Apollo 13: Houston, We Have a Problem 

Simon sponsoring his own channel=infinite money loop. Legend.

My dad was one of the young engineers working at NASA-JSC on the Apollo project who was called in the night of the accident. On top of this, I was born the day of the launch. So when I was just a couple of days old he had to cut any paternity leave short. He tells the story that they basically called everyone, creating a traffic jam in the middle of the night to get into the center... I get emotional every time I hear this story. Great video.

Thanks for the awesome video! My grandpa actually worked on the team that came up with the co2 scrubber and fun fact the astronauts went around and personally thanked each person at mission control and nasa that helped bring them home safe so we have a picture of my mom as a baby sitting on one of their laps.

Perhaps even more impressive is how calm the atronaunts were during the whole thing Despite the dire circumstances. The uncomfortable conditions. The possibilty of death. The audio recording will put you to sleep. All that yelling n drama in the movie was fabricated because the real astronaunts were so cool and collected. Theres a very small group of people that wouldve been the same way. Yes it was close to zero c. But those guys had ice in their veins on the launchpad. Absolute legends

The one sentence in that movie that gives me chills every time. "this could become NASA greatest failure." "I disagree sir, this will become our greatest achievement"

Another Megaprojects idea: The 2010 Copiapó Rescue Operation, a world-wide effort to save the 33 Chilean miners and development of the Phoenix Capsule.

My grandfather was in the control room in houston during apollo 13, he was the chief retro grade officer (which he received the NASA presidential medal of honor for his service to nasa)... ive meet like everyone in this video. There is actually a story about his division coming up with the formula for their return back to earth that was told to me by Gene Kranz

My mom, my sister and I prayed together every night at our home in Brazil for their safe return to Earth.

My grandmother was one of the head math aids with NASA during the whole Apollo project, in fact if I remember correctly she was the head of the department, and was one of the key figures that worked on the math for the Apollo 13 crisis.

The mission controllers who saved the day were led by Gene Kranz and Glynn Lunney, the latter of whom pulled off (to quote Mattingley) “the most magnificent display of personal leadership I’ve ever seen”. These are the standouts in a story of many heroes

If you guys ever get the chance, the Apollo 13 capsule currently resides at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas

I'm dating myself when I say this, but I remember the re-entry of 13. My folks got up and turned off the TV when the spacecraft didn't establish comms on schedule so we didn't know until the next day that the crew was back safely. I can clearly remember my mom crying when we founnd out. It was that kind of time back then. Godspeed.

I was 25 when this occurred, in the Army, in Viet Nam. Listening to people saying that their grand parents worked on this, Gad I'm old!

I read Jim Lovell's book that tells of his astronaut career including how he got into the program initially. An amazing read. He tells the story of how Gene Krantz would have his wife make a waistcoat for each launch which you see arriving at the command centre in the movie but Gene refused to start the pre launch until he had it - it was his good luck charm. He would not take it off until the crews landed safely. Love you Simon and all your channels.

I watched Apollo 13 in the theater and it was the first time I ever saw people clap at the end of a movie.

I remember when this happened. Like Apollo 11, *everybody* was glued to their radios and tvs for the duration.

I was just one and a half years old and was present for the launch in a boat just offshore. My father says I may be the only person alive who actually slept through an entire Saturn V launch that close to the launch site (a blessed skill I still use on planes, trains, and other conveyances of very long trips).

Remember it well, and listened to it live (in Kenya). I watched the moon landing live on the first tv I had ever seen, while on holiday in London, and remember the colour photos! in the newspaper the following day. Been a space nut ever since.

I have a MegaProject topic idea for you: "The Human Genome Project"

Watching your replaying of the footage of the safe landing brought tears to my eyes. I was still in high school when it happened -- didn't expect to get teary-eyed over something I knew had safely taken place over 50 years ago.

i said it before i say it again: *The Modern Shipping Container* and its impact on global trade needs an episode on Megaprojects/Geographics!, nothing has changed the planet like these millions of steel boxes traveling the globe every day!

Personally knew Jack Swigert before he died in '82 at 51. Absolute Legend!

