Apr 5 1970
From The Space Library
Countdown for NASA's Apollo 13 manned lunar landing mission, scheduled for launch April 11, began at KSC despite serious problem in helium tank. NASA spokesman said super-cold helium was heating too rapidly, suggesting possibility of leak or contaminants in system. (Wilford, NYT, 4/6/70, 1; W Post, 4/6/70, A4)
Apollo 13 launch would open "decade in which space will have a new shape... leaner shape, with spending well below the hell-bent-to-the-moon space budgets of the 1960s," Victor Cohn said in Washington Post. It would also be "subdued shape, lowered and Nixonian. Political and popular enthusiasm for expensive space travel is down several percentage points." New shape "might turn out to be a more sensible one for many seasons." It might place "more stress on using space flight to learn the facts of the universe and ways these facts can be applied to improve life on earth." NASA was still undergoing "wrenching change, with many controversies that are far from ended. There is still a deep split between many space scientists and many aerospace leaders and technologists over the best ways to use America's new capability." (W Post, 4/5/70, B 1)
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