Apolo 13

Apollo 13
Chapter1 july 20, 1969
The lunar module was on the moon. Astronaut neil Armstrong came out of the door and looked into black space. He looked down at the gray rocks. The moon waited. Slowly, he moved down the stairs. When he got to the bottom, he stopped. Then he carefully put his foot down on the ground. He was the first man on the moon
Three hundred and twenty thousandkilometers away on earth, people watched Neil Armstrong on television. They laughed and shouted. A man was on the moon¡
Jim Lovell sat in front of his television with his wife and children
“I’m not the first man on the moon” Jim said to his son Jeffrey. “But I will go there”
Jeffrey was only five years old and he was excited. “Look at the rocks, dad ¡”he shouted. “Look at the moon rocks ¡”
“I seemthem, Jeffrey,” Jim answered
Jeffrey’s sisters-Susan and Barbara-and his fifteen-years-old brother jay watched, too. They saw a second astronaut, buzz aldrin, and come out of the lunar module. He stopped at the top of stairs, and then he too climbed down to the moon
Jeffrey looked at his father. “Are you really going to the moon?” he asked
Jim smiled. “Yes, I am. But I went before,remember? I was on Apollo 8 .we only went around the moon on that trip- we didn’t walk on it. But when I go on the Apollo 14 trip, Fred and I will walk on the moon.”
“When will you go?” asked Jeffrey
“Neil Armstrong is on Apollo 11. “Pete Conrad will go on the next trip. Alan Shepard will be on Apollo 13. After that, go on the next trip. Alan Shepard will be on Apollo 13. After that, I’ll go withApollo 14”
“ and will you bring me a moon rock?” Jeffrey asked
Jim smiled. “I’ll try”
“really?” asked Jeffrey
Jim put his arm around his son. “yes,” he answered. “will bring you a moon rocks
CHAPTER 2 THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 1970
Jim didn’t have to wait for Apollo 14-the plans for the Apollo trips changed. Astronaut Alan shepard had a problem with one of his ears and he couldn’t go on Apollo 13.So Jim Lovell took his place.”it’s my time now”, thought jim. “I’m going to the moon
Jim wasn’t the only astronaut on Apollo 13. The other men were Fred haise and ken mattingly. Ken was the command module pilot and Fred was the lunar module pilot. They had important jobs. The command module was the Apollo astronaut’s home for the long trip from earth, and small lunar module took the astronautdown to the moon
It was now nine day before the trip. The three astronauts were inside the command module simulator. They watched the controls in front of them
“Ok, ken,” said a controller at mission control. “You’re the command module pilot. Can you dock odyssey to Aquarius?”
“Yes, sir,” answered ken
On the controls in front of him, there was an X and a picture of the lunar module. Ken hadto get the X over the picture. That way, the lunar module and the command module could dock
This was important. The lunar module was behind the command module when Apollo 13 left earth. In space, the astronaut had to move it. They could only go frond one module to the other module when the two modules were nose to nose
Fred watched the numbers on the controls
“Houston, we’re at thirty metersnow,” he said into his radio
The picture of Aquarius slowly moved close to
“You’re at twenty meters, Houston ,” said fred
The mission controllers were in another room. One of them turned away from his radio
“let’s make things difficult for him,” he said to another man
The other man smiled and pushed a control
Suddenly, the lunar module on the controls moved quickly to the right
“wehave a problem,” said ken. He tried to move the picture of aquarius back to the X . “I’m losing control.”
“it’s going to the right,” said fred haise. “we’re moving away .” ken tried again
“no, now it’s OK,” he said . “we’re OK”
Fred watched the numbers
“Three meters,” he said
There was a noise
“Houston. We did it¡” ken shouted
“Good job¡” said mission control. “You men are quick...