{"id":27932,"date":"2025-05-16T13:46:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T13:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27932"},"modified":"2025-05-16T14:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T14:23:10","slug":"ed-smylie-who-saved-the-apollo-13-crew-with-duct-tape-dies-at-95","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27932","title":{"rendered":"Ed Smylie, Who Saved the Apollo 13 Crew With Duct Tape, Dies at 95"},"content":{"rendered":"
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He and his team of NASA engineers jumped into action to help three astronauts bound for the moon. His quick thinking earned him a shout-out from Richard Nixon.<\/p>\n

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Robert \u201cEd\u201d Smylie, the NASA official who led a team of engineers that cobbled together an apparatus made of cardboard, plastic bags and duct tape that saved the Apollo 13 crew in 1970 after an explosion crippled the spacecraft as it sped toward the moon, died on April 21 in Crossville, Tenn. He was 95.<\/p>\n

His death, in a hospice facility, was confirmed by his son, Steven.<\/p>\n

The day after the astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert<\/a> and Fred Haise returned to earth on April 17, 1970, President Richard M. Nixon awarded NASA\u2019s mission operations team with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In his remarks<\/a>, he singled out Mr. Smylie and his deputy, James V. Correale.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are men whose names simply represent the whole team,\u201d President Nixon said at a ceremony at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. \u201cAnd they had a jerry-built operation which worked, and had that not occurred, these men would not have gotten back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soft-spoken, with an accent that revealed his Mississippi upbringing, Mr. Smylie was relaxing at home in Houston on the evening of April 13 when Mr. Lovell radioed mission control with his famous (and frequently misquoted<\/a>) line: \u201cUh, Houston, we\u2019ve had a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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An oxygen tank had exploded, crippling the spacecraft\u2019s command module.<\/p>\n

Mr. Smylie, who lived five houses down from Mr. Haise, saw the news on television and called the crew systems office, according to the 1994 book \u201cLost Moon\u201d by Mr. Lovell and the journalist Jeffrey Kluger. The desk operator said the astronauts were retreating to the lunar excursion module, which was supposed to shuttle two crew members to the moon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m coming in,\u201d Mr. Smylie said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Smylie knew there was a problem with this plan: The lunar module was equipped to safely handle air flow for only two astronauts. Three humans would generate lethal levels of carbon dioxide.<\/p>\n

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He and his team of NASA engineers jumped into action to help three astronauts bound for the moon. His quick thinking earned him a shout-out from Richard Nixon.Robert \u201cEd\u201d Smylie, the NASA official who led a team of engineers that cobbled together an apparatus made of cardboard, plastic bags and duct tape that saved the Apollo 13 crew in 1970 after an explosion crippled the spacecraft as it sped toward the moon, died on April 21 in Crossville, Tenn. He was 95.His death, in a hospice facility, was confirmed by his son, Steven.The day after the astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise returned to earth on April 17, 1970, President Richard M. Nixon awarded NASA\u2019s mission operations team with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In his remarks, he singled out Mr. Smylie and his deputy, James V. Correale.\u201cThey are men whose names simply represent the whole team,\u201d President Nixon said at a ceremony at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. \u201cAnd they had a jerry-built operation which worked, and had that not occurred, these men would not have gotten back.\u201dSoft-spoken, with an accent that revealed his Mississippi upbringing, Mr. Smylie was relaxing at home in Houston on the evening of April 13 when Mr. Lovell radioed mission control with his famous (and frequently misquoted) line: \u201cUh, Houston, we\u2019ve had a problem.\u201dAn oxygen tank had exploded, crippling the spacecraft\u2019s command module.Mr. Smylie, who lived five houses down from Mr. Haise, saw the news on television and called the crew systems office, according to the 1994 book \u201cLost Moon\u201d by Mr. Lovell and the journalist Jeffrey Kluger. The desk operator said the astronauts were retreating to the lunar excursion module, which was supposed to shuttle two crew members to the moon.\u201cI\u2019m coming in,\u201d Mr. Smylie said.Mr. Smylie knew there was a problem with this plan: The lunar module was equipped to safely handle air flow for only two astronauts. Three humans would generate lethal levels of carbon dioxide.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27934,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27932"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27935,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27932\/revisions\/27935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}