Apollo Engineer and History Professor React to "Apollo 13" (Part 1/2) / Reel History 

I changed the visual format for this series for obvious reasons, let me know if you prefer it this way or the old fashioned way. Thanks - Andrew

I’m still convinced that this is one of the best movies I’ve ever watched💜

I was 9 when Apollo 13 went up. G.I. Joe was the action figure for boys back then. I remember a few Christmases earlier I got a G.I. Joe "astronaut" with a Mercury capsule he would fit into. Along with all of the astronaut gear, it also included a 45rpm record with John Glenn's radio conversations with Mission Control on it. Coolest toy ever.

I doubt this comment will be seen by anyone, but I feel I should still add/contribute: Around 28:30 mark when Don is talking about how so many different sub-contractors contributed to this vast project, which inevitably would cause some inconsistencies, I am reminded of my own experience as a CV-22 mechanic. For those that don't know, the V-22 aircraft was developed jointly between Bell, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin. Now, I will still vouch for the overall safety and redundancies of the systems on the V-22 aircraft, but there certainly is something to be said about multiple different organizations contributing only a piecemeal of an overall project rather than one holistic body being in control (and in the know) of all aspects of a system's development.

I adore this film. But I always find it funny how panicked they act in the movie during the problem scene, compared to how calm/collected they were in real life.

31:10 The actor playing this guy (Sy Liebergot - EECOM White), is Ron Howard's brother, Clint Howard.

22:39 Hence the reason why that plane was referred to as "The Vomit Comet"

I remember I was 12 when it came out. My brother, a friend of ours and I took advantage of our beds being twins and they were raised, so you could crawl underneath them. We drew the Apollo CSM Panel on the wooden boards underneath mine and the LEM under my brother's. We would play we were astronauts. Then my dad got his hands on Apollo 13 in Laserdisc and he also had this Killer sound system (emphasis on HAD) ... we took the speakers and moved them towards our room, played the movie on the LaserDisc and blasted the Speakers for the Launch sequence while we were "on board". It was SO loud because we ran the speakers so hard they broke, all the windows in our house shook and ended up getting in major trouble because of it... TOTALLY WORTH IT. My mom vividly remembers that day, and often talks about it. I feel 12 everytime I've been to either the Smithsonian, Johnson Space Center or Kennedy Space center. Thanks for this, you've fed my inner nerd in a major way.

Jim Lovell wasn't the Commander of Apollo 8. Frank Borman was.

This is an invaluable video to have a member of the project to discuss the event while watching the film.

Cool. Someone who was on the team. Very cool.

The zero G aeroplane, was the KC135/Vomit Comet.

Fascinating to hear the stories and opinion of Don Freeman. I come from a family of engineers. My father worked for Frank Boorman as a pilot for Eastern Air Lines and we met him. He gave each of my brothers and myself a signed copy of the Moon's Earth. Walter Cronkite was my go-to for news. My father had 16mm prints of several episodes of CBS Air Power series. That is how I got interested in history and aviation. Those bodies of astronauts were from Aliens. My brothers and myself had astronaut dolls, figurines and other toys. None of my astronauts had a corvette. They did have the Moon Buggy in the set.

34:34 There is noise inside the spacecraft. Just because the camera is outside doesn't mean there can't be a microphone inside. I'm sure the RCS thrusters make sound, though I don't know if any of that is transmitted to the command module.

Frank Borman was the commander of Apollo 8.

I lost track of the "and that"s after 20

Ed Harris should have played Lovell

Astronaut Jim Lovell wanted Kevin Costner to play him.

Jim Lovell said he thought Kevin Costner would've been a good choice, to play him.

Super excited for this!

Great content

Hey I just found your channel recently because I was on another Band of Brothers marathon (for like the 10th time, love that series). I found your video on SSGT Grant's shooting and quickly binged the whole video series on the 10 episodes. You've earned my attention and I'll be waiting eagerly for your next video.

