It was bad news for Powers, but terrible news for President Eisenhower. He would be forced to admit to four years of illegal and invasive military espionage.
The US government weighed these facts and decided to launch a brazen cover up. Eisenhower made NASA issue a statement claiming a ‘weather plane’ had gone missing north of Turkey. The press release made so bold as to surmise that the pilot had fallen unconscious while the autopilot was still engaged and even claimed that ‘the pilot reported over the emergency frequency that he was experiencing oxygen difficulties’. To back this up another U-2 plane was quickly painted in NASA colours and paraded before the media.
A bluff called
It was a bold ploy and it might have worked but for the ace up Krushchev’s sleeve: Captain Gary Powers had survived. Somehow he had freed his oxygen hose, bailed from his plane and successfully deployed his parachute. The delay in escaping had made him unable to destroy the plane. The Soviets had recovered it almost intact, even managing to develop its photographs. Powers had not killed himself.
Two days later, on 7 May, Khrushchev played his trump card. He announced:
‘I must tell you a secret. When I made my first report I deliberately did not say that the pilot was alive and well… and now just look how many silly things [the Americans] have said.’
International embarrassment
The incident directly led to the collapse of the Four Power Paris Summit due to start on 16 May. Eisenhower, Khrushchev, Harold Macmillan and Charles de Gaulle were supposed to be round a table talking peace. But Eisenhower refused to apologize for the Powers incident and Khrushchev left the talks.
The incident was also a drastic setback for relations between the Soviet Union and Pakistan.
Powers pleaded guilty to espionage on 19 August 1960 and was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and seven years of hard labour. After serving just one year and nine months of his sentence he was exchanged for KGB Colonel Rudolf Abel on 10 February 1962. He received a hostile reception on his return to the US, where many people considered him a Russian spy. He was later cleared of any wrongdoing or cowardice in not killing himself. He became a test pilot for Lockheed.
Gary Powers died in a helicopter crash in 1977, aged 47.
Disaster on the Dark Side of the Moon
| THE ASTRONAUTS OF APOLLO 13 WERE 320,000 KM (200,000 MILES) FROM EARTH WHEN AN EXPLOSION CRIPPLED THEIR SPACECRAFT. FORCED INTO THE LUNAR MODULE TO CONSERVE POWER AND OXYGEN, THEY BATTLED PROBLEM AFTER PROBLEM FOR NEARLY FOUR DAYS AS THEY SWUNG ROUND THE MOON AND RETURNED HOME. |
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| DATE: 1970 SITUATION: SPACE DISASTER CONDITION OF CONFINEMENT: LOSING OXYGEN IN LUNAR MODULE DURATION OF CONFINEMENT: 3½ DAYS MEANS OF ESCAPE: IMPROVISED REPAIRS, METICULOUS PLANNING NO. OF ESCAPEES: 3 DANGERS: OXYGEN STARVATION, EXPLOSION, FREEZING TO DEATH EQUIPMENT: A DAMAGED SPACECRAFT |
The Apollo 13 prime crew onboard USS Iwo Jima following splashdown. From left to right: Lunar Module pilot, Fred W. Haise, Command Module pilot, John L. ‘Jack’ Swigert Jr and Commander, James A. Lovell.
The mission
Apollo 13 was launched on 11 April 1970. It was to become the third manned spacecraft to land on the Moon, with a mission to explore formations near the 80 km (50 mile) wide Fra Mauro crater. The flight was commanded by James A. Lovell with John L. ‘Jack’ Swigert as Command Module pilot and Fred W. Haise as Lunar Module pilot.
There was a small problem on takeoff when an engine shut down two minutes early during the second stage boost. But four other engines burned longer to compensate, and the craft reached orbit successfully.
Then, on 14 April 1970, nearly sixty hours into the mission, the astronauts were 321,860 km (199,995 miles) from Earth when they heard a loud bang.
The explosion
At first the crew thought a meteoroid had hit them. As well as the noise of an explosion, the electrics were going haywire and the attitude control thrusters had fired.
In fact, a short circuit had ignited some insulation in the Number 2 oxygen tank of the Service Module. The Service Module provided life support, power and other systems to the Command Module, which held the astronauts as they travelled to and from lunar orbit. The Lunar Module was a separate, though connected, craft that would be used to ferry the men to the lunar surface and back.
The fire caused a surge in pressure that ruptured the tank, flooding the fuel cell bay with gaseous oxygen. This surge blew the bolts holding on the outer panel, which tore off free and spun into space, damaging a communications antenna. Contact with Earth was lost for 1.8 seconds, until the system automatically switched to another antenna.
The shock also ruptured a line from the Number 1 oxygen tank. Two hours later all of the Service Module’s oxygen supply had leaked into the void.
As the Command Module’s fuel cells used oxygen with hydrogen to generate electricity, it could now only run on battery power. The crew had no option but to shut down the Command Module completely and move into the Lunar Module. They would then use this as a ‘lifeboat’ for the journey back to Earth before rejoining the Command Module for re-entry.
As for the mission, the Service Module was so badly damaged that a safe return from a lunar landing was impossible. These men would not be landing on the Moon.
320,000 km from home
The Flight Director immediately aborted the mission. Now he just had to get the men home. The quickest way would be a Direct Abort trajectory, using the Service Module engine to essentially reverse the craft. But it was too late: the craft was already within the Moon’s gravitational sphere of influence making it harder to ‘reverse’. The engine could also have been damaged in the explosion and restarting might cause an even worse disaster.
So Mission Control opted for a ‘free return’, essentially using the Moon’s gravity to hitch a ride and slingshot them back towards Earth.
First, Apollo 13 needed to be realigned; it had left its initial free return trajectory earlier in the mission as it lined up for its planned lunar landing. Using a small burn of the Lunar Module’s descent propulsion system, the crew got the spacecraft back on track for its return journey.
Now they started their nerve-shredding journey round the dark side of the Moon. It was a trip that would demand incredible ingenuity under extreme pressure from the crew, flight controllers, and ground crew if the men were to make it back alive.
More problems
The Lunar Module ‘lifeboat’ only had enough battery power to sustain two people for two days, not three people for the four days it would take the men to return to Earth.
The life support and communication systems had to be powered down to the lowest levels possible. Everything that wasn’t essential was turned off. The drama was being shown on TV but no more live broadcasts were made. Power levels were dropped so low that even voice communications were difficult.
Removing