Howard did a wonderful job bringing this incredibly tense drama to the movie screen, as did all the actors of course. Still one of my fave films of all time. I remember well, listening to every piece of news with frantic fear and anticipation, as the events played out in real time. As you mentioned Simon, it was an incredible moment that brought the entire world together in joint harmony, hoping and praying the lads would get home alive. Thanks for this.

Slight correction, only 1 engine of the 2nd Stage cutout (specifically the inboard engine, the one in the middle) they burned the remaining 4 for longer (from the same fuel tank) to get to orbit.

I am old enough to have watched all the milestones into space live on TV...Mercury through to Apollo 13. It eclipsed Apollo 11 which in itself was awe inspiring. My Dad was a program leader at the Parkes Radio Telescope in Parkes in Australia which was the relay station for all the communications. He watched and listened to everything. He said to me that despite the horrendous stress on the astronauts, he said he did not hear one swear word uttered. They were true professionals.

My favorite bit of trivia about this is that when the movie was in early press screenings, some critics down rated it saying it had to be manufactured since there’s no way that astronauts could have survived such ordeals

Fantastic! *13 Minutes to the Moon* is a fantastic podcast series which goes into in-depth analysis on the audio from the mission. Would Highly recommend.

Best case of "I'm not even supposed to be here today" ever.

This is a project that I have been waiting for! Thank you so much for covering it!

I remember this story well from the time, the world was holding its collective breath. An amazing story..

amazing video, i Love your content, and i was nearly crying i have always loved story's about space missions and i have always loved the story behind the Apollo 13. Amazing video that made my day. your videos kept me entertained during this lockdown. keep up the good work, and stay safe. :)

Clear heads, creative thinking, and a roll of duct tape can literally save lives! 🌌🚀

🤣🤣🤣🤣 literally yesterday my husband was saying he wanted to get a beard brush and oil... Now he's getting some with Simon's face on it!

One of my favorite movies, Apollo 13. Your video is still a treat Simon even though I’ve watched every video available of this flight.

This channel and your other channel are RU-vid gold!! Keep up the good work!!

I loved the book Jim Lovell wrote on his account of the mission

My Uncle worked for IBM/NASA working on computer programs from Gemini to the end of Apollo .

Mega project ideas: the moon buggy, from the final few Apollo missions to the moon and the final Apollo mission to meet up with the Russian space craft

Its really cool that you know included voice radio recording, you rarely included stuff like that in your youtube projects. Makes subtle things like this more real.

You told this story perfectly! Thanks!!!

One of my professors in college was in the room when they had to fit a square peg into a square hole. It was just amazing what they had to do.

A very well done video Simon 👍.

I love your videos and you as a host Simon. By far, some of the best content on RU-vid. You have enough work for your own cable channel.

Another great one.

Just when you almost lose hope for humanity, stories like this bringing everyone together, gives a huge positivity boost!

The tragedy is, it takes a tragedy for the world to come together like it did then.

Apollo 13 has been my favorite movie for many years, since I first saw it in the theater when it came out. Every year in April I watch it on the anniversary of their mission. This is now my favorite Megaprojects episode and I guess I will add it to my annual viewing list.

When the movie came out in 1995, I was working at Hardees (who had the merchandising deal). There were 4 plastic commemorative cups with scenes from the movie (I still have 2 of them), as well as the “Apollo burger,” which had thousand island dressing on it.

I honestly think the Apollo 13 mission is the greatest achievement in all human history since the wheel. Just slightly ahead of the actual Moon Landing.

The Louisville Science Center in Louisville, KY (my home town) had the Apollo 13 capsule on display for years after. Then the movie came out and with boosted interest, the capsule was sent to the Smithsonian. I was sad to see the capsule leave but knew that it would be seen by many more people and hopefully inspire people to reach further.

Excellent video Simon. And cool beard!

Simon you have the most amazing dramatical voice. makes you feel like you are there and then .

If anyone wants to hear more on this, I HIGHLY recommend checking out BBC podcast 13 minutes to the Moon and its 2nd season which focuses on Apollo 13. Lots of recordings and interviews with the astronauts and the mission control team and a hugely thrilling story. So many things happened that could have been the end of the crew.