One of the DVD sets that came out with this movie had a bonus DVD with Jim and Marilyn Lovell basically giving the audience their remembrances of what actually went on. Jim did an excellent job of explaining the technical aspects of the mission and telling us when something was used for dramatic effect, etc. Jim did say he thoght Kevin Costner at the time of casting would have been a good choice to play him, and they did look similar when Lovell was that age when this movie came out. I don't think Costner was ever in the casting calls because Hanks is a huge history fan and he told his agent years before this movie was made that if there ever was a chance he wanted to be in it. Tom Hanks also won two best actor academy awards right in the middle of when this came out. He won for Forrest Gump of course, and the year before he won for Philadelphia. A few years before he was nominated for Big and then a few years later for Saving Private Ryan, and that movie really got ripped off at the Oscar's. A couple of years later he was nominated for Cast Away... so he was the big male star in the 90s. I've put that DVD commentary on probably a hundred times over the years, and just sit there and listen to Jim Lovell and his explanation of what was going on. There's also another disc in that set with Ron Howard speaking through the movie. As I remember they actually built a set of the command module and lunar module in the plane everyone calls the vomit comet so they could depict those zero gravity shots with some validity.

I would recommend the 2016 Film Hacksaw Ridge starring Andrew Garfield & Hugo Weaving for your RU-vid channel.

I very vaguely remember sitting in front of the television to see images from an Apollo launch. Must have been one of the later ones, I was 5 when Apollo 17 flew. I remember my dad telling me this was something very special.

Hanks and all the actors had to go to Hollywood boot camp, run by Marine Captain and actor Dale Dye.

Frank Borman was the Apollo 8 commander - not Lovell 4:46.

Tank explanation as I understand it (grabbed from the Lovell book explanation): 1. Tank is set up to handle spacecraft power, but not ground power. The components are adjusted at a later point for ground power, but thermostats don't get switched. 2. Tank is being moved around, something catches, tank is dropped. Is inspected and fixed up, but some damage is missed. 3. The missed damage means the tank can't be drained properly after a test. To speed up draining the tank, the oxygen inside is heated and boiled away. The thermostat doesn't work properly and the tank heats up far more than expected, boiling off some insulation. Ground crew doesn't notice anything because temperature gauges don't go high enough. 4. In space, the tanks are stirred. Missing insulation releases a spark, igniting the remaining insulation in the liquid oxygen. The burn is a lot slower than in the movie, but is enough to heat the oxygen and build pressure. Tank explodes some time later.

A fantastic movie and I became a space junkie after seeing From The Earth to The Moon HBO miniseries which was a a few years before Band of Brothers. Kind of their first stint with real history and also involved Tom Hanks. One of the errors in this movie is the dialogue they had Walter Cronkite say in the opening. He said it was 18 months since Apollo 1, when in reality in had been 2 and half years to the launch of Apollo 11.

4:47 Frank Borman was commander of Apollo 8, Jim Lovell was Command Module Pilot.

I'm surprised you skipped over the comments, about the Apollo 1 fire.

Hello Jerid frederick , have you thought about reviewing from the earth to the mood? Maybe even hosting (Scott Manley or Tim Dodd , Amy Shira, becky Smethurst)?

I was 18 when the events of Apollo 13 happened. I'm 70 now and still fascinated by space flight and astronomy.

I had read or seen an interview where Lovell had mentioned that he had pictured Kevin Costner as good fit to play him in the movie. I think Kevin Costner would have been awesome in the role.

13:55 Well... Ed Harris nailed it as John Glenn in The Right Stuff

You were 8 when the movie came out. I was 9 when this mission launched and 8 when Apollo 11 landed.

You talked about holding Michael Collins' penlight. In 2005 (3 weeks before Katrina), I took my dad down to Houston to visit the Johnson Space Center. We took a tour of the old Mission Control, which was led by a female engineer. She took me over to a filing cabinet, opened it up and placed a paperback book in my hand. It was one of the Flight Plan for Apollo 11. Talk about a wave of history washing over ya. Damn. I looked at my guide and wondered out loud how far I could get with it in my hands. After collecting myself, I flipped through it and found hand written notes on nearly all of the pages. I never felt so sad as when I had to give that thing back.

Wasn't Frank Borman commander of Apollo 8?

Probably the best movie, for portraying the silence of space, is 2001 a space odyssey.

