The South Bend Tribune from South Bend, Indiana • 83

INTERMISSION South Bend Tribune a Sunday, December 11, 19940 E5 In 'Lost Moon', astronaut recounts Apollo scare BY, Aerospace MARCIA Writer DUNN man leaned over the table while Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell was autographing copies of his new book, "Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13," and whispered: "Tell me one thing. What about those suicide pills?" "Just a minute. Give me back your book," Lovell said, grabbing it. He yanked the book open "Reeeead to Page 1 and pleaded, the An oxygen tank in Apollo 13's service module ruptured on April 13, 1970, just 55 hours into the flight. Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert were 200,000 miles from Earth when the tank blew, and 50,000 miles from the moon.

In case you're wondering, here's the final word on whether the three astronauts packed suicide pills on what was and still is NASA's only in-space disaster. (Challenger hadn't reached space when it exploded in 1986, killing all seven aboard.) "Lost Moon," Page 1: "Nobody knew how the stories about the poison pills got started. Most people had heard them; most people even believed them. The press and the public certainly did; even some people at the Agency did (The Agency being the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.) "Stories about poison pills always made Jim Lovell laugh," Lovell writes in the third person. "Poison pills! Forget about it! There just weren't any situations in which you'd ever really consider making, well, an early exit.

And even if there were, you had lots of easier ways to do it than poison pills." Far easier, Lovell points out, would be to turn the crank for the cabin vent, suck out the capsule pressure and boil your blood. Everything would be over in a few seconds. In an interview the morning after his November book-signing at Kennedy Space Center, the 66-year-old astronaut said it's not the most common question he's asked, "but people think about that, you know." So on with the rest of the mission CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The WOLFF BEDS CALIFORNIA TAN. 4 CHICAGO TANS gives you the BEST TAN FOR YOUR MONEY! 8 MINUTE PACKAGES or 1 MONTH UNLIMITED PACKAGES Chicago Hair Cutting Indian Ridge Plaza next to Venture Grape Road, Mishawaka HOURS: Daily 9 to 8 Sat.

9 to 6 Sun. 11-5 INFORMATION At Your Fingertips When You Want It-FREE CityLine 674 0900 Now with a NEW Long Distance Toll-Free Number! 1-800-830-CITY For areas outside South Bend Mishawaka Elkhart Goshen Osceola. Middlehury Wyatt Bristol 800 service provided by Cincinnati Bell Long Distance To survive, the astronauts used the cold and cramped lunar module as a lifeboat for four days. They looped around the moon and aimed for Earth. A few hours before splashdown, they crawled back into their crippled command module, jettisoned the ruptured service module and life-saving lunar module, and landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on April 17, 1970.

and the rest of the story, soon to be a movie directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks as Lovell. Lovell was to have been the fifth man on the moon, Haise No. 6. They were to have explored the Fra Mauro highlands while Swigert circled the moon waiting for them. All that evaporated as precious oxygen gushed from the spacecraft into deep space.

Two of three fuel cells went out. One of two main power-distribution panels went out. The spaceship lurched toward the moon "the safe harbor of home was shrinking in his rear-view mirror at better than 2,000 miles every hour" and Lovell fought to gain control of the craft. For Lovell, the backup for Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong, it was especially devastating. Lovell had circled the 1 moon on Apollo 8.

This was his second trip to the moon and his fourth space flight, and he knew it would be his last. "In a way," Lovell writes, "he felt strangely philosophical risks of the trade, rules of the game, and all that." He knew that some day he'd mourn this fact, "but that time was not now." BACK BY POPULAR MONDAY EVENING SPECIAL PRIME RIB DINNER $500 HANS HAUS 2803 S. MICHIGAN 291-5522 New at Pete's CIOPPINO Fresh mussels and clams in the shell, scallops, shrimp, whitefish bathed in a mouthwatering spicy red sauce, served in a tureen with fresh baked sourdough bread for dunking. Still serving Roast Pork and Baked Chicken on Sunday. Pete's Lounge Patio Restaurant 2433 N.

5th (M-51) Niles, MI 683-4565 LOVELL Tribune File Photo In this 1970 photograph, Jim Lovell smiles before his Apollo 13 Now he was too busy, trying to save his and his crew's lives. To survive, the astronauts used the cold and cramped lunar module as a lifeboat for four days. They looped around the moon and aimed for Earth. A few hours before splashdown, they crawled back into their crippled command module, jettisoned the ruptured service module and life-saving lunar module, and landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on April 17, 1970. Lovell, Haise and Swigert decided after the flight to write a book about their experience, but never did.

They left NASA and scattered; Swigert died of cancer in 1982. Lovell revived the idea for a book after retiring from the Centel Corp. in 1991. Haise wasn't interested, so Lovell collaborated with Jeffrey Kluger, a contributing editor and columnist for Discover magazine. Published by Houghton Mifflin in October, "Lost Moon" already is in its fifth printing.

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Washington 234-9077 "LOST MOON" EXCERPTS Apollo 13 commander Jim The Perilous Voyage of Apollo movie. Ron Howard is directing leased in November 1995. Who's Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell: Left NASA in 1973. Retired from Centel Corp. and living in Horseshoe Bay, Texas.

Age 66. Consultant to film, may have cameo role as captain of recovery ship. Portrayed in film by Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks, whom Lovell calls "a closet astronaut." "'When he (Hanks) got into the movie: business, he wanted to play an astronaut," Lovell says. "As a kid, he used to build rockets and know the flights and the names of the guys who went up." Lunar module pilot Fred Haise: Left NASA in 1979. Vice president for Grumman Technical Services Inc.

in Titusville, Fla. Age 61. Portrayed by Bill Paxton of "One "Apollo 13," will be released in November 1995. It's the second book by astronauts in this 25th-anniversary year of the first manned moon landing. Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton's "Moon Shot" was released in the spring.

Shepard, not Lovell, ended up exploring Fra' Mauro. Despite its autobiographical nature "Lost Moon" follows Lovell from his model rocket-launching days as a teen-ager in Milwaukee to his present retirement in Horseshoe Bay, Texas it's written entirely in the third person. Lovell wanted it that way because he describes events at which Lovell's new book, "Lost Moon: 13," is being made into a "Apollo 13," which will be rewho in the book and the film: False Move" and "True Lies." Command module pilot Jack Swigert: Originally on backup crew, but at last minute replaced Thomas Mattingly, who had been exposed to German measles. Left NASA in 1973. Elected to Congress in November 1982 and died of cancer the next month at age 51.

Portrayed by Kevin Bacon of "The River Wild" and "A Few Good Men." Marilyn Lovell: Still happily married to Jim Lovell, whom she met in high school, with four children and eight grandchildren. Appears in film with daughter Barbara as part of launch-day crowd. Portrayed by Kathleen Quinian of "Trial by Jury" and "The Promise." Associated Press flight. he was not present: Inside Mission Control, where flight controllers sweated and improvised to get the crew back, and at his Houston home, where his wife, Marilyn, and their four children waited and prayed. In an especially poignant scene, Mrs.

Lovell assures sobbing daughter, Susan, 11, that her father will be all right. "Do you really think the best astronaut either one of us knows is going to forget something as simple as how to turn his spaceship around and fly it home?" Mrs. Lovell asks the girl. Lovell didn't forget, and neither has his family. MIAMI PLAZA 30th year LIQUOR MART Anniversary 4527 Miami Prices (across good from 1 Scottsdale Mall) Specials can pack LIGHT CHOICE ml BAILEYS IRISH CREAM ml SEAGRAM'S V.O.

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