51 · this last mid-course or the mid course 17:53 · 105 hours when we would still have 17:55 · missed the Earth and so we had to make 17:56 · this particular maneuver uh to make sure 17:59 · we got captured by the atmosphere right 18:01 · otherwise we'd have skipped off into uh 18:03 · into space again that's what they call 18:05 · about the re-entry angle that has to be 18:06 · so precise that you don't enter too fast 18:08 · then you don't enter too shallow that 18:10 · you as you say skip back into 18:13 · right skip away from the orbit 18:17 · actually these pictures were taken with 18:19 · a wide angle lens that Fred held most 18:21 · the time and makes the interior of 18:24 · Aquarius a lot roomier than it actually 18:26 · is 18:28 · it was sort of uh you know people get 18:30 · the impression when you see this on 18:31 · television that it's rather roomy and 18:33 · yet it's really not at all is it 18:35 · there's an advantage of zero g I shot my 18:38 · own pictures just by turning the camera 18:39 · and moving it away while it was still 18:41 · running 18:46 · what we're doing here we're trying to 18:47 · still everything you know we couldn't uh 18:49 · we couldn't dump anything over overboard 18:51 · which presented a problem for three days 18:52 · as you might think so we had a stow it 18:55 · in all kinds of containers 18:57 · and the waste products got to be quite 18:59 · deep there after a while 19:03 · I guess we've become space litter bugs 19:05 · already haven't we by she has 19:18 · to the average person who really is so 19:21 · hard for us to relate to that do you 19:23 · ever get tired of The Thrill Is it a 19:25 · tremendous tremendous thrill when you 19:27 · another dumb question I suppose when you 19:29 · get out and you look back and you see 19:31 · the Earth 19:32 · uh just hanging there it must give you 19:35 · some some strange feelings I think it 19:38 · does make all the astronauts that are 19:42 · flowing a bit philosophical 19:43 · I would think so you kind of got to 19:45 · think back and kind of puts it in 19:47 · perspective doesn't it you put the whole 19:49 · earth just in the in your hand you know 19:50 · and it really makes it uh it makes you 19:52 · wonder actually a minor planet is 19:54 · somebody once said 19:56 · um now you haven't been on the moon 19:58 · and uh and yet this was really a 20:01 · triumphant uh space journey because it 20:03 · proved that the backup system does work 20:05 · and prove that the equipment is reliable 20:07 · are you going to fly again 20:10 · well I would like to uh I seem to be 20:12 · disappointed you know going twice to the 20:14 · moon and not quite getting down there 20:15 · however uh down at Houston there are a 20:17 · lot of people who are well qualified and 20:19 · who have not yet flown and so uh my wife 20:22 · won't let me just 20:24 · well I suppose she may have a slight 20:28 · Reasoner not wanting to go through that 20:29 · again Fred how about you 20:31 · but I think the probably the true 20:34 · statement would be that every every guy 20:36 · in the office would like to fly every 20:38 · flight 20:39 · that's really impossible because for 20:42 · instance while we were training two 20:43 · other Crews were training same time 14 20:45 · and 15. 20:46 · and that's really not possible I 20:49 · certainly would personally like to have 20:51 · another chance Jack what are your 20:54 · feelings that's my feelings too I 20:55 · suppose all the fellas would like it to 20:57 · have that unique honor it everything 21:00 · came about in my case so fast that I 21:04 · really you know I was sitting there 21:06 · right on the launch pad and about 30 21:08 · minutes prior to launch when they 21:10 · hauled back the swing arm I told Jim I 21:12 · said you know I really think they're 21:14 · serious about launching me 21:17 · I was trying to think of a question 21:19 · today that you might not have been asked 21:21 · and it's it's pretty tough 21:23 · and this may sound dumb 21:26 · suppose and people have said this they 21:28 · know pretty well technically what the 21:30 · moon was and what it was composed of and 21:33 · that there was no 21:35 · the gravity was 1 6 and there's no air 21:37 · and so forth and so on 21:39 · but supposed to have been some people 21:40 · have said well possibly maybe they're 21:42 · people or civilizations had you know 21:45 · you've heard this right and have arrived 21:47 · there maybe many many years ago and live 21:49 · say underground right with their own 21:52 · type of gravity and oxygen supply and so 21:54 · forth is there anything in the NASA 21:56 · program that would prepare you 21:58 · if you landed on the moon 22:01 · right this sounds like it's not a dumb 22:04 · question and all of a sudden you look 22:05 · over and you see two 22:07 · people 22:09 · fellas coming out of a 22:13 · do they prepare you for that what you 22:15 · would say 22:16 · uh or how you deal with this at all well 22:19 · that doesn't sound strange there's still 22:20 · a lot of people who believe that there 22:21 · are people on the moon but they're 22:22 · living underground I think Jim's going 22:24 · to say that's why they took a bachelor 22:25 · law that's why 22:29 · [Applause] 22:39 · and answered your question about getting 22:41 · philosophical uh we did get a bit 22:43 · philosophical and we we brought you 22:46 · something tonight that we thought maybe 22:47 · you'd like to Oh Yeah from our crew here 22:50 · we know that uh you were a magician at 22:52 · one time and still are as a matter of 22:54 · fact I saw some of your card tricks and 22:56 · so we thought we'd present this little 22:57 · picture to you with the caption perhaps 22:59 · you'd like to read 23:00 · oh it's not great 23:02 · it says I'll read it then I'll show you 23:04 · the picture so she has a beautiful 23:06 · picture it says to the great carsoni you 23:08 · found that out huh 23:10 · do you think you're a magician try 23:12 · making this disappear since your best 23:14 · wishes the Apollo 13 crew and they've 23:15 · all signed it and of course look at that 23:17 · magnificent shot of the Earth from space 23:21 · [Applause] 23:33 · California 23:35 · I will treasure that very very much and 23:37 · I thank you gentlemen I know you've had 23:39 · a long day you know you'll have more 23:41 · plans for this evening and all I can say 23:44 · that you you've been hearing many many 23:45 · times it's it's great to have you back 23:48 · it was a magnificent magnificent feat 23:51 · and I think the whole entire world was 23:53 · tremendously proud of you and it's a 23:54 · great thrill to have you here tonight 23:56 · Jim pleasure thank you thank you 23:58 · [Music] 23:59 · [Applause] 24:01 · [Music] 24:02 · [Applause] 24:04 · [Music] 24:04 · [Applause]
that was terrific
I was at Glacier National Park at the time. I remember seeing a headline on a Newspaper still on display. It was not until the movie came out that I realized everything that happened.
The DC Daily News had a big, bold headline:
APOLLO 13 OFF COURSE!
In before the fake moon landing moon bats. 🦇