My dad worked for Philco Ford in the small room next to mission control in Houston from Apollo 3-12. Jack D Hill

So actually the sets looking quite big is a result of using very wide angle lenses. It’s also why mission control looks larger than it really is. Also, as with all Hollywood sets, the walls were certainly removable to allow the large film cameras access, so the can set the camera farther back (and thus give a wider view) than what would be possible.

As far as the "drama for the audience" stuff, please give us, at least the generation that actually witnessed this stuff, a little credit. We knew there was no sound in space. We sat through endless lessons from Cronkite & Wally Schirra on CBS and Jules Bergman on ABC. Even though I was a kid, I did learn a great deal from them. So, we knew how to tell what was accurate and what was added for "dramatic effect". Damn good thing there was dramatic license in the movie. it would have been unbearably boring and frustrating if it was played "straight". As far as communications, I listened to everything that was broadcast. The astronauts, even in crisis, were succinct and matter-of-fact, as was Mission Control. For instance, we had no clue that "Eagle" was so dangerously close to running out of fuel. There were no inflection or emotion in the voices, nor did we ever expect any. The same held true even for Challenger and Columbia later on.

Any chance you might make a review of 13 days?

Great choice of subject , one of my favourite movies. I think Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Gary Sinise, are very good in this, but only someone who knows the real life charaters they play could say how close or otherwise these actors get. Interesting that one of the engineers in the flight control centre was played by Clint Howard, who appeared as Balok in the classic Star Trek episode The Corbomite Maneuver in 1966. Looking forward to part 2.

Can you believe I went to Cape Canaveral this summer wearing my "Main Bus-B undervolt" t-shirt and not one person at Nasa knew what it meant. I was devastated. 😫 Good thing I didn't wear my "SCE to AUX" Cap.🙁

@18:40 what a special bonus guest!

Bob Odenkirk looks very much like cmdr Lovell

i would really love to see you and mark Felton have a conversation

When you say the Saturn V never failed, maybe you were thinking of the stage 1 F1 engines? I think I remember hearing that they never failed (other than in testing).

I love your Texas T-shirt, professor!

It would be awesome if you would do the From the Earth to the Moon tv series

when this movie came out, i thought they did a pretty good job with it. from the costume design to the background sounds when on earth were pretty much spot on from what i could tell. the acting though. well, the acting wasnt bad, especially by todays standards (cough, cough, brie larson acting like a wooden plank), but i feel like tom hanks had to carry the entire film and that everyone else just was sort of present on set..... looking back, yeah, a bit of "nostalgia goggles" were on and still are in a way. what REALLY set me into doing rocketry was October Sky. silly, i know, but i was young when it came out and it really did convince me to spend what allowance i had saved up to go get one of the Estes starter kits maybe two months after seeing October Sky. ever since then, i have been super into rockets and the maths involved with general rocketry. i dont know anyone else who can fire a rocket and know its gonna land within 2ft of the launch pad, and succeed every time. its an odd feeling, but its awesome. that being said, i wasnt a good kid and as a result of choices i made pretty early on, it made it so i couldnt get into that as a career and still cant.

13:50 Come on, how do you not see it? I have been saying it since the movie came out in the 90's: KEVIN COSTNER looks just LIKE Jim Lovell!

I was disappointed in the engineer's explanation of the tank failure. He didn't explain what actually happened. I heard the stories but it would have been nice to hear him explain the problem. Moving the tank from one vehicle to another didn't explain the defect.

I love this movie...as a person of Romany heritage however the vest scene showcases RON HOWARDS BROTHER exerting a purely racist moment against us gypsy that I VERY MUCH HOPE was an accurate quote(understandable for the times & VERY possibly an accurate assessment). If this isn't a DIRECT QUOTE than Oppie taylor is kind of a d bag to the ROMA :)

It’s been my understanding that Russia’s run fir the moon ended when one of their moon rockets exploded at the Baikonur cosmodrome

Looks wise, Kevin Costner would have been a good Jim Lovell.

You have interlacing issues in your footage. You may want to check that and re-render your timelines before outputting.

This guy kindve Ruined this review.☹️

05:33 I've seen footage of the N1 rocket. Fortunate for the cosmonauts the Kremlin had enough sense not to try it.

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