I'd argue that this is humanity's finest achievement. It's when things go wrong you learn what you're made of.

1. Somehow I missed this video; just watched the Voyager II video and thought to search for this, and I'm so glad you've already done one. 2. Bought Beard Blaze sample pack as a birthday gift for my brother, and he's HOOKED!!

John Aaron, also known as the best EECOM, lead the team to devise CM powerup procedure. Sy Liebergot was EECOM on shift during the O2 tank explosion (Clint Howard played his character in the movie). When Sy saw all the data go offline and then most of the values railed (too high or too low) he first said "I think we have an instrumentation problem" (in the movie, "It's gotta be instrumentation"). To him it looked like a PCM data stream error because the spacecraft was designed that it can never have a quadruple major systems failure. Of course they soon figured something bad happened, and everyone in MOCR was asking Sy what's going on with systems. At that moment Sy felt all he wanted to do was go home, obviously that was to never happened so like everyone else began working the problem. At the moment Sy had no idea what started the chain of events, it was not until he got off shift went to his back room where they have stripchart recorders which showed the moment O2 temperatures began to rise which was same time when Swigert turned on tank stirrers. After safely landed, they don't light up victory cigars until crew safely on carrier, there was some time wrapping things up but most everyone didn't head to the bars for celebration, they went home to catch up on sleep.

Dad bought each of us a commemorative Apollo 13 glass after they came back.

Churches’ message boards “pray to bring our astronauts home”. I love that even a small note was made of that.

Great video. Cheers.

VERY interesting!!

Yeees!! Just the Titel already excites me!

It was only the single center engine on the S-II 2nd stage shut down early and the stage burned longer and then the longer burn on the S-IVB 3rd stage that put the stack into its proper initial low Earth orbit.

Yes Simon, I did and do find this an interesting topic. You did an excellent job in telling the tale. It was one of the greatest Engineering and Scientific successful failures. It shows the efforts that can be exerted do solve very difficult and seemingly unsolvable problems.

Yes! Beard Blaze. That's awesome, Simon.

Good episode, thank you! (But you did forget to mention Jim Lovell’s brief cameo in the Hollywood film!)

Great video! This is not a criticism but your comment about the “Darkside of the moon“ reminded me of my astronomy professor in college jumping on me when I used that phrase. He sternly corrected me by pointing out that the “far side“ of the moon gets just as much sunlight light as the near side. I’ve never made that mistake again LOL

Love your vids...

My friend's father was one of the men in the room in that famous scene creating the adapter for the CO2 scrubber. So many heroes in this one.

You didn't mention that Gruman, maker of the Lunar Module, sent a bill for towing to North American, makers of the Command Module.

No one who lived through it will ever forget it.

Simon is one of the few youtubers I could bing watch.

Great video. Always a fan Simon. Thank you! Just one minor correction: it was actually Pope Paul VI who prayed for the Apollo 13 and not Paul IV. Just a matter of placing the “I” correctly (roman numerals...). Thanks again.

More like this please

Well done! When one of your favorite movies is condensed down to under twenty minutes. Tom Hanks: Houston we have a problem. Tim Allen: To infinity and beyond!

Shortly after the movie Apollo 13 appeared in theatres, local SF bay area section of AIAA had Gene Kranz as the speaker. Standing room only! He also met a friend there he hadn't seen in years. Obviously excellent speaker. They didn't know exactly what caused the explosion but Gene said for the Shuttle they would have known instantly because so much more was telemetered, they know every switch position. Mr. Kranz said he got the job at NASA from a ad in Aviation Week. This was also a few years before smoking was banned from federal buildings, he joked "us old guys should smuggle in cigars to the MOCR." I asked him about Don Arabian who managed the MER (mission evaluation room), Gene said if you want to know every technical detail, Don still knows. I also talked with his wife Marta about was it true barely completed her husband's vest for Apollo 13. She said no, and vests she made were easy. There were plenty of fabric places including those stores managed by hippies so she had wide variety of materials to choose from. I even got her autographed which she tagged "the vest lady."

The engineers building a co2 filter with literal duct tape and telling the astronauts how to do it and everything working is insanely impressive.

