This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 13, the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program. No one has forgotten that part of history, but we would do well to revisit the lessons we learned 50 years ago during this time of uncertainty. Linda Henman discusses the mentality a leader needs to lead his or her team through unexpected change.
James Lovell commanded the third Apollo mission that was intended to land on the moon. Jack Swigert served as Command Module pilot, Fred Haise as Lunar Module pilot and Gene Kranz as Flight Director at NASA. Ken Mattingly had originally been scheduled to make the flight, but because he had been exposed to German measles, Swigert took his place. Mattingly did not ultimately develop measles, but he did help with the rescue.
Apollo 13 launched successfully, but the crew had to abort the moon landing after an oxygen tank ruptured, severely damaging the spacecraft’s electrical system. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of water, illness and the critical need to re-engineer the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew returned safely to Earth on April 17. Even though the crew did not accomplish its mission of landing on the moon, the operation was termed a “successful failure” because the astronauts returned safely.
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