“Unlocking the Secrets of the Moon: The Ingenious Strategies That Made NASA’s Historic Landing Possible”
The subsequent Apollo mission, Apollo 15, was the first of the so-called “J missions” designed for longer-duration stays on the lunar surface. The LM was thus modified to carry more weight in consumables like oxygen and equipment like the Lunar Roving Vehicle or LRV. Among these modifications was an extended descent engine bell for added thrust. However, this left very little clearance between the bell and the lunar surface – a fact Apollo 15 Commander David Scott would learn the hard way. The astronauts had been trained to shut off the descent engine as soon as the probes on the LM’s landing legs signalled ground contact in order to prevent exhaust and lunar dust from being blown back into the engine and potentially causing an explosion. But when Scott carried out this procedure, the Lunar Module Falcon was already travelling faster than usual and slammed to the lunar surface at 2.1 metres per second. The hardest landing in Apollo history, the impact crumpled the engine bell and tipped the LM over at a 9 degree angle, but neither of these proved critical and the rest of the mission was a success.
But of course, nowhere did the LM prove its worth more than during the ill-fated flight of Apollo 13. On April 13, 1970, while en route to the moon, an oxygen tank aboard the CSM Odyssey exploded, severely crippling the spacecraft and placing astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert in mortal danger. Wishing to preserve whatever power they could for reentry and splashdown, the crew powered down Odyssey and moved into the LM Aquarius, using it as a lifeboat. Though Aquarius required several improvised modifications – including, famously, a MacGyvered adaptor to make the CSM’s square CO2 scrubber canisters fit the LM’s round canister holes – Grumman’s strange “bug” nonetheless performed above and beyond its designed capabilities, keeping the astronauts alive throughout the harrowing four-day journey to the moon and back. So proud was Grumman of this achievement that they cheekily sent North American Aviation, prime contractor for the CSM, a $312,421.24 invoice for “towing” the LM most of the way to the moon and back. The invoice included $400,004 in mileage fees, $536.05 for charging the CSM’s batteries, and an $8 per night lodging fee for an “additional guest in room” – AKA Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert. Amusingly, North American formality refused to pay, arguing that its CSMs had already ferried three Grumman LMs to the moon free of charge.
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