I loves that everything came down to putting a square peg into a round hole

AYY I commented that apollo 13 was the best successful failure on a megaprojects video ages ago and Simon finally delivered!! Nice work

Just watched the Apollo 13 movie and holy crap, it gets me every time. It's a story of a catastrophic failure with compounding problems ultimately leading to one of the greatest triumphs in human history. In the now well known (and admittedly slightly edited for movie's sake) words of flight director Gene Kranz, "With all due respect, sir, I believe this is going to be our finest hour." And oh boy was he correct Edit: also, in case you're curious, the exact quote is actually "No this is going to be our finest hour." It's admittedly a bit impactful (at least in my opinion) compared to the movies version, but still! The other fun little fact that a lot of people don't realize (but that this video correctly points out) is that the original person to report the problem was Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon in the movie), not Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks in the movie). And the exact line was "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here." Followed up after a request to repeat the transmission from Houston by the far more famous line from Jim Lovell of "Uh, Houston, we've HAD a problem" (emphasis added by me)

My cousin James Lovell, is at the center of this video. Tom Hanks played a member of my family... that's so crazy! I wasn't born when this happened, but I still feel the pressure my family must have experienced. I am the same age Jim was when this happened now! (I've not been to space yet....)

This story never gets old.

Also not mentioned in this video is that the "mailbox" adapter was not improvised on the spot as shown in the Apollo 13 movie, it was actually part of emergency procedures, which included powering up and using the LEM was a lifeboat that were developed in between Apollo 10 and 13.

The mailbox is a beautiful piece of engineering. Made under pressure, out of materials at hand, and it works = brilliant.

Excellent Video! Please consider the Cassini-Huygens for a Megaprojects episode! :) Cheers from Canada!

I haven't even watched this yet and I love that the thumbnail makes it look like Simon's about to run screaming through the control room because Apollo 13 just broke the moon.

Well done, Beardman & Company!

I haven't made it to the 1:30 mark yet, but I'm loving the beard oil intro...!!

Mega Project idea: The "Mining and Chemical Combine" in Zheleznogorsk, Russia. A Plutonium production plant. The entire facility was built 200 meters into the mountain, and contains 3 Nuclear Reactors (Basically the same design as РБМК, like in Chernobyl),1 АД and 2 АДЭ (АДЭ-2 provided power and heating to the workers city, Zheleznogorsk). The facility has its own railway and electric locomotive. Now the Plutonium production is stopped (since 95'), and the reactors were shut down. Now they produce MOX fuel for fast liquid metal Reactors (for now, БН-800).

Simon: “we care about the facts here at mega projects” Also Simon, but on cocaine: “WHAT YOU EXPECT FACTS FRIM MR.BLAZE” * asmr* “raid shadow legends”

I was 15 years old at the time and I remember this well.

It's me! I suggested the beard care products!

I remember your original commercial for this on business blaze lol

Thank you Simon. If you listen to the in flight audio, it was actually Jack Swaggart who said it first. Jim Lovell repeated it when Huston asked for clarification. Failure is not an option. - Gene Cranz Apollo flight director

Have you done any vids on the HS2 project currently under construction in the U.K.? I had not heard of it here in the states until this week but I'm sure it's big news where you are. Looks massive from what little I've seen. Possible stuff for a vid??

The DPS (Descent Propulsion System) engine was designed to get them *onto* the moon, not off again. Getting them off the moon, was the job of the APS (Ascent Propulsion System) engine, built into the bottom of the crew cabin.

I remember this: well, all I remember is the "problem" announcement coming over, and the controller's head jerking up sharply before he said calmly "Say again". I don't remember anything more about it, and I don't remember if this was live from Mission Control or shown later on the news [I mention this because I made the same comment on another vid, and got taken to task because "it wasn't shown live"].

Simon - we'd love to see a Megaprojects on the Svalbard Satellite Station on Svalsbard Island. Thanks!

"You, sir, are a steely-eyed missile man." This was one of my favorite movies.

The Apollo 13 movie came out when I was 7 years old. It 100% captivated me. It's my favorite Hanks movie.

Apollo 13 is the greatest "I'm not even supposed be here. " ever told.