TimesOnline: Apollo 13's new fate

[RJN]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 093730.ece

It began with an explosion in space, followed by the legendary but often misquoted words: “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”

Now it seems that the theoretical ending of America’s near-disastrous Apollo 13 mission might have been noted wrongly in history books too.

[bystander]

Fate of Apollo 13 Crew Might Have Been Much Different Than Originally Thought
Universe Today - 2010 March 26

When the crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft returned to Earth following their aborted moon mission in 1970, no one really knew if the command module would come in at the proper angle to avoid burning up in the atmosphere or even skip off the atmosphere and be bounced out into space. If the CM did skip off, the crew might be destined to spend a fatal eternity out in space. Or would they? Author Andrew Chaikin, who wrote the Apollo chronicle A Man on the Moon, asked Analytical Graphics lnc. (AGI) to do a computer simulation of what would have happened, and they found things could have been much different than originally thought. Watch this video, narrated by Chaikin to find out.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUAo_T__ ... r_embedded[/youtube]