:30:00
The helicopter carrier lwo Jima
is on station there.
:30:04
The weather,
which has been on-again, off-again...
:30:07
is now on again.
:30:09
Some of the spacecraft's most critical
moments are approaching.
:30:12
In about 20 minutes,
at 7:23 Houston time...
:30:16
the astronauts will jettison
their crippled service module.
:30:19
At 10:53,
they will cast off the lunar lander...
:30:23
that has been their lifeboat ever since
the power failed on the main ship...
:30:26
some 82 hours ago.
:30:29
What we don't know in the final hours
of this extraordinary mission...
:30:34
is how the damaged spacecraft
will stand up to the trauma...
:30:36
of re-entry
into the Earth's atmosphere.
:30:39
How do we tell whether
the heat shield's been damaged?
:30:41
Drop it through the atmosphere
and see if they survive.
:30:44
Were Odyssey's heat shields
damaged by the explosion?
:30:48
Will the pyrotechnics
that deploy the parachutes...
:30:50
needed to slow the capsule...
:30:52
from a fatal 300 miles an hour...
:30:54
to a gentle 20 for splashdown
function properly?
:30:58
We're getting word from Brett Hutchins
that the astronauts...
:31:01
are about to jettison
the service module.
:31:02
- Yes, Howard. That procedure...
- Let's go directly to Brett.
:31:06
- We'll get it from the source.
- Thank you, Howard.
:31:08
In just a few minutes, the astronauts
aboard the crippled Apollo 13...
:31:12
will jettison their service module...
:31:14
which was mysteriously damaged
only two days into the mission...
:31:17
forcing them to abandon all hopes
of a lunar landing.
:31:20
With any luck, the crew will get a view
of the damaged service module...
:31:23
to determine what may have caused
the cataclysmic malfunction.
:31:37
- Are we icing Brett Hutchins?
- You bet.
:31:40
Don't.
:31:42
We have rules. We can't reward someone
for breaking them.
:31:45
We can't afford
to alienate a network.
:31:52
This is Apollo Control Houston...
:31:53
at 140 hours, 15 minutes
into the mission.
:31:57
Apollo 13 presently 34,350
nautical miles out from the